Devotion

Devotion

Devotion is our surrender to God and His treatment. It is our dedication—we give ourselves to God so that He can own us. Devotion is noticeable through an inner understanding of life, as our being is united with His. Devotion is comprehended through experience; words fail to explain it since its very nature is an inner life’s contact with eternal life.

Devotion must always be accompanied by the spirit’s openness. In devotion there is always an expectation of receiving God’s blessings; therefore one’s spirit must be open and receptive.

Devotion to God is often associated with being constricted and closed in one’s spirit while toiling in prayer (for example, when seeking the baptism of the Spirit). The person gets tired while toiling in prayer; he becomes despondent and discouraged because he does not receive. However, the mistake he makes is that he becomes tense, struggling for his prayer to be heard instead of opening himself and receiving what he is praying for. The Holy Spirit is a gift. You can pray for a gift and receive a gift, but you can never obtain it by struggling for it, for then it would be a reward. Now, the fact is that God would rather give His children the Holy Spirit than a father would give his children bread.

Pray and you will receive! Prayer must be accompanied by open hands. Therefore you should open yourself as soon as you begin to pray. This is evidence of your faith, which proves that you are expecting to receive what you are praying for. But when you are tense in your spirit, Jesus remains standing outside with the answer to your prayer—for example, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

It is written about the ancients that they raised their voices. Raising your voice is not the same as speaking in a normal tone of voice. A man can raise his voice when he is grieving; his spirit opens up and its entire content of pain flows out. Similarly, you can also let joy flow out of an open spirit.

When a person prays for the baptism of the Spirit, believing that Jesus gives and that He is waiting with His gift, he will most often receive the Spirit in a manner that raises his voice in praise to Him, and while this happens, he opens his spirit, and the King of glory enters in with His gift. Then begin praises in the Holy Spirit, songs of praise to God. Therefore we see that most people who receive the baptism of the Spirit raise their voices with songs of praise, often in tongues.

However, many people shut out the answer to their prayers by closing their spirit, forcing and burrowing themselves by their prayers into darkness and unbelief. But if they opened their spirit, they would immediately notice an uplifting joy—they would find an open heaven—which is the believing spirit of adoption that trustingly ascends to its Father.

Devotion—in order to receive—manifests our need. The gift we receive awakens our love for the Giver. This is followed by devotion to Him—not just for the sake of the gift, and not just to receive, but to abide in Him and to live in Him. Then a need is awakened not just for what He gives but for what He is, and the One who loves us will give us the desire of our heart. Then we will experience that He also has power to give what He is, so that His divine nature also becomes ours. I in Him and He in me. The goal of devotion is therefore a process of becoming one, according to Jesus’ word, with this state: “You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us . . .” (John 17:21)—hidden with Christ in God.

This deep devotion reveals our love. Abiding in this love is faithfulness; being forbearing with those who have not attained to it is longsuffering; taking up the cross that is united with this state is patience; and seeing our own unworthiness and His undeserved love for us produces meekness. Our walk with Him makes us quiet and attentive. The person who abides in this state has only one desire: to know God’s will, to see the Just One, to hear the voice of His mouth, and to be a witness (Acts 22:14-15), for His voice is pleasant, His appearance is lovely, His will is our law, and to do it is our food.

This unconditional devotion is followed by devotion in detail. There is a listening devotion in order to hear His voice, and there is a devotion that searches out His light. This is the point on which we must be devoted, very alert, and expectant.

The usual thing is to give oneself to God without having anything definite in mind—without using one’s understanding—but simply to have good feelings. Yet the person will notice—if he has a desire in a certain direction—that if he abandons himself without a goal in mind, he will not be content. However, if he abandons himself to it with understanding in the direction of his need, he will receive what he desires, and his need will be filled.

By devoting himself in detail, he gives himself with full understanding and insight in order to obtain something definite—either to receive light over a certain word of God, light over a matter, strength to carry out a task, or to devote himself to prayer—for example to pray for certain people. In Daniel Chapter 9 we find that Daniel pays attention to Jeremiah’s prophecies, and he discovers that the time for the Jews’ return is almost at hand. We see that Daniel devoted himself to gaining insight (see also Daniel 10:12), and after he had gained insight, it is written so memorably: he made request by prayer and humble supplications. He devoted himself to making requests by prayer and humble supplications specifically for what had become clear to him.

Through devotion, our life is built and our thoughts are stimulated; we receive an understanding of God’s nature and His ways.