MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST 1ST OCTOBER 2024 BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
Read My Utmost for His Highest 1st October 2024 (Oswald Chambers Devotional) Tuesday Inspirational Message.
TOPIC: The Sphere of Exaltation
After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain. — Mark 9:2
We’ve all had times on the mountain, when we’ve seen from God’s viewpoint and have wanted to stay on high. But God will never allow this. The test of our spiritual life lies in our ability to keep the vision God gives on the mountain in our sights as we descend. If we only have the power to rise, something is wrong.
It’s a great thing to be up on the mountain with our Lord, but he only takes us up with him for one reason—so that we may go down again into the valley and lift up those around us. We aren’t built for the mountains and the dawns and the breathtaking views; they are for moments of inspiration, nothing else. We’re built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff of daily life. That is where we have to prove our mettle.
Spiritual selfishness always wants to get back to the mountaintop. When we are spiritually selfish, we are always claiming that of course we’d live like angels—if we could stay on high. We have to learn that moments of exaltation are exceptional. They have meaning in our life with God, but we have to make sure that spiritual selfishness doesn’t cause us to want them all the time.
We tend to think that everything that happens is meant to teach us something. A mountaintop experience isn’t meant to teach us anything; it’s meant to make us something new. God wants our experiences to develop our character.
When it comes to spiritual matters, there’s a great trap in asking, “What’s the point of this?” It isn’t for us to know the point. The moments on the mountaintop are rare, and they are meant for something in God’s own purpose.
FURTHER READING: Isaiah 11-13; Ephesians 4
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We must keep ourselves in touch, not with theories, but with people, and never get out of touch with human beings, if we are going to use the word of God skilfully amongst them.
Workmen of God, 1341 L
Oswald Chambers was an early-twentieth-century Scottish Baptist evangelist and teacher who was aligned with the Holiness Movement. He is best known for the daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest