Author: Billy Conrad

January 1

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. — Isaiah 55:9

Scripture reading: Genesis 28:10–22

Looking back on our spiritual journeys, we will see that we have held on to our own way too much of the time. When we come to the end of ourselves, God can begin to take control. The Scripture asks, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3). We cannot enter into the profound truths of God until we relinquish control, for “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15:50).

Jacob‘s name means “supplanter.” When Jacob came to the end of his plans, God had a better plan. How slow we are to see that there is a better way.

The glory is never so wonderful as when we realize our helplessness, throw down our sword, and surrender our authority to God. Jacob was a diligent worker, and he would go through any hardship if he could have his own way. In numerous situations, he had his way; all the while, he was ignorant of how gloriously God had preserved him from calamity.

God has a plan beyond anything that we have ever known. He has a plan for every individual life, and if we have any other plan in view, we miss the grandest plan of all. Nothing in the past is equal to the present, and nothing in the present can equal the things of tomorrow. Tomorrow should be so filled with holy expectations that we will be living flames for Him. God never intended His people to be ordinary or commonplace. His intentions were that they should be on fire for Him, conscious of His divine power, realizing the glory of the Cross that foreshadows the crown.

Jacob and his mother had a plan to secure the birthright and the blessing, but God planned the ladder and the angels. Isaac, Jacob‘s father, agreed that Jacob should go “to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel [his] mother‟s father” (Genesis 28:2). On his way there, Jacob rested his head on a stone. In his dream, he saw a “ladder…and its top reached to heaven” (v. 12). Above the ladder, Jacob saw God and heard Him say, “The land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants” (v. 13). He also heard God tell him, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you” (v. 15). What a good thing for Jacob that in the middle of carrying out his own plan, God found him at the right place. The trickery to obtain the birthright had not been the honorable thing to do, but here at Bethel, he found that God was with him.

Many things may happen in our lives, but when the veil is lifted and we see the glory of God, His tender compassion covers us all the time. How wonderful to be where God is. Jacob experienced twenty-one years of wandering, fighting, and struggling. Listen to his conversation with his wives: “Your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me” (Genesis 31:7). To his father-in-law, Jacob said,

Unless the God of my father…had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands. (Genesis 31:42)

There is a way that God establishes. In our human planning, we may experience blessings of a kind, but we also undergo trials, hardships, and barrenness that God would have kept from us if we had followed His way. I realize through the anointing of the Holy Spirit that there is a freshness, a glow, a security in God where you can know that God is with you all the time. There is a place to reach where all that God has for us can flow through us to a needy world all the time.

Thought for today: There is a good; there is a better; but God has a best, a higher standard for us than we have yet attained. It is a better thing if it is God‘s plan and not ours.

December 31

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. — Matthew 6:33

Scripture reading: 2 Peter 1

One thing that can hinder our faith is a seared conscience. There is a conscience that is spiritless, and one that is so opened to the presence of God that the smallest thing in the world will drive it to God. What we need is a conscience that is so in tune with God that not one thing can come into and stay in our lives to hinder our fellowship with God and shatter our faith in Him. And when we can come into the presence of God with clear consciences and genuine faith, our hearts not condemning us, then we have confidence toward God (1 John 3:21), “and whatever we ask we receive from Him” (v. 22).

In Mark 11:24 we read, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Verse twenty-three speaks of mountains removed and difficulties cleared away. Sugarcoating won‘t do. We must have reality, the real working of our God. We must know God. We must be able to go in and converse with God. We must also know the mind of God toward us, so that all our petitions are always in line with His will.

As this “like precious faith” (2 Peter 1:1) becomes a part of you, it will make you so that you will dare to do anything. And remember, God wants daring followers who will be strong in Him and dare to do exploits. How will we reach this place of faith? Let go of your own thoughts, and take the thoughts of God, the Word of God. If you build yourself on imaginations, you will go wrong. You have the Word of God, and it is enough.

A man gave this remarkable testimony concerning the Word of God: “Never compare this Book with other books. Never think or say that this Book contains the Word of God. It is the Word of God. It is supernatural in origin, eternal in duration, inexpressible in value, infinite in scope, regenerative in power, infallible in authority, universal in interest, personal in application, inspired in totality. Read it through. Write it down. Pray it in. Work it out. And then pass it on.”

Truly the Word of God changes a person until he becomes “an epistle of Christ” (2 Corinthians 3:3). It transforms his mind, changes his character, moves him on from grace to grace, makes him an inheritor of the very nature of God. God comes in, dwells in, walks in, talks through, and dines with him who opens his being to the Word of God and receives the Spirit who inspired it.

If you have lost your hunger for God, if you do not have a cry for more of God, you are missing the plan. A cry must come up from us that cannot be satisfied with anything but God. He wants to give us the vision of the prize ahead that is something higher than we have ever attained. If you ever stop at any point, pick up at the place where you have left off, and begin again under the refining light and power of heaven. God will meet you. And while He will bring you to a consciousness of your own frailty and to a brokenness of spirit, your faith will lay hold of Him and all the divine resources. His light and compassion will be manifested through you, and He will send the rain.

Should we not dedicate ourselves afresh to God? Some say, “I dedicated myself last night to God.” Every new revelation brings a new decision. Let us seek Him.

Thought for today: Do not let one thought, one action, one thing in any way interfere with the Rapture. Ask God that every moment will be a moment of purifying.

December 30

By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. — Ephesians 2:8

Scripture reading: Hebrews 11

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain” (Hebrews 11:4); “by faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death” (v. 5); “by faith Noah…prepared an ark for the saving of his household” (v. 7); “by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance” (v. 8).

There is only one way to all the treasures of God, and that is the way of faith. All things are possible, even the fulfilling of all promises is possible, to him who believes (Mark 9:23).

There will be failure in our lives if we do not build on the base, the Rock Christ Jesus. He is the only way; He is the truth; He is the life (John 14:6). And the Word He gives us is life-giving. As we receive the Word of Life, it quickens, it opens, it fills us, it moves us, it changes us, and it brings us into a place where we dare to say amen to all that God has said. Beloved, there is a lot in an amen. You never get any place until you have the amen inside of you. That was the difference between Zacharias and Mary. When the Word came to Zacharias, he was filled with unbelief until the angel said, “You will be mute…because you did not believe my words” (Luke 1:20). Mary said, “Let it be to me according to your word” (v. 38). The Lord was pleased that she believed what He had spoken. When we believe what God has said, there will be results.

We may do much praying and groaning, but we do not receive from God because of that; we receive because we believe. Yet sometimes it takes God a long time to bring us through the groaning and the crying before we can believe.

I know that no man by his praying can change God, for you cannot change Him. Charles Finney said, “Can a man who is full of sin and all kinds of ruin in his life change God when he starts to pray?” No, it is impossible. But when a man labors in prayer, he groans and travails because his tremendous sin is weighing him down, and he becomes broken in the presence of God. When properly melted, he comes into perfect harmony with the divine plan of God, and then God can work in that clay. He could not before. Prayer changes hearts, but it never changes God. He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever: full of love, full of compassion, full of mercy, full of grace, and ready to bestow this and communicate that to us as we come to Him in faith.

Believe that when you come into the presence of God you can have all you came for. You can take it away, and you can use it, for all the power of God is at your disposal in response to your faith. The price for all was paid by the blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary. Oh, He is the living God, the One who has power to change us! “It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves” (Psalm 100:3). And it is He who purposes to transform us so that the greatness of His power may work through us. Oh, beloved, God delights in us, and when a man‘s ways please the Lord, then He makes all things move according to His own blessed purpose.

Thought for today: All people are born with a natural faith, but God calls us to a supernatural faith that is a gift from Himself.

December 29

There is…now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. — Romans 8:1

Scripture reading: Romans 8:1–17

Nothing is going to help you attain spiritual maturity or live this higher life, except divine life, which will always help you if you yield yourself absolutely to it. Not only are we exercised by this divine life, but also we are kept in perfect rest. It is needed in this day, for people everywhere are becoming satisfied with natural things. There is no definite cry or prayer within the soul that is making people stop and cry out for God and the coming of the Son.

I am intensely eager that by some means I may inspire you to see what the Spirit has for you. Life in Christ is absolutely different from death. Life is what people long for because of its possibilities; death is what people draw back from because of its finality. God has designed for us to live in freedom from the law of sin and death.

This truth is from the divine mind of the Master. He said that He who lives for himself will die. He who seeks to live will die, but he who is willing to die will live (Luke 17:33). God wants us to see that there is a life that is contrary to this life.

The Spirit of the Lord reveals the following to us in the Word of God: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life” (John 3:36). The unbelieving person is living and walking about but not seeing life. There is a life that is always brought into condemnation, which is living in death. There is a life that is free from condemnation—living in the Life.

The plan of God‘s Son for us is to be so much greater in this world than we have ever comprehended. God‘s plan is not for me to stay where I was yesterday. He desires that spiritual revelation will bring me into touch with divine harmony. God wants me to reach for something more. My eyes are looking up; my heart is looking up. My heart is big and enlarged in the presence of God, for I want to hear one word from God: “Come up higher.” God will give us that—the privilege of going higher into a holy relationship with Him.

The person who is under no condemnation has the heavens opened above him. This person has the smile of God upon him. This person has come into the realm of faith and joy and knows that his prayers are answered. God the Holy Spirit would have us to understand that there is a place in the Holy Spirit where there is no condemnation. This place is holiness, purity, righteousness, higher ground, perfection, and being more perfected in the presence of God. This higher ground is perfection, where God is bringing us to live in such a way that He may smile through us and act upon us until our bodies become a flame of light ignited by Omnipotence. This is God‘s plan for us in the inheritance; this divine place is for us today.

There is no condemnation. God wants us to see our covering, that blessed assurance of being strengthened, that knowledge of the Rock of Ages cleft for me, that place where I know I am! And that joy unbounding where I know there are neither devils nor angels nor principalities nor powers to interfere with that life in Christ (Romans 8:38–39)! It is wonderful!

“No weapon formed against you shall prosper” (Isaiah 54:17). The power of the Most High God has put us in Christ. If we had put ourselves in, it would have been different. We were in the world, but God took us out of the world and put us into Christ. God today by His Spirit wants us to see how this regenerative power, this glorious principle of God‘s high thoughtfulness, is for us. God wants us to lose ourselves in His sweetness. There is a glorious power behind us when God is behind us; there is a wonderful going before when He goes before us. He said, “I will go before you, and I will be your rear guard.” (See Isaiah 52:12.) And so I see that God the Holy Spirit wants me today to penetrate or bring forth or show forth the glorious joy there is in this wonderful incarnation of the Spirit for us all in Christ Jesus. Glory to God!

Thought for today: God makes us Devil-proof.

December 28

I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ‟ sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. — 2 Corinthians 12:10

Scripture reading: 2 Corinthians 12:1–10

When God comes into your life, you will find Him to be enough. As Israel came forth, the sun rose upon him, and he had power over all the things of the world and over Esau. Esau met him, but there was no fight now; there was reconciliation. They kissed each other. How true it is that “when a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Proverbs 16:7). The material things did not count for much after the night of revelation. Who brought about the change? God did.

Can you hold on to God as Jacob did? You certainly can if you are sincere, dependent, broken, and weak. It is when you are weak that you are strong. But if you are self-righteous, if you are proud, if you are high-minded, if you are puffed up in your own mind, you can receive nothing from Him. If you become lukewarm instead of being on fire for God, you can become a disappointment to Him. And He says, “I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:16).

But there is a place of holiness, a place of meekness, a place of faith, where you can call to God, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” (Genesis 32:26). And in response, He will bless you “exceedingly abundantly above all that [you] ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).

Sometimes we are tempted to think that He has left us. Oh, no. He has promised never to leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). He had promised not to leave Jacob, and He did not break His promise. He has promised not to leave us, and He will not fail. Jacob held on until the blessing came. We can do the same.

If God does not help us, we are no good for this world‘s need; we are no longer salt, we lose our savor. But as we spend time alone with God, and cry to Him to bless us, He re-salts us. He reempowers us, but He brings us to brokenness and moves us into the orbit of His own perfect will.

Oh, the blessedness of being brought into a life of dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit. Henceforth, we know that we are nothing without Him; we are absolutely dependent upon Him. I am absolutely nothing without the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. Oh, for a life of absolute dependence! It is through a life of dependence that there is a life of power. If you are not there, get alone with God. If you must, spend a whole night alone with God, and let Him change and transform you. Never let Him go until He blesses you, until He makes you an Israel, a prince with God.

Thought for today: It is those who have seen the face of God and have been broken by Him who can meet the forces of the Enemy and break down the bulwarks of Satan‘s kingdom.