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This is a day of great challenge in our world and in our nation, calling
for much wisdom, discernment, prayer, compassion, and strong confidence in
the Lord. "By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted..."
(Proverbs 11:11). God is with us ~ Emmanuel! The Body of Christ turned
America around November 2, 2004. I felt that God's people were like
under-cover agents, operating unseen in spite of the media coverage, which
made things seem as if they were going the other way. I remarked to
someone, "God's people are just being quiet, for they will move on
November 2 and they will 'cast' instead of speak!"
The Lord kept saying to me from Psalm 24, "Lift
up your heads, O ye gates, and the King of glory shall come in!" I asked
God what He meant by that. He explained to me that when the King of glory
comes in, He comes to rule, to reign, and to show forth His authority. He
comes to show that the government is upon His shoulder, not upon anyone
else's. I saw Jesus standing in the Atlantic upon the eastern
seaboard outside of Washington, D.C., waiting for you and I to do what He
wanted us to do, so that He could come into America to save her, and to
bring the glory of God upon America. Jesus wants God's people and God's
work to be notable and honorable in the USA. Jesus, the King of Glory, has
come in to reign in the United States of America.
Hannah, Samuel's mother from the Book of First
Samuel is an extraordinary example of one who knew how to "take hold of
the horns of the altar" and prevail with God. That which began in her
heart, expressed in prayer, birthed Samuel, who became one of the great
men of God in the Old Testament. He rose up and laid hold of the blessings
of the Lord for the nation of Israel at a time when Israel had lost her
way with God. Let us reconsider this wonderful example and think on our
nation, and the nations, knowing that our God is able when God's people
pray!
I began to trace Hannah's steps. As the Book of First
Samuel begins, we find Hannah in a predicament because "...her adversary
also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up
her womb" (1 Samuel 1:6). Hannah's community perceived her as cursed, for
to be barren was recorded in scripture as a curse of God. Her personal
desire to have a child was going unfulfilled, causing her sorrow, and in
the face of those things she was also being mocked and severely persecuted
by Penninah, her husband's other wife! This caused her humiliation,
ridicule, and reproach.
The enemy's design is to create humiliation and
reproach in the lives of God's people. Even in this day, we so often look
at others that are going through things, and fall into criticizing them by
saying, "Where have they gone wrong that this is happening to them?" It
may well be that they haven't missed it at all, but because they have done
something right God is working deeply within them to create and to make a
change in order to bring about that which is even better than what we can
imagine, ask for, or think about. That is what is happening here with
Hannah.
The enemy desires that any happening in our lives
or in the life of our nation will cause us to look away from our Saviour
and King and His plans and purposes. We cannot afford to be consumed unto
distress and distraction with people and circumstance, for we only endure
as we, like Moses did: as seeing Him Who is invisible, by looking at God
Himself. As Penninah threatened to be a distraction to Hannah, today
in this world there are many voices competing with the voice of God. Some
come through the media, others through our circles of influence, and even
through loved ones - from every direction! That is why it is so important
to hear the voice of the Master and to do what He is telling us to do.
Jesus said that His sheep would not heed another voice, but would
recognize the voice of the true Shepherd (see the Book of John Chapter
10). His voice is the voice of love and compassion, and is ever peaceable
and true. We will recognize His voice out of the midst of all the rest.
Let God lay the pattern down for your life ~
including your prayer life ~ for it will not be exactly like any other's.
The direction for your life in God does not come out of the soulish life
(of the natural mind, will, and emotions), either yours or others for you,
but out of the spirit-man, the new creation in Christ within you. It is
the same with prayer. The Holy Spirit came to lead us and guide us into
all truth. Many voices clamor for recognition but only God knows what He
would have you to recognize and to pray for in the discernment of His
Spirit, in the way He alone can lead.
When we face a predicament, the next step is to
do as Hannah did. She responded to her predicament by pouring out her soul
before the Lord, as she explained to Eli the priest in verse 15, "I am a
woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink,
but have poured out my soul before the LORD. Count not thine handmaid for
a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief
have I spoken hitherto."
This is the way Christ poured his life out on the
cross. God wants His people to pour out their souls (in the Greek it is "psuche")
before Him in prayer including griefs, complaints, hurts and fears -
whatsoever is of concern. Tell the Lord all about it! "My soul, wait
thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and
my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my
salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God
is a refuge for us. Selah" (Psalm 62:5-8).
Psalm 61:2 says, "From the end of the earth
will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock
that is higher than I." We must go ultimately to God Himself. We need one
another, and there are times the support and counsel of a friend or a
colleague is invaluable, but the bottom line is that we take it to God ~
One on one ~ to get the final word and to obtain the blessing of God's
intended result. The Lord will reciprocate by responding to you,
strengthening you and directing your thoughts. He will lead you to stand
firm upon the Rock of Ages with His perspective that rises above the
tumult and establishes you in stability of mind, judgment, and God
inspired behavior. Hannah did not strike out against Penninah. Penninah
could not give her a baby, nor take it away. Only One could give her a
baby by removing the barreness. His Name is God. We do not wrestle with
flesh and blood.
On Hannah's behalf, God inspired Eli to speak the
answer of the Lord to her. Eli said, (paraphrased), "Ok, if you are not
drunk, go in peace then, and the God of Israel grant you thy petition that
thou hast asked of Him." This is a very important juncture. Note God
spoke a promise to Hannah in response to her prayer. Then Hannah received
the promise of God spoken through Eli before it actually came to pass. In
verse 11 we read that Hannah in return makes a promise to the Lord. She
believed so completely that her prayer was answered, and that a male child
was coming, that before it came to pass she promised this man child to the
Lord! Will you and I do that? Before it ever comes to pass, will we
believe Him to that degree that we know it is going to happen, so that
when it does happen, we will do thus and so?
In making a promise to the Lord, Hannah was serious and
in a desperate time. Desperate times bring on seriousness. This
seriousness transpired into persistence after God, which fueled a
supernatural event that impacted the nation of Israel at that time, and it
continues to impact us today through the Word, and through the influence
of Samuel's life that changed world events and so every event thereafter.
You and I have to be persistent in what we want God to do for us.
I see throughout God's Word that many saints prayed not
just one time, but until they knew that they had taken hold of the Lord
and were assured within themselves of His answer. Pray until God speaks to
you that it is going to happen. Pray and do not give up! God did not set a
limit upon the amount of times to address Him concerning something. In
fact, Matthew 7:7 encourages us to, "Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye
shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." The literal
translation in the Greek is, "Ask and keep on asking and you will keep on
receiving, seek and keep on seeking and you will keep on finding, etc."
Hannah's predicament caused her to ultimately overpower
the threat against her. The Bible says that Hannah began to fret. "Fret"
in the Hebrew means to become "violently agitated." Have you ever come to
the place where you have put up with something long enough but you are not
going to put up with it any longer? You have become violently agitated,
resulting in your "putting your foot down." Matthew 11:12 tells us, "The
kingdom of God suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."
"Violence" means "to overpower" in the Hebrew. You will have to overpower
self and overpower the enemy. The enemy tries to tell you that you cannot,
but you can because you are born of God. God is within you and He is
greater than the enemy and greater than your flesh. You can do it.
"Violence" also means "to compel" and "to press oneself into with energy."
The Lord spoke to me so strongly saying, "press" is the word for today.
What are you thinking? What are you saying? What are you
doing?
In First Samuel 1:10 the word "prayer" in the
Hebrew is "palal" and it means "to judge." We could say, as the people of
the Lord, "I am going to judge this situation, and I am not going to allow
this." When a judge judges a matter, he lays down a sentence ~ a course of
action ~ according to the judgment he renders. Judging a matter involves
thinking a matter through and rendering a decision, a course of action.
When you are a Christian, you render the decision based upon the Word of
God, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the counsel you believe is
godly. We must judge things in the Lord, and decide if we want things to
be one way or the other.
As we apply this to prayer we see that prayer
involves what we think and the course of action we ultimately decide upon,
which then shapes what we speak forth. In Acts 14:19, Paul was laid out as
one dead, and the apostles judged the situation unto LIFE trusting God and
forming a circle of life around Paul that enabled God to impart His life
to Paul! The Lord said to me, "If My people will pray every day for one
another, they are literally in the spirit putting a circle of life around
each other. Prayer creates a wall that is impenetrable to the attack of
the enemy. He may attack, but through prayer it can be turned and
sometimes it can even be headed off way beforehand so that it never has a
chance to rise up."
God can both inspire our prayers and reciprocate as we
pray. Be sensitive to His presence in prayer. Thank God also for Romans
8:26:"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not
what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."
Perhaps in the aftermath of 9/11 and hurricane Katrina
we are more aware than ever in this nation that security comes from God
alone. Jesus Himself said, "Don't you make the judgment and say the tower
of Siloam fell upon those people because they were wrong and you were
right." Hope in God, be tender to His voice looking to Him in the midst of
painful predicaments, for He alone is God.
We overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of
our testimony, and by loving not our own lives even unto death! It is no
longer we that live, but Christ lives in and through us. We give up the
struggle with the people or the circumstances that stand in opposition to
our lives by releasing all to God, saying, "I am not god over this, God
is!" Go to your Source!
God is working something in, through, and around
you, so receive His Promise concerning the situation. You cannot bring to
pass His part. Becoming frustrated over results is fruitless! The results
of your prayers and obedience belong to God. Our lives, and the life of
this nation and the nations, depends upon God's people doing their part in
prayer and obedience so that in response, God can do His part. Remember
these words of our beloved Savior:
"If thou canst believe, all things are
possible to him that believeth"
(Mark 9:23).
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