The AMI QT Devotionals from August 28-September 3 are provided by Hee Jung Lee. Hee Jung, a graduate of Biblical Theological Seminary, serves at Catalyst Agape Church (New Jersey) along with her husband Pastor Sam Lee. They have four beautiful daughters.

Devotional Thoughts for Today

“Commissioned”

Luke 9:1-3

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey-no staff, no bag no bread, no money, no extra shirt.”

In this story found in Luke 9, Jesus gathers His disciples and does a few things whereby He sets a platform for them to have confidence to do His work. First, He commissions them by giving them power and authority, authorizing them. Jesus gives them simple commands—drive out demons, cure diseases, etc.—which seem very difficult to anyone. He releases them to demonstrate to others that the Kingdom of God was at hand and that Jesus had the answers to their sufferings, whether physical, spiritual, or emotional. Then, He also tells the disciples to take nothing for the journey. By this, He positions them to trust in Him for their provisional needs, setting them up to experience His power firsthand. Jesus wanted them to experience that God was not only capable but incredibly faithful. They were about to see that wherever they went, they would be carrying God’s very presence with them, and that God would always be with them.

These are truths for us today. Through the redemptive work of Jesus, we are now carriers of God’s presence to demonstrate to the world what the arrival of our Savior means for them. It is the Lord’s pleasure to reveal Himself to people through us. We need only to trust Him and mindfully step out as the disciples were commissioned to do. The Lord has already qualified us for His work. As with the disciples, He has given us a platform to be confident in Him. So let us not take this commissioning lightly, but allow ourselves to be that vessel that brings God’s answers to others—this is the good works He has prepared for us to do. Let us be intentional in our relationships and interactions with those whom God has placed in our lives, in order that we would be a source by which they will experience God’s amazing and faithful demonstration of Himself through our words, prayers, actions—and release of His miraculous ways.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You so much for not only trusting us to do Your work but equipping us with Your very presence to do it. Please help us to be willing but to also be compelled by Your love to be that vessel. Allow us, Lord, to experience and also demonstrate Your great power working through us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Bible Reading: Isaiah 24