Hezekiah's prayer

     “Thus says the LORD: ‘Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’” (Isaiah 37:6-7)

     In chapters 36 and 37 of Isaiah’s book, we read a story of one of the great kings of Judah. He was not a perfect king, nor even the most famous king of Israel or Judah, but in this crisis, he demonstrated exactly the actions you and I should take if we encounter a problem or crisis we cannot handle.

  The city of Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, was surrounded by the army of Assyria. This army had destroyed the armies and enslaved the people of countless countries under the leadership of Sennacherib, their king, to include the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Now they demanded the submission of Jerusalem or they would destroy the city and all its inhabitants. They had even come to the city walls and boasted that the God of Judah could not protect them any more than the false gods of the nations they had already destroyed had been able to save them. The situation was hopeless for Judah. Hezekiah knew that without God’s help they stood no chance against this powerful enemy who had already cut them off from their food and water supplies.

   Hezekiah tore his clothes, covered himself in sackcloth, and went into the House of the Lord and here is what he said as he prayed:

    “O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwells between the cherubim, You are God, even You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which has sent reproach to the living God. Truely, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their lands, and have cast their gods into fire; for they were not gods, but  the work of men’s hands--wood and stone; therefore they destroyed them. Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD, even You alone.” (Isaiah 37:16-20)

    Then the prophet Isaiah came to Hezekiah and gave him the answer from the Lord God:

    “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice, and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. Because of your rage against Me, and your tumult, have come to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came. Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, says the LORD. For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake, and for My servant David’s sake. (Isaiah 37:23,29,33-35)

   Then the rest of the chapter tells us how the angel of the Lord went through the enemy’s camp and killed one hundred and eighty five thousand of the Assyrian army and caused the remainder to return to Neneveh, their capital. Also, Sennacherib himself was killed by two of his sons a short time later as he was worshiping in the house of his god, Nisroch. (Read all of chapters 36 and 37 to get the complete story!)

    What crisis are you facing right now? Who is the only one who can deliver you from the enemies or problems that you face? Yes! You are right! It is only Jesus who can turn back the enemy. It is only Jesus who will carry you through the Red Sea or deliver you from the fiery furnace. 

Pray

1.     Lord deliver me from the sins that I cannot handle on my own. I cry out to you and ask you to work a mighty work in me that I might be used by You for Your purposes.

2.     Help me to remember today that I belong to You. I have been bought and paid for by Your precious blood shed on Calvary.

3.     Help me today to search my heart for someone I should be praying for who is going through a fiery trial and needs me to intercede for them and to encourage them

Come to the waters

   "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—The sure mercies of David. Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.” (Isaiah 55:1,3,6)

    The best source of wisdom is always the Holy Scriptures themselves. Read to understand. Obey, to become righteous. What will the God of the Universe, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit say to you as you open His Word and listen with  an open heart and mind to what He wants to teach you today.

Read and meditate on these Scriptures:

“All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned everyone to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not his mouth; He was led as a lamb to slaughter, And as a sheep before his shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.” (Isaiah 53: 6-7)

     “though He was  Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. (Hebrews 5:8,9)

   “knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified  with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:16,19-20)

     “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father.’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” (Galatians 3:6-7)

     "Prayer is the battle, it is a matter of indifference where you are. Whatever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray. Never allow the thought—‘I am of no use where I am’; because you can be of no use where you are not……We have to labor along  the line of God’s direction, and He says pray.” (Oswald Chambers, Utmost for His Highest)

Pray for:

1.     God’s people to be salt and light, and that we will create an appetite for righteousness in the hearts of the unsaved.

2.     A God consciousness among the lost that will cause them to seek after Christ.

3.     Your lost friends, family members, and associates by name and keep praying for them until they repent and come to Christ.

4.     A right understanding of Scripture and the power of the Word of God to change our lives and the lives of those we come in contact with.

The Devil is for real!

“Be sober, be vigilant; because you adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

   I have written earlier about the devil or Satan, and that he is a real person who does not like anyone coming to know Jesus as their Savior and will do everything he can to keep people in bondage. We in the Western world don’t seem to understand or believe in him but in most parts of the rest of the world they know him and his demons and in many places they worship them.

    In the jungles of Venezuela there is a tribe of Indians who know full well of the devil and demons existence and the power they have to control peoples’ lives. They are called the Yanomamo Indians. “The Yanomamo are one of the worlds most mysterious peoples. Small, rarely over five feet tall, they have speed, strength, and agility of a jungle cat. Their women can tote their own weight up and down a jungle trail that would challenge me even if I were empty handed. Their men can call, track, and shoot anything that breathes in a jungle that is hostile enough to kill anyone but a trained survivalist.” (Spirit of the Rainforest by Mark Andrew Riche, p7)

     In his book about the Yanomamo, Mr. Riche does and excellent job of chronicling the life of several Yanomamo shamans (witchdoctors), and one in particular known as Shoefoot. He had been raised up to be a shaman by his small tribe and learned the art of calling the spirits  (demons) to live within his chest and to take the ebene drug in order to hallucinate and communicate with these spirits.  Mr. Riche spent 13 years gathering information from the Indians that was translated by a New Tribes missionary who had lived among the Yanomamo all his life, Gary Dawson. (Known as Keleewa by the Indians.)

    Shoefoot had come to know a missionary named Pepe and had been persuaded by him to throw away his spirits and become a Christian. He dearly wanted to do what the missionary told him because he knew that what he had been told was true, but he also knew that any shaman that tried to throw away his spirits would be killed by those same spirits. This is how Shoefoot described what happened next:

       “A long way from the village Shoefoot left the trail so that he couldn’t be followed.   He sat on a cushion of jungle leaves, leaned back against the huge trunk of hardwood, and looked up at the roof of foliage over his head. ‘This is a wonderful place,’ he said, ‘but so mysterious.’

    He had talked to this new spirit, saying things he could never say with Pepe listening. Pepe couldn’t understand what we shamans knew. ‘I can’t throw these spirits of mine away,’ Shoefoot said to Yai Wana Naba Laywa (God Almighty). ‘They will kill me before they will ever leave. I’ll let you take them away if you can. But I don’t know why you would. You are the unfriendly spirit, the enemy spirit. If you have noticed or care about me, then you know I have always needed another spirit. My own spirits have told me that. If you are the spirit I need, then you will have to get rid of the others. But I can’t throw them away.’

    Shoefoot never again took ebene after that and never spoke to his spirits. He waited for them to try to kill him…… A few days later it happened, but it was not what he had expected.

     He had been lying in his hammock almost asleep when Omawa himself (Satan), the leader of all our spirits, had come to him from deep in the jungle. As he came he swooped his hand down into the jungle and gathered from it all of the sweetest smells in the world. His beauty, his power, and his sweet smell were so wonderful that Shoefoot knew right away he could never resist him. Shoefoots’ body was filled with excitement. He was important enough to be visited by Omawa himself!

    Omawa had scooped Shoefoot up from his hammock and they began to dance across the jungle. This was better than ebene or women or anything Shoefoot could imagine, even though he knew that Omawa would take him back to his spirits. Still, it was a moment that could not be resisted.

     Just as they had been about to dance forever out into the jungle, they were suddenly hit with a white light as bright as many suns, more dazzling than anything Shoefoot had ever seen. It was like the sharpest flame of lightning but it didn’t stop. The bright light stayed there, and the warmth from it filled Shoefoot with a new feeling he had never felt, a feeling of safety. It felt so good.

     Just when the light appeared a huge voice had said, ‘You can’t have him. He’s mine.’ And Omawa ran in terror! Across the top of the jungle he ran until he was out of sight. It’s him, Shoefoot thought, when he heard his voice. It is Yai Pada, the great spirit—and he’s not the enemy! He heard me when I asked him to chase my spirits away! He must be friendly after all!

   The light, the warmth, the safety, the care of the most powerful spirit—it was all too good to for Shoefoot to hold in one moment.” (Spirit of the Rainforest, by Mark Riche, pp. 215-216)

    Thus began a new life for Shoefoot as a Christian and faithful disciple of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Yai Pada, as the Yanomamo call him. What about you? Are you being tricked by the “angel of light’ that wants you to follow him rather than Jesus?  He will do whatever he can to keep you from following the only One who can make a difference in your life, Jesus Christ. He will use whatever weakness you have; possessions, pride, power, selfishness, money, sex, drugs, alcohol, or a hundred other things to keep you from serving and living for Jesus.

     “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.” (2 Cor. 11:14)

Pray:

1.     That you will be strong in the Lord and be faithful to what you have learned from the Scriptures.

2.     That you will pray for those who are battling drugs, alcohol abuse, sex addiction or involved in the occult, and look for ways to tell them about the only one who can save them.

3.     That you will put on the whole armor of God every day and stand strong against the wiles of the devil.

  

   

"But if not" and Dunkirk

   “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, ‘Oh Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.’” (Daniel 3:16-18)

    

       As an amateur student of World War II, where my father  fought and served in the U.S. First Infantry Division in North Africa, Sicily, France, Belgium, and Germany, I must admit I am looking forward to the release of the movie Dunkirk, which is to come out soon. It tells the story of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and part of the French army that was surrounded and forced to destroy all its equipment and artillery prior to being evacuated to England during the successful invasion of Holland, Belgium, and France by the German army in May 1940.

     I am sure the movie will do a great job describing the courage and determination of the British and French soldiers who fought so valiantly only to have to retreat from their precarious position. Then to be evacuated by the British Royal Navy and a flotilla of commercial and private ships and boats that answered the call to cross the English Channel to Dunkirk, France and to pull 338,000 Allied soldiers off the beaches and keep them out of German POW camps for the remainder of that long and brutal war.

      

       Some called it the “miracle of Dunkirk” and although you will not read anything about miracles in the myriad accounts of the battle and evacuation, this description of the salvation of a large part of the British army is much more accurate than one might know if you know the “rest of the story.”

    I don't remember the pastor I heard speak on this subject many years ago but he said the following about Dunkirk:  General Gort, commanding the BEF, and his army was surrounded and slowly being pushed back to the coast,  a Navy Commander on his staff sent this brief radio message to the British Army HQ: “But if not.” When the decision was made to try and rescue these soldiers with the navy, this message was also sent out to all of Great Britain for anyone who had a ship or boat to assist in the evacuation to come and help. Thousands of ship owners knew this quote from the Bible and responded to the call, some from as far away as the Isle of Man, and rallied to the beach of Dunkirk, enduring constant attack by the German Luftwaffe (Air Force). All of England knew that the commander was quoting from the book of Daniel and that he expected England to come and rescue the army, but if not, just like the three Hebrew boys in Daniel, chapter 3, they would not surrender to the Nazis. (Sadly, very few in Great Britain would know this quote from the Bible today.)

     All over Great Britain, prayers were sent up for the army and for the courageous ship captains that braved the channel and enemy fire to rescue their army. King George called for a national day of prayer and Westminster Abby, cathedrals, churches, and taverns (yes taverns) were packed with people all over Great Britain crying out for God to save the army and protect the boats going to their rescue. God answered their cry! In a small seminary in southern England Rees Howells and many others were praying for the soldiers deliverance.

    Here is an excerpt of what was happening there:  “On May 29^th Mr. Howells was again alone with God. In the meetings, the prayer was for God to intervene at Dunkirk and save the men. As the Spirit came upon them in prayer and supplication, what one prayed at the end expressed the assurance given to all: ‘I feel sure something has happened.’

    May 29 was the day of the evacuation of Dunkirk. Mr. Howells said, ‘Let us be clear in our prayer that the intercession is gained. The battle is the Holy Spirit’s. See Him outside yourselves tonight; He is there on the battlefield with His drawn sword.’

    May 30^th, 7:30 p.m. ‘From a worldly standpoint there is no hope for victory; But God has said it…..He going to intervene. Instead of bad news about our soldiers, if He is on the field of battle He can change that and make it good news. Oh, for God to lift us up tonight! We are not to run into any panic thinking the Nazis are going to win: Germany must be delivered as well an England and France. We may have to go through far greater sufferings yet, but I am not going to doubt the final issue. We state in the plainest terms: The enemy will not invade Christian England.” (Rees Howells, Intercessor by Norman Grubb, pp. 282-283)

    God answered the prayers of thousands such as these and we know now, that not only was the British army saved to fight another day, England was never invaded, the battle of Britain was won, and the Allies took the battle to Germany and ultimately triumphed over the Nazi scourge.

   “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.” (Psalms 33:12)

Pray:

1.     God guard our nation from the evil one. Help those, whom you have selected to be our leaders, to look to You and to depend upon You in these difficult times.

2.     Raise up thousands of prayer warriors to "stand in the gap" to pray for our leaders, our military scattered around the world, and for our churches to be lighthouses of the gospel.

3. Lord, help me to be one of those prayer warriors, and let me start today!

The True Gospel

“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let them be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received let him be accused. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:9-10)

  In the short book of Galatians Paul packs a lot of meat into a small box! He had brought the gospel to the churches in Galatia, which was a region in Asia Minor during this period of history. Paul had learned that although the people had accepted the gospel of faith in Jesus gladly when he and Barnabas had delivered it,  many were turning to a new doctrine based on works brought to them by other men. In the verses listed above Paul quickly makes it clear that if anyone brought them any other gospel than the one he had delivered, they were to be “accursed.” We have the same problem today in our world. We have people who have started cults, (that are called religions) that were started because “an angel” brought their “prophet” a new gospel or revelation from God. We even have churches, (that call themselves Christian), that preach another gospel than the one we get from the Bible. (Works gospel, prosperity gospel, partial gospel, etc)

    Paul lets the people of Galatia know right off the bat that he has the credentials to deliver the true gospel. “But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gal. 1:11-12) Paul has the credentials! He was met on the road to Damascus by Christ Himself, who set him apart to take the gospel to the Gentiles. Paul spent nine years in the desert of Arabia being trained by Holy Spirit to prepare him, for the mission that God had given to him, before he was called by the church in Antioch, to go out as a missionary to the Gentiles.

    Paul tells us that: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mothers womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.” (Gal. 1:15-17)

    Paul goes on to tell us that: “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:16,19-20)

   So it is by faith in Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice that we are saved and brought into a right relationship with Jesus Christ. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

  Finally today, let us look at one more thing that will bring great encouragement to those who understand and stay true to the real gospel as expounded by Paul, and the other writers of the New Testament. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then and heir of God through Christ.” (Gal. 3:26, 4:6-7)

     Do you understand the true gospel of faith in Jesus Christ and in Him alone to save you and adopt you as His son or daughter? Yes, after you have been saved by faith, you are called to do good works. But it is not the good works or the following of the law that will save you. Make sure you have your life in the right order. Saved by grace and then living for Him and being obedient to the things you learn in His word, the Bible.

   

Pray,

1.     Lord, thank you for the free gift of salvation that you have provided for me, and all who will call upon your name for salvation.

2.     Thank you for your Bible, where you can speak to me through the Holy Spirit and teach me how to live my life so that it counts for Your Kingdom.

3.     Help me to grow closer to You daily by spending time with you in the Scriptures and in prayer.