Author: Billy Conrad

August 25

One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek. — Psalm 27:4

Scripture reading: Psalm 27

The person who says “I am ready for anything” will never get it. “What are you seeking, my brother?” “Oh, I am ready for anything.” You will never get anything.

When the Lord reveals to you that you must be filled with the Holy Spirit, seek only that one thing, and God will give you that one thing. It is necessary for you to seek one thing first.

Never forget, the baptism will always be as it was in the beginning. It has not changed. And if you want a real baptism, expect it to be just the same as the early believers had it at the beginning.

“What did they have at the beginning?” you ask.

Well, they knew when others had the same experience they had had at the beginning, for they heard them speak in tongues. That is the only way they did know, because they heard the others saying the same things in the Spirit that they had said at the beginning. As it was in the beginning, so it will be forever.

I do not say anything against ordination; I think that is very good. However, there is an ordination that is better, and it is the ordination with the King. This is the only ordination that is going to equip you for the future.

The person who has passed through that ordination goes forth with fresh feet—the preparation of the Gospel (Ephesians 6:15); he goes forth with a fresh voice, speaking as the Spirit gives utterance (Acts 2:4); he goes forth with a fresh mind, his mind being illuminated by the power of God (see Hebrews 8:10); he goes forth with a fresh vision and sees all things new. (See 2 Corinthians 5:17.)

When the Holy Spirit comes, He will reveal things to you. Has He revealed them yet? He is going to do it. Just expect Him to do so. The best thing for you is to expect Him to do it now.

Thought for today: The King is already on His throne, but He needs crowning; when the Holy Spirit comes, He crowns the King inside of us.

August 23

I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. — John 14:16 KJV

Scripture reading: John 14:15–31

Jesus knew that He was going away and that, if He went away, it was expedient, it was necessary, it was important that Another come in His place and continue guiding and teaching them as He had been (John 16:7, 14 KJV). “You in Me, and I in you” (John 14:20). There was a plan of divine order. So the Holy Spirit was to come.

I want you to see what has to take place when the Holy Spirit comes:

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (John 14:16–18 KJV)

I don‘t know a word that could be as fitting at this time as this word “Comforter.” I want to take you with me into the coming of this Holy Spirit.

After Jesus ascended to heaven, He asked the Father to send the Comforter. It was a needy moment, a needy hour, a necessity. Why? Because the disciples would need comforting. How could they be comforted? The Holy Spirit would take the word of Christ and reveal it to them (John 16:14). What could help
them as much as a word by the Spirit? For the Spirit is breath, is life, is person, is power. He gives the breath of Himself to us, the nature of Him. How beautiful that, when the Spirit came, He should be called the “Spirit of truth” (John 14:17). Oh, if we would only let that truth sink deep into our hearts!

Some people have wondered that if they were to ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, if an evil power could come instead or if an evil power could possess them while they were waiting for the Holy Spirit. No! When you receive the Holy Spirit, you receive the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit who gives revelation, the Spirit who takes the words of Jesus and makes them life to you. In your moment of need, He is the Comforter.

Thought for today: When the Holy Spirit comes into your body, He comes to unveil the King, to assure you of His presence.

August 22

He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. — John 14:12

Scripture reading: John 14:1–14

Why was Jesus‘ perspective so full? Because Jesus saw great potential in the disciples. He knew He had the material that would bring out what would prove to be a real satisfaction to the world—to heaven and to the world. The glorified, trained, wonderfully modified, and then again glorified positions of these fishermen were surely ideal places in which to be.

What were the disciples? For one thing, they were unlearned. However, God taught them. It is far better to have the learning of the Spirit than anything else. They were ignorant; He enlarged them. They were beside themselves because they had been touched with the divine life. If the Most High God touches you, you will be beside yourself. As long as you hold your own, the natural and the spiritual will be mixed; but if you ever jump over the lines by the power of the new creation, you will find He has gotten a hold of you.

Divine wisdom will never make you foolish. Divine wisdom will give you a sound mind; divine wisdom will give you a touch of divine nature. Divine life is full of divine appointment and equipping, and you cannot be filled with the power of God without a manifestation. It is my prayer that we would understand that to be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with manifestation, the glory of the Lord being in the midst of us, manifesting His divine power.

Jesus knew that these people He had before Him were going to do greater things than He had done. How could they do them? None of us is able; none of us is capable. But as we believe in Him, we can do greater works because He is in heaven interceding for us.

Thought for today: Our incapability has to be clothed with His divine ability, and our helplessness has to be filled with His power of helpfulness.

August 21

We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. — Romans 5:2

Scripture reading: John 7

You must know where you are going. The great, mighty masterpiece of all is the great plan of the Rapture. It is the hope of glory, divine life, the peace of God, and the enrichment of the soul. It is “poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5).

The Holy Spirit is the manifestation of God‘s Son. He is so uniquely divine that He has the power to overcome. His power is pure. His power must not cease to develop. The Holy Spirit is there to create development and to help us progress in our faith as the Lord would have us to.

We are saved by His life. Now that we have received salvation, He wants to open our eyes to understand what Christ really did for us. “In due time” (v. 6), when there was no other to save us, when there was no hope, when the law had failed, Christ took our place, delivered us from all the powers of human weaknesses and failure, and so came to us in our sins. He reached out to us in love “while we were still sinners” (v. 8). At just the right moment, He died for us and delivered us from the power of the Devil, delivered us from death, delivered us from sin, delivered us from the grave, and gave us a hope of immortality through His life. We are saved by His life.

Jesus is eternal. He has the power to impart eternal gifts. He has delivered us from the curse of the law and set us free. Who loves the Gospel as much as those who have been saved? What is the Gospel? It is “the power of God to salvation” (Romans 1:16). It has the power to bring immortality and life. Through His life in us, we are delivered from all things and are being prepared for the glorious hope of the coming of the Lord. That is why we sing, ―He arose! He arose! Hallelujah, Christ arose!

Thought for today: Everything in the Father‘s house is ours, but it will come only through obedience.

August 20

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. — 2 Corinthians 3:18

Scripture reading: Psalm 34

There are glories upon glories, and joys upon joys, exceeding joys and an abundance of joys, and a measureless measure. Beloved, when we get the Word so wonderfully into our hearts, it absolutely changes us in everything. As we feast on the Word of the Lord, eat and digest the truth, inwardly eat of Him, we are absolutely changed every day from one state of grace to another.

Look into the perfect mirror of the face of the Lord, and you will be changed “from glory to glory.” You will never find anything else except the Word of God to take you there. So you cannot afford to put aside the Word.

I implore you, beloved, that you do not come short in your own lives of any of these blessed teachings we have been sharing. These grand truths of the Word of God must be your testimony, must be your life, must be your pattern. You must be in the Word; in fact, you are of the Word. God says to you by the Spirit that “you are an epistle of Christ” (2 Corinthians 3:3). Let us see to it that we put off everything so that by the grace of God we may put on everything.

Where there is a standard that hasn‘t been reached in your life, God, in His grace, by His mercy and your yieldedness, can equip you for that place. He can prepare you for that place that you can never be prepared for except by a broken heart and a contrite spirit, except by yielding to the will of God. If you will come with a whole heart to the throne of grace, God will meet you and build you on His spiritual plane. Amen. Praise the Lord!

Thought for today: Give Him all; let Him have all: your heart‘s joy, your very life. Let Him have it. He is worthy. He is King of Kings. He is Lord of Lords. He is my Savior. He died to deliver me. He should have the crown.

August 19

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. — 2 Corinthians 3:17

Scripture reading: Galatians 5:1–15

We must never abuse liberty; we must be in the place where liberty can use us. If we misuse liberty, we will be as dead as possible, and our efforts will all end with a fizzle. But if we are in the Spirit, the Lord of Life is the same Spirit. I believe it is right to jump for joy, but don‘t jump until the joy makes you jump, because if you do, you will jump flat. If you jump as the joy makes you jump, you will bounce up again.

In the Spirit, there is a divine plan. If Pentecostal people come into this plan in meekness and in the true knowledge of God, every heart in each meeting will be moved by the Spirit.

Liberty has many aspects to it, but no liberty is going to help people as much as testimony. I find people who don‘t know how to testify properly. We must testify only as the Spirit gives utterance. We find in the book of Revelation that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10).

Sometimes our flesh keeps us down, but our hearts are so full that they lift us up. Have you ever been like that? The flesh is fastening you to your seat, but your heart is bubbling over. At last the heart has more power, and you stand up. Then in that heart affection for Jesus, in the Spirit of love and in the knowledge of truth, you begin to testify, and when you are done, you sit down. Liberty
used wrongly goes on after you have finished saying what God wants you to say, and it spoils the meeting. Do not use your liberty except for the glory of God.

So many churches are spoiled by long prayers and long testimonies. If he stays in the Spirit, the speaker can tell when he should sit down. When you begin to speak your own words, people get tired and wish that you would sit down. The anointing ceases, and you sit down worse than when you rose up.

It is nice for a person to begin cold and warm up as he goes on. When he catches fire and sits down in the midst of it, he will keep the fire afterward. Look! It is lovely to pray, and it is a joy to hear you pray, but when you go on and on after you are truly done, all the people get tired of it.

This excellent glory should go on to a liberality to everybody, and this would prove that all the church is in liberty. The church ought to be free so that the people always go away feeling, “Oh, I wish the meeting had gone on for another hour,” or “What a glorious time we had at that prayer meeting!” or “Wasn‘t that testimony meeting a revelation!” That is the way to finish up. Never finish up with something too long; finish up with something too short. Then everybody comes again eager to pick up where they left off.

Thought for today: We are not to use liberty because we have it to use, but we are to let the liberty use us.

August 18

For our citizenship is in heaven. — Philippians 3:20

Scripture reading: Philippians 3

The law is truly “our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). I am glad that laws are established on the earth. Law is good when it helps to keep things in order in society.

But, beloved, we belong to a higher, nobler citizenship, and it isn‘t an earthly citizenship, for “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). So we must see that there is an excellent glory about this position we are holding in Christ. For if the natural law will keep an earthly city in somewhat moderate conditions, what will the excellent glory be in the divine relationship of the citizenship to which we belong?

All those who are getting ready for this glorious eternity have a consciousness of God within. God is working to change their very natures, preparing them for greater things. There is only perfect purification in looking upward to God. All the saints of God who get the real vision of this wonderful transformation are seeing every day that the world is getting worse and worse. It is ripening for Judgment. God is bringing us to a place where we who are spiritual have a clear vision that we must, at any cost, put off the works of darkness; we must be getting ourselves ready for the glorious Day—the excellent glory.

I call it an excellent glory because it outshines everything else. It makes all the people feel a longing to go to heaven. What there is about the excellent glory is this: the earth is filled with broken hearts, but the excellent glory is filled with redeemed men and women, filled with the excellency of the graces of the glory of God. Oh, the excellent glory is marvelous! Ah, praise the Lord, O my soul! Hallelujah!

Thought for today: There is no gravity to the spirit. There is no gravity to thought. There is no gravity to inspiration. There is no gravity to divine union with Christ. It is above all; it rises higher; it sits on the throne; it claims it purposes.

August 17

For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. — 2 Corinthians 3:9

Scripture reading: Psalm 11

Nothing is as beautiful as righteousness. All the excellent glory is in Him. All righteousness is in Him. Everything that pertains to holiness and godliness, everything that denounces and brings to death the carnal, everything that makes you know you have ceased to be forever, is found in the knowledge of the endless power in the risen Christ. As Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

When you come to the very essence of Christ‘s ministry, you see the righteousness of His purpose. The excellence of His ministry was the glory that covered Him. His Word was convincing, inflexible, divine, and eternal. It never failed.

Oh, the righteousness of God. If Christ said it, it was there. He said it, and it stood fast (Psalm 33:9). It was an unchangeable condition with Him. When God spoke, it was done (v. 9). And His righteousness abides. God must have us in this place of righteousness. We must be people of our word. People ought to be able to depend on our word. God is establishing righteousness in our hearts so that we will not exaggerate about anything.

Jesus was true inwardly and outwardly. He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and on these things we can build; on these things we can pray; on these things we can live. When we know that our own hearts do not condemn us (1 John 3:21), we can say to the mountain, “Be removed” (Matthew 21:21). But when our own hearts condemn us, there is no power in prayer, no power in preaching, no power in anything. We are just sounding brass and clanging cymbals (1 Corinthians 13:1).

May God the Holy Spirit show us there must be a ministry of righteousness. We ought to stand by our word and abide by it. If we were cut in two, our persecutors should find pure gold right through us. That is what I call righteousness. Jesus was righteousness through and through. He is lovely! Oh, truly, He is beautiful!

One thing God wants to establish in our hearts is the importance of being like Him. Be like Him in character. Don‘t be troubled so much about your outward appearance, but be more concerned about your heart. Makeup won‘t change the heart. All the adorning of silks and satins won‘t create purity. Beloved, if I
was going down a road and I saw a fox tail sticking out of a hole, I wouldn‘t ask anybody what was inside. And if there is anything hanging outside of us, we know what is inside. God wants righteousness in the inward parts, purity through and through.

The Bible is the plumb line of everything. And so, may God the Holy Spirit bring us into that blessed ministry of righteousness. Amen! Glory to God!

Thought for today: Unless we are lined right up with the Word of God, we will fail in the measure in which we are not righteous.

August 16

How will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? — 2 Corinthians 3:8

Scripture reading: 1 Peter 1:13–25

May the Lord help us to understand His word. I see the truth as it was brought to the Israelites in the law. Paul had something to glory in when he kept the law and was blameless, but he said he threw that to one side to win Him who is even greater than that (Philippians 3:8).

Now we come to the question: what is in the law that isn‘t glorious? Nothing. It was so glorious that Moses was filled with joy in the expectation of what it was. But what is ours in the excellence of glory? It is this: we live, we move, we reign over all things. It is not “Do, do, do”; it is “Will, will, will.” I rejoice to do. It is no longer “Thou shalt not”; it is “I will.” “I delight to do Your will, O my God” (Psalm 40:8). So the glory is far exceeding. And, beloved, in our hearts there is exceeding glory. Oh, the joy of this celestial touch!

Oh yes, the glory is exceeding. The glory is excellent. When Peter was describing that wonderful day on the Mount of Transfiguration, he said, “Such a voice came to Him [Christ] from the Excellent Glory” (2 Pet. 1:17). And so we are hearing from the Excellent Glory. It is so lovely.

If I were to say to you, “Whatever you do, you must try to exercise self-control in order to be holy,” I would miss it. I would be altogether outside of His plan. But by the Holy Spirit, I take the words of the epistle that says, “Be holy” (1 Peter 1:16). For when you lose your heart and Another takes your heart, and you lose your desires and He takes the desires, then you live in that sunshine of bliss that no mortal can ever touch.

Divine immortality swallows up all natural mortality. It is lovely to walk in the Spirit; then we will not fulfill any part of the law without the Spirit causing us to dwell in safety, rejoice inwardly, praise God reverently, and know that we are an increasing force of immortality swallowing up life. Hallelujah!

Thought for today: It is as easy as possible to be holy, but you can never be holy by trying to be.