The Lord had been impressing on me recently to look at 2 Chronicles 7:14-16
2 Chron 7:14-16
14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.
16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
I've heard verse 14 quoted in many church sermons on revival; and we love to use this verse when praying for a revival in our land, but as I read this passage, what I heard from the Lord was an entirely different sermon.
In the context of the chapter, God spoke to Solomon and gave him several conditions for the children of Israel to fulfil for God to forgive their sin and heal their land.
I) Humble themselves before Him
II) Pray
III) Seek His Face and
IV) Turn from their wicked ways
What I received from the Lord regarding this verse was much different than anything I'd ever heard before as He gave me a different perspective on how Biblical Revival starts, from the inside out.
If we apply this passage to ourselves, I want to relate the following:
"My people who are called by My name"
As Blood-bought children of God, purchased by the Blood of Jesus, we fall under this category, being given that Name which is above every other name.
Humbling ourselves before God is a serious issue.
Also notice what God said in vv 15-16:
15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.
16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
In the context of the chapter again, the house the Lord referred to would have been the temple of Solomon where the Shekinah Glory filled the temple before it left as can be seen in Ezekiel 10.
But applying it to ourselves, see how God has defined His house in the New Testament:
Isa 56:7
7 All these I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
2 Cor 5:1 (AMP)
5:1 For we know that if the tent which is our earthly home is destroyed (dissolved), we have from God a building, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 Cor 6:16 (AMP)
16 What agreement [can there be between] a temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in and with and among them and will walk in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Since God sees us as His House or His Temple; and if He said that His eyes will be open and His ears attentive to prayer made in this place i.e. the House, then I can safely say that revival must start from the inside out.
We have to get on our knees before God and pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways. Clean out our temple of all idolatry and be a people consecrated unto God alone.
Idolatry is much more than those small idols (or big ones) we see in any temple by the roadside. I like the way a pastor put it: Anything that stands between you and your relationship with God is an idol. Anyone feeling uncomfortable yet?
Before we pray for the next revival to hit our land, pray that we be revived ourselves first.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Taking Jesus at His Word
Matt 8:5-13
5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him,
6 saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented."
7 And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."
8 The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.
9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!
11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed that same hour.
In reading this passage, we recognize it as the story of how Jesus healed the centurion's servant.
What I found to be a constant reminder of what our walk of faith is meant to be like was by reading what the centurion had to say.
8 The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.
9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
The centurion literally took Jesus at His word and had a complete confidence that Jesus didn't have to go to his home to heal the servant but to only speak the word.
Applying it to our own lives, just how many of us are willing to do what the centurion did: take Jesus at His word and regard it as the final authority in our lives?
How many of us would rather take the word of politicians, doctors, bankers, family, friends, enemies over the inexhaustible eternal Word of God?
Remember what Jesus' concept of great faith was: to just believe Him that He is faithful to do what He has promised to do in our lives
Smith Wigglesworth, the great Apostle of Faith would have been best remembered for a song he made popular during his time of ministry,
Only believe, Only believe
All things are possible, Only believe
Another well known hymn we love to sing would have been this:
’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
And to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus says the Lord!”
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!
(Louisa M.R. Stead, 1882)
As we draw nearer to the Coming of the Lord, let us keep walking by faith as the centurion did, crying out "Lord I choose to believe You, just only speak a word!"
5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him,
6 saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented."
7 And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."
8 The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.
9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!
11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed that same hour.
In reading this passage, we recognize it as the story of how Jesus healed the centurion's servant.
What I found to be a constant reminder of what our walk of faith is meant to be like was by reading what the centurion had to say.
8 The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.
9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
The centurion literally took Jesus at His word and had a complete confidence that Jesus didn't have to go to his home to heal the servant but to only speak the word.
Applying it to our own lives, just how many of us are willing to do what the centurion did: take Jesus at His word and regard it as the final authority in our lives?
How many of us would rather take the word of politicians, doctors, bankers, family, friends, enemies over the inexhaustible eternal Word of God?
Remember what Jesus' concept of great faith was: to just believe Him that He is faithful to do what He has promised to do in our lives
Smith Wigglesworth, the great Apostle of Faith would have been best remembered for a song he made popular during his time of ministry,
Only believe, Only believe
All things are possible, Only believe
Another well known hymn we love to sing would have been this:
’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
And to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus says the Lord!”
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!
(Louisa M.R. Stead, 1882)
As we draw nearer to the Coming of the Lord, let us keep walking by faith as the centurion did, crying out "Lord I choose to believe You, just only speak a word!"
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Real Prayer
A lot of folks pray but do not get in touch with God. They operate the machinery of prayer at one end, but never get any response from the other end.
Real prayer is communion with God, not just praying words, but getting an answer from heaven.
- John G. Lake
Real prayer is communion with God, not just praying words, but getting an answer from heaven.
- John G. Lake
Obedience and Healing
Healing is not always obtained by saying prayers. It is obtained by obeying God. God wants the Christian to set up a standard of righteousness according to the standard of the Word of God, and then to live it
-John G. Lake
-John G. Lake
Accessing God’s Divine Secrets
Jer 33:3 (AMP)
3 Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand).
In prayer, there's always an action on both our part on God's. We call on Him and He answers us in response.
What I found interesting was the word mighty as when reading my NKJV version, the side margin shows that another word for mighty was 'inaccessible'.
If we looked at the Hebrew definition for the word mighty, one translation is as follows:
OT:1219
batsar --
to gather, to restrain, to fence, to fortify, to make inaccessible, to enclose
a) (Qal)
1) to cut off
2) fortified, cut off, made inaccessible (passive participle)
3) secrets, mysteries, inaccessible things (substantive)
b) (Niphal) to be withheld
c) (Piel) to fortify
So if I am to read this properly, we could read it as God showing or telling us great and inaccessible secrets or mysteries when we call on Him in prayer.
I find it what Moses said in Deut 29:29 fairly interesting
Deut 29:29 AMP
29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but the things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all of the words of this law.
Therefore the more pressing question to ask would be:
How are these secrets revealed to us?
1 Cor 2:10 AMP
10 Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny].
If we want to hear it from the lips of Jesus, He promised likewise when he told his disciples about the coming role of the Holy Spirit
John 16:14 AMP
14 He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.
So if I, as a Believer and as a Christian were to act on the beginning verse of Jer 33:3 and pray, it still does not indicate that I would receive or know those secrets hidden and inaccessible unless I refer to the next verse:
1 Cor 14:2 AMP
2 For one who speaks in an [unknown] tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding].
Having said that, it's not just praying or speaking in other tongues because if we looked at verse 2 in its context, Paul was talking about how one who prophesies edifies the church, and is greater than the one who speaks in an unknown tongue, UNLESS that same person interprets what he said in tongues in order to edify the church with the interpretation.
Hence Paul's instruction in verse 13,
1 Cor 14:13 NKJV
13 Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.
Why? That you may be in a better position to edify yourself and the Body of Christ with the interpretation or the revelation of the secret
Sometimes when you pray, you know you definitely didn't receive any revelation. Don't give up! Just keep believing and trusting God that you'll get the revelation from Him!
I like what Oral Roberts had to say on the above verse:
"When I'm waiting on the interpretation and I'm listening with my spirit, sometimes nothing—not a word—comes back at that moment. At other times, I'm able to see the words as if they were written on a page and which I can say out loud to myself. Then, at times, God's full response comes and my mind receives it. I begin to say it and I feel my mind being illuminated, like a light is turned on, and I hear God saying specific things to me concerning my life, or about doing certain things, or telling me just to rest in Him...
when it comes in my mind like this, my understanding is increased greatly. It seems in that instance that my mind is sharper and I am able to grasp spiritual things much better than before I prayed in tongues and received God's interpretation back...
Here's where faith comes in. As I speak in tongues, then follow it by praying for the interpretation, I must believe that God is a talking God, as I am a talking person, and that by tongues I have initiated a conversation with Him, and eventually—if I focus my spirit on Him—I am sure I will get the interpretation. If not at that moment, then perhaps later that day or a week or two later. It's uncanny how you can learn to know and recognize it is an interpretation from the Lord. You've just got to get into it with your spirit totally open to God, hungry to hear Him speak to you, and start believing that He will. It is an act of your faith to speak to God in tongues, also an act of your faith to receive His interpretation.
-Oral Roberts, Unleashing the Power of Praying in the Spirit!
I also like what Kenneth E. Hagin had to say about it in his book, Tongues: Beyond the Upper Room. In his book his was talking about how he prayed in tongues for about 4 hours 45 mins not feeling anything when in his own words,
"I hit a gusher! That is the best way I know how to describe it. In other words, I began to pray both with my spirit and with my understanding under the anointing. Revelation just came rolling out of me as the Holy Ghost showed me things to come...
Until that moment, I was speaking in tongues with no unction or anointing, building myself up on my most holy faith. But when I hit that gusher, revelation just started rolling out of me....
Praying in tongues like that is just like drilling an oil well. If the oilman never put forth the effort to drill the well, all that oil would just stay in the ground. The potential of hitting a gusher would still exist, but unless the oilman drilled for oil, no one would ever see the evidence of it.
-Kenneth E. Hagin, Tongues: Beyond the Upper Room
[bold emphasis mine]
I noticed recently that as I prayed in other tongues over a period of time, I found myself receiving more revelation on certain topics or certain areas that I never noticed before.
For instance, my previous note came about as revelation. I definitely can NOT come up with something like that from an intellectual standpoint.
Likewise, this note also came about as a revelation.
I would see this as encouragement for us to keep that fire of the Holy Spirit burning within us in our personal walk with God, hearing from Him constantly and being able to edify our brethren in the faith from whatever denomination, as we are of ONE BODY.
3 Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand).
In prayer, there's always an action on both our part on God's. We call on Him and He answers us in response.
What I found interesting was the word mighty as when reading my NKJV version, the side margin shows that another word for mighty was 'inaccessible'.
If we looked at the Hebrew definition for the word mighty, one translation is as follows:
OT:1219
batsar --
to gather, to restrain, to fence, to fortify, to make inaccessible, to enclose
a) (Qal)
1) to cut off
2) fortified, cut off, made inaccessible (passive participle)
3) secrets, mysteries, inaccessible things (substantive)
b) (Niphal) to be withheld
c) (Piel) to fortify
So if I am to read this properly, we could read it as God showing or telling us great and inaccessible secrets or mysteries when we call on Him in prayer.
I find it what Moses said in Deut 29:29 fairly interesting
Deut 29:29 AMP
29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but the things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all of the words of this law.
Therefore the more pressing question to ask would be:
How are these secrets revealed to us?
1 Cor 2:10 AMP
10 Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny].
If we want to hear it from the lips of Jesus, He promised likewise when he told his disciples about the coming role of the Holy Spirit
John 16:14 AMP
14 He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.
So if I, as a Believer and as a Christian were to act on the beginning verse of Jer 33:3 and pray, it still does not indicate that I would receive or know those secrets hidden and inaccessible unless I refer to the next verse:
1 Cor 14:2 AMP
2 For one who speaks in an [unknown] tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding].
Having said that, it's not just praying or speaking in other tongues because if we looked at verse 2 in its context, Paul was talking about how one who prophesies edifies the church, and is greater than the one who speaks in an unknown tongue, UNLESS that same person interprets what he said in tongues in order to edify the church with the interpretation.
Hence Paul's instruction in verse 13,
1 Cor 14:13 NKJV
13 Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.
Why? That you may be in a better position to edify yourself and the Body of Christ with the interpretation or the revelation of the secret
Sometimes when you pray, you know you definitely didn't receive any revelation. Don't give up! Just keep believing and trusting God that you'll get the revelation from Him!
I like what Oral Roberts had to say on the above verse:
"When I'm waiting on the interpretation and I'm listening with my spirit, sometimes nothing—not a word—comes back at that moment. At other times, I'm able to see the words as if they were written on a page and which I can say out loud to myself. Then, at times, God's full response comes and my mind receives it. I begin to say it and I feel my mind being illuminated, like a light is turned on, and I hear God saying specific things to me concerning my life, or about doing certain things, or telling me just to rest in Him...
when it comes in my mind like this, my understanding is increased greatly. It seems in that instance that my mind is sharper and I am able to grasp spiritual things much better than before I prayed in tongues and received God's interpretation back...
Here's where faith comes in. As I speak in tongues, then follow it by praying for the interpretation, I must believe that God is a talking God, as I am a talking person, and that by tongues I have initiated a conversation with Him, and eventually—if I focus my spirit on Him—I am sure I will get the interpretation. If not at that moment, then perhaps later that day or a week or two later. It's uncanny how you can learn to know and recognize it is an interpretation from the Lord. You've just got to get into it with your spirit totally open to God, hungry to hear Him speak to you, and start believing that He will. It is an act of your faith to speak to God in tongues, also an act of your faith to receive His interpretation.
-Oral Roberts, Unleashing the Power of Praying in the Spirit!
I also like what Kenneth E. Hagin had to say about it in his book, Tongues: Beyond the Upper Room. In his book his was talking about how he prayed in tongues for about 4 hours 45 mins not feeling anything when in his own words,
"I hit a gusher! That is the best way I know how to describe it. In other words, I began to pray both with my spirit and with my understanding under the anointing. Revelation just came rolling out of me as the Holy Ghost showed me things to come...
Until that moment, I was speaking in tongues with no unction or anointing, building myself up on my most holy faith. But when I hit that gusher, revelation just started rolling out of me....
Praying in tongues like that is just like drilling an oil well. If the oilman never put forth the effort to drill the well, all that oil would just stay in the ground. The potential of hitting a gusher would still exist, but unless the oilman drilled for oil, no one would ever see the evidence of it.
-Kenneth E. Hagin, Tongues: Beyond the Upper Room
[bold emphasis mine]
I noticed recently that as I prayed in other tongues over a period of time, I found myself receiving more revelation on certain topics or certain areas that I never noticed before.
For instance, my previous note came about as revelation. I definitely can NOT come up with something like that from an intellectual standpoint.
Likewise, this note also came about as a revelation.
I would see this as encouragement for us to keep that fire of the Holy Spirit burning within us in our personal walk with God, hearing from Him constantly and being able to edify our brethren in the faith from whatever denomination, as we are of ONE BODY.
Our Position in the Church
Isa 40:9
9 O Zion, You who bring good tidings, Get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, You who bring good tidings, Lift up your voice with strength, Lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
I was reading the above verse this morning when the phrase "Lift it up" spoke to me.
If you check the meaning of that particular phrase in the Hebrew, it's found in one word,
OT:7311
ruwm (room); a primitive root; to be high actively, to rise or raise (in various applications, literally or figuratively):
KJV - bring up, exalt (self), extol, give, go up, haughty, heave (up), (be, lift up on, make on, set up on, too) high (-er, one), hold up, levy, lift (-er) up, (be) lofty, (X a-) loud, mount up, offer (up), presumptuously, (be) promote (-ion), proud, set up, tall (-er), take (away, off, up), breed worms.
Based on the meanings of that phrase; I had a revelation of how the Church of God or the Body of Christ is meant to be relative to Isa 40:9, to be in a 'high' place.
Notice also that the word "it" is italicized, which is apparently taken to mean that it's a word that the original texts did not contain but was added in by the translators for clarity in English. Therefore if we took the word "it" out of that phrase, it would be taken to mean "Lift up", or "Rise up"!
Zion and Jerusalem in the New Testament is a picture of the Church (Heb 12:22, Gal 4:26)
If we look over at the New Testament, it gives a clearer picture of our position as the Body of Christ, especially in Ephesians:
Eph 1:20-23
20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Eph 2:6
6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
So to look at Isaiah 40:9 from another view, we're to rise up and not be afraid, and boldly declare, "Behold, your God!"
It's given me an entirely different perspective on how our prayer life is meant to be. because I realize that we can now pray confidently knowing we have the victory because as the Church, we've been raised up together with Christ and we're seated with him in heavenly places!
God didn't intend that the Church be weak and emaciated, but to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
As the Church, we're already risen because the Bible says so. All we have to do is believe it and walk it out and see the results thereof. Glory!
9 O Zion, You who bring good tidings, Get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, You who bring good tidings, Lift up your voice with strength, Lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
I was reading the above verse this morning when the phrase "Lift it up" spoke to me.
If you check the meaning of that particular phrase in the Hebrew, it's found in one word,
OT:7311
ruwm (room); a primitive root; to be high actively, to rise or raise (in various applications, literally or figuratively):
KJV - bring up, exalt (self), extol, give, go up, haughty, heave (up), (be, lift up on, make on, set up on, too) high (-er, one), hold up, levy, lift (-er) up, (be) lofty, (X a-) loud, mount up, offer (up), presumptuously, (be) promote (-ion), proud, set up, tall (-er), take (away, off, up), breed worms.
Based on the meanings of that phrase; I had a revelation of how the Church of God or the Body of Christ is meant to be relative to Isa 40:9, to be in a 'high' place.
Notice also that the word "it" is italicized, which is apparently taken to mean that it's a word that the original texts did not contain but was added in by the translators for clarity in English. Therefore if we took the word "it" out of that phrase, it would be taken to mean "Lift up", or "Rise up"!
Zion and Jerusalem in the New Testament is a picture of the Church (Heb 12:22, Gal 4:26)
If we look over at the New Testament, it gives a clearer picture of our position as the Body of Christ, especially in Ephesians:
Eph 1:20-23
20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Eph 2:6
6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
So to look at Isaiah 40:9 from another view, we're to rise up and not be afraid, and boldly declare, "Behold, your God!"
It's given me an entirely different perspective on how our prayer life is meant to be. because I realize that we can now pray confidently knowing we have the victory because as the Church, we've been raised up together with Christ and we're seated with him in heavenly places!
God didn't intend that the Church be weak and emaciated, but to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
As the Church, we're already risen because the Bible says so. All we have to do is believe it and walk it out and see the results thereof. Glory!
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