Author: Billy Conrad

October 13

For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. — Psalm 91:11

Scripture reading: Psalm 91

I have looked through my Bible, and I cannot find where God brings disease and sickness. I know it is the power of God that brings the glory. Yet it is the Devil and not God at all who brings sickness and disease. Why does he? I know this: Satan is God‘s whip, and if you don‘t obey God, God will stand to one side and Satan will devour you. But God will only allow him to devour so much, as was the case with Job. The Lord told Satan, “You may go only so far, and no further. Don‘t touch his life.” (See Job 2:6.)

Why is Satan allowed to bring sickness? It is because we know better than we act. If we would be true to our convictions and walk according to the light we have been given, God would verify His presence in the midst of us, and we would know that sickness cannot “come near [our] dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over [us], to keep [us] in all [our] ways” (Psalm 91:10–11).

When Satan can get to your body, he will, if possible, make the pain or the weakness so distracting that it will affect your mind and always bring your mind down to where the pain is. When that takes place, you do not have the same freedom in your spirit to lift up your heart and shout and praise the Lord. The distraction of the pain brings the foundational power, which ought to be full of praise to God, down into the body. And through that—concerning everybody who is afflicted—“the kingdom of heaven suffers violence” (Matthew 11:12).

Thought for today: Anything that takes me from a position where I am in an attitude of worship, peace, and joy; where I have a consciousness of the presence of God; where there is an inward moving of the powers of God that makes me able to lift myself up and live in the world as though I were not of it (because I am not of it); anything that dethrones me from that attitude is evil, is satanic.

October 12

Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses. — Psalm 107:6

Scripture reading: Psalm 50

Does God know all about you? Is He acquainted with you altogether? Why should you, under any circumstances, believe that you will be better off by being diseased? When disease is impurity, why should you ever believe that you will be sanctified by having a great deal of sickness?

Some people talk about God being pleased to put disease on His children. “Here is a person I love,” says God. “I will break his arm. Then, so that he will love Me more, I will break his leg. So that he will love Me even more, I will give him a weak heart.”

The whole thing won‘t stand daylight. Yet people are always talking this way, and they never think to read the Word of God, which says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray” (Psalm 19:67). They have never read the following words into their lives:

Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. (Psalm 107:17–19)

Is it right to say, “You know, my brother, I have suffered so much in this affliction that it has made me know God better?” Well, now, before you agree, ask God for a lot more affliction so that you will get to know Him still better. If you won‘t ask for more affliction to make you still purer, I won‘t believe that the first affliction made you purer, because if it had, you would have more faith in it. It appears that you do not have faith in your afflictions. It is only talk, but talk doesn‘t count unless it is backed up by fact. However, if people can see that your words are backed up by fact, then they have some grounds for believing in them.

Thought for today: Why not trust God who knows all about you, instead of trusting in people who know only what you have told them?

October 11

Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. — Ephesians 6:10–11

Scripture reading: Ephesians 6:10–20

There is a power in you that is greater than any other power. By the help of the Spirit, may you come into a place of deliverance, a place of holy sanctification, where you dare to stand against the Devil‘s‘ schemings, drive them back, and cast them out. May the Lord help us!

I want God to give you an inward awakening, a revelation of truth within you, an audacity, a flaming indignation against the powers of Satan.

Lot had a righteous indignation—temporarily—but it came too late. He ought to have had it when he went into Sodom, not when he was coming out. But I don‘t want any one of you to be dejected because you didn‘t take a step in the right direction sooner. Always be thankful that you are alive to hear and to change the situation.

You must gain an inward knowledge that God is Lord over all the power of Satan. I don‘t doubt your sincerity about being saved, about having been justified in Christ. It is not for me to question a man‘s sincerity regarding his righteousness. Yet I feel I have a right to say that there is a deeper sincerity to reach for; there is a greater audacity of faith and fact to attain. There is something that you have to wake up to where you will never allow disease to have you or sin to have you or a weak heart or a pain in your back to have you. You will never allow anything that isn‘t perfect life to have anything to do with you. Those who try to serve two masters always lose (Matthew 6:24). If you try to join up with two things—the Lord and the Devil—the Devil will get you in the end. Allow Christ to be the Lord of your life today.

Thought for today: You are not going to oppose devils if you cannot master yourself, because you will soon find the devils to be bigger than yourself.

October 10

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. — Matthew 11:12

Scripture reading: Matthew 11:25–30

This is a message to every believer. Every believer has the life of the Lord in him. And if Jesus, “who is our life” (Colossians 3:4), were to come, instantly our life would go out to meet His life because we exist by and consist of the life of the Son of God. (See verse 4.) “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (v. 3).

If all believers understood this wonderful passage that is in the twenty-second chapter of Luke‘s gospel, there would be great joy in their hearts:

Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 22:15–16)

Everyone who is in Christ Jesus will be there when He sits down the first time to break bread in the kingdom of heaven. It is not possible for any child of God to remain on earth when Jesus comes. May the Lord help us to believe it.

I know there is a great deal of speculation on the Rapture and on the coming of the Lord. But let me tell you to hope for edification and comfort, for the Scripture by the Holy Spirit won‘t let me focus on anything except the edification, consolation, and comfort of the Spirit. (See 1 Corinthians 14:3.)

I don‘t mean that we are to cover up sin. God won‘t let us do that. But we must unveil truth. And what is truth? The Word of God is the truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39).

What does the truth say? It says that when Christ appears, all who are His at His coming will be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52). We will be presented at the same moment as all those who have fallen asleep in Him, and we will all go together.

We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep….And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:15–18)

For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. (Luke 22:18)

Two thousand years will soon have passed since the Lord broke bread around the table with His disciples. I am longing, the saints are longing, for the grand union when millions, billions, trillions will unite with Him in that great fellowship Supper. Praise the Lord! But now, what stimulation, what power must be working every day until that Day appears!

Thought for today: Every believer belongs to the kingdom of heaven.

October 9

Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another? — Matthew 11:3

Scripture reading: Matthew 11:12–24

I want you to see how satanic power can work in the mind. Satan came to John when he was in prison. I find that Satan can come to any of us.

But I want to prove that we have a greater power than Satan‘s—in imagination, in thought, in everything. Satan came to John the Baptist in prison and said to him, “Don‘t you think you have made a mistake? Here you are in prison. Isn‘t there something wrong with the whole business? After all, you may be greatly deceived about being a forerunner of the Christ.”

I find men who might be giants of faith, who might be leaders of society, who might rise to subdue kingdoms (Hebrews 11:33), who might be noble among princes, but they are defeated because they allow the suggestions of Satan to dethrone their better knowledge of the power of God. May God help us.

John sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are You the Messiah?” How could Jesus send those men back with a stimulating truth, with a personal, effective power that would stir their hearts to know that they had met Him about whom all the prophets had spoken? What would declare it? How would they know? How could they tell it?

Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Matthew 11:4–5)

And when they saw the miracles and wonders and heard the gracious words He spoke as the power of God rested upon Him, they were ready to believe.

Thought for today: Unless we are filled, or divinely insulated, with the power of God, we may be defeated by the power of Satan.

October 8

There has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. — Matthew 11:11

Scripture reading: Matthew 11:1–11

God wants to bring to us a living realization of what the Word of God is, what the Lord God means by what He says, and what we may expect if we believe it. I am certain that the Lord wishes to put before us a living fact that will, by our faith, bring into action a principle that is within our own hearts so that Christ can dethrone every power of Satan.

Only this truth revealed to our hearts can make us so much greater than we ever had any idea we could be. There is only the need of revelation and of stirring ourselves up to understand the mightiness that God has within us. We may prove what He has accomplished in us if we will only be willing to carry through what He has already accomplished in us.

For God has not accomplished something in us that should lie dormant, but He has brought within us a power, a revelation, a life that is so great that I believe God wants to reveal the greatness of it. There isn‘t anything you can imagine that is greater than what man may accomplish through Him.

But everything on a human basis is very limited compared with what God has for us on a spiritual basis. If man can accomplish much in a short time, what may we accomplish if we will believe the revealed Word and take it as truth that God has given us and that He wants to bring out in revelation and force?

Notice that John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus. Within his own short history, John the Baptist had the power of God revealed to him as probably no man in the old dispensation had. He had a wonderful revelation. He had a mighty anointing.

See how he moved Israel. See how the power of God rested upon him. See how he had the vision of Jesus and went forth with power and turned the hearts of Israel to Him. You, too, can do great things for God if you are a part of His kingdom!

Thought for today: Oh, the possibilities of man in the hands of God!