Isaiah 62-64
Do you pray a lot? I mean, do you find yourself praying for others and not just your family? Do you pray for the condition of the church? Do you pray for the condition of our nation? Our world?
Our Father is looking for people to pray for His will to be done in the earth.
He says, “You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent. And give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” (62:6-7)
Now we know that Jerusalem is the physical city on one level – and the spiritual City of God on the other. In other words, the universal church. He wants us to pray for the church to rise up to be a praise in the earth – all across the earth.
So why doesn’t He just do it? Remember, He set up the world to have men as managers. Adam was to take dominion of the earth and be a manager under God’s authority. Of course, Adam allowed the devil to usurp the authority, and man lost his role, but eventually Jesus would bring it back in fullness.
Now our Father wants us to cooperate with Him to bring His glory and His purpose to the earth in fullness. We can’t do it on our own, but working with Him, we do our part. We do it by speaking into the atmosphere the Words of our God. Decreeing His purposes into the earth.
Our part is to pray and decree what our God says. He says that salvation has come for all who will receive it. He says healing and deliverance are here for us now. He says that prosperity is here for us now. He says that as we pray, He will open the eyes of many to believe and receive Him.
What do you say? Do you say, “Woe is me?” Or do you agree with your Father and say what He says?
Our Father is looking for those who will speak His Words into the earth, and He will bring them to pass.
Count me in, Lord. What about you?
I Timothy 1
Paul had a tremendous respect for Timothy, a young man who was called of God as a fellow minister. In these next two letters, the older apostle gave instruction which any of us could take to heart. He gave godly counsel on attitudes and behaviors which would make Timothy fruitful for God.
Timothy had been given by God a call – and prophecies to go along with the call. (V. 18). He was now operating in the gifts God had given to Him, but Paul knew from experience that there was warfare which went with the call.
What do I mean? The devil is not going to sit by and let someone operate in the gifts without trying to talk them out of it. At times he would send people across Timothy’s path to ridicule him and mock him. At other times he would bring persecution and anger from those in authority.
What God loves, the devil hates! He will do all within his power to stop the move of God in Timothy’s life (or yours, or mine).
So how does Timothy stand firm? He wages a good warfare by the words which have been spoken to him. He speaks those words into the atmosphere, and reminds the devil of them. He takes the word of God in the Bible and speaks those also.
Do you remember when Jesus was in the wilderness being tested of the devil? What did He do? He spoke the Word of God back to the devil.
It is written. It is written. It is written.
We follow after His example. When we are tempted of the devil to give up our call (and we are all called to do something), we say “It is written…”
When we submit ourselves to God and resist the devil, he has to flee from us. He has no choice.
Some have not done this and have suffered shipwreck, according to Paul.(V.19). Yet Paul reminds Timothy of the importance of waging a war with the Words of God.
That’s a good reminder for us also.
