The Night

"But the path of the righteous is like the light of the dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The way of the wicked is like the darkness; they do not know over what they stumble." PR 4:18-19

Cockroaches rule the night and run from the light. While living in Houston, Texas I discovered they can become so large and so bold that they can develop an attitude. When I would turn on the lights in a room, they would not run. They would just look at me and at the light with an arrogant disdain. I accepted the challenge and stomped on them.

The Senators in Washington, D.C. who voted against ending tax payer support for Planned Parenthood ran from the light of the truth. With the stark evidence staring them in the face, they stumbled over it. Accustomed to the darkness, they are no longer able to see the difference between light and the night.Their decision reveals that they have morphed into cockroaches void of moral courage and character. Their arrogant disdain for the bodies of living children being torn apart and sold for parts must not be ignored or allowed to pass as politics as usual. This is a watershed moment for you and your nation.

Pray for those in the Senate chamber who had the courage to turn the lights on. Pray for them to have the stamina to keep the lights on until the eyes of this nation can see this betrayal of the rights of the innocent. The soul of a nation is at stake.

Turn to The Light, and invite Jesus to shine into the darkest parts of your heart, and into the highest offices of the land. Jesus is The Light of the world. Run to Him and let your light shine. When you walk in The Light of His Presence you need not fear the dawn. The next Great Awakening is only a prayer away. Are you straying from it or praying for it?

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Confidence

"Do not be afraid of sudden fear nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes; for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught." PR. 3:26

There is nothing like the feeling that can be ignited by a sharp word or a painful thought, when it penetrates the thin skin of your man-made firewall. When your very soul is torched with the searing sensation of sudden fear, it is always too early to panic. It is never too late to pray. Don't place your confidence in your eloquence or your endurance. Place it where it belongs, "for the LORD will be your confidence."

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Shield

"For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice, and He preserves the way for His godly ones." PR. 2: 6-8

Character is built by knowing the right thing to do and having the courage to do it at the right time. A life of wisdom is not filled with the regrets of "wouldah, couldah shouldah." Sound wisdom comes from listening to the sound of the Lord's voice. Standing upright, next to The Champion, provides courage because it provides cover. "He is a shield" reminds us to walk in step with Him, and never rush in where even angels fear to tread. Justice is a matter of giving God enough elbow room to make things right even when everything is going wrong. Fools take matters into their own hands. The Wise place every crisis, large and small, into God's hands. As they yield to His pace, and His will, they become shielded by His Presence.

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The Reverence

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom & instruction." PR. 1:7

The mission statement of an independent fool is, "I did it my way." The Wise are not self-righteous "know it alls." They simply never get over their daily dependence upon God for His direction, protection and correction. They approach Him with wonder-filled, bold, humility relying on His Word, not their prejudices, and preferences to guide them. Prayer is the posture of a humble heart. Prayerless people are prideful fools. Despising wisdom and instruction begins by refusing to bend weak knees before Almighty God. It leads to ignoring His Word. The power of prayer is not found in your eloquence, but in your reverence for His Presence.

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The Prophet

"Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy." PR. 31:8-9

Proverbs is filled with a father's advice to his sons. It served kings as a training manual for their next generation of leaders. Perhaps Proverbs has no greater words of wisdom than these shared by a mother with her son. They contain a timeless challenge for those given a platform to speak truth in the public square and for those who exercise influence within the halls of justice. Those who cannot speak for themselves have the right to be heard. Those who are afflicted and needy have the right to be judged without prejudice. These words not only voice the heart of a mother, but they reveal the mind of God. Many pulpits remain silent to the cries of infants being ripped apart from their mothers' wombs. In a fearful attempt to protect the non-profit status of the church, these self-muzzled preachers create a non-prophet institution. Don't be one of them.

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The Unbridled

"Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law." Prov. 19:18

God's Word describes vision as divine revelation, your source for His prophetic sense of direction needed in a world filled with foolish advice. Those who say you cannot legislate morality have never read God's Word. Happy and blessed are synonyms. You are blessed by living within the bounds of God's commands. You are cursed by choosing to ignore them.

Disobedience is driven by the false hope in your own right to choose wisely without any guidance from God. Fools choose unbridled lawlessness as their road to happiness. They court disaster by crashing through God's warning signs at every cliff they see. The Wise seek God's counsel and take His advice. Are you happy?

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Compass

"An arrogant man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered." Prov. 28:25-26

There are few words that can drain the soul like, "There is nothing else we can do." When the doctor left the hospital room, I turned to my 93 year old father, and tried to express what he was facing. With a calm voice, and a peaceful countenance, he said, "I sensed things were different this time. We can still trust God. Will you pray for me?" I did my best, but I can't tell you what I said. My heart was all over the map, and tears were all over my face.

Dad's compass was pointed in the right direction. Over a life-time of faith he always turned to the immovable, Presence of God, and put his trust in Him. One of Dad's favorite sayings was, "The best is yet to come." He often said it while seated in his prayer arbor swing, facing the rising sun. He would smile, and whisper, "Someday Someone wonderful is going to come from that direction. I want to meet Him. On April 22nd of this year, Dad did.

It is so foolish to believe, there is nothing else we can do. We can always trust God.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Intervention

“O Lord, I beseech You, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your Servants who delight to revere Your name, and make Your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man.” Nehemiah 1:11

Nehemiah served in the court of a pagan king, providing protection from poisoning and personal security to the monarch, but His Sovereign was Almighty God. He appealed to the Sovereign Lord of Creation to influence the heart of a king who had the earthly power to provide relief to the cries of God’s people on earth.

Nehemiah turned to intercession as the primary means of inviting God’s intervention into the affairs of man. With our own nation in crisis, we should do no less.

“…Be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayers of Your servants who delight to revere Your name…”

Intercession is an expression of great personal concern being pointed towards God calling for His intervention. Still, it is a form of spiritual delusion on the part of any prayer warrior to believe, in the midst of the battle, that they fight alone.

Nehemiah didn’t allow himself to be deceived by the clamor and the chaos of the crisis. He called on God to be attentive, not only to his prayers, but to all the prayers of His servants. Nehemiah reminds us of those who take great delight in revering God’s name. His words bring great comfort in the midst of the battle.

The power of intercessory prayer is not found in eloquence, but in reverence. Listen carefully to the prayers of people and you can discern very easily the difference between those who “delight to revere Your name” and those who are trying to make a name for themselves. Nehemiah was only interested in lifting up and honoring the name of God. Pray like him.

At a recent prayer event I attended, one man couldn’t resist the temptation to slip his website into his remarks. He did it twice. He was more interested in connecting the people with himself than he was in connecting the people with God. At another prayer event, men who were given the responsibility to intercede, couldn’t resist a hot microphone, and succumbed to the tempter’s snare to address the audience with a few well-chosen remarks before entering into a conversation with God. It was disappointing to me. More importantly, it was grieving to the Holy Spirit. This foolishness needs to stop!

Being eloquent before men is not always being reverent to God. Answered prayer is not concerned with being heard by men. Intercessory prayer becomes answered prayer only by being heard by God.

Putting God on hold before you pray does not revere His name. It is an insult. Warming up the crowd with a fit of eloquence does not warm up the heart of God. It is irreverence.

Nehemiah was interested in God’s undivided attention, not the attention of man. Though he was a cupbearer to the king of a great empire, before he placed his request for aid before a man of earthly power, he pointed his prayer to the source of spiritual power, Almighty God. Follow his lead.

This is the great need of the day, men and women of Issachar who are able to discern the times for a nation in crisis. They will not only make the effort to intercede for God to intervene. They will be willing to take their intercession to the next level and be instruments of God’s intervention.

Nehemiah entered into intercession, and became an instrument of intervention. As a cup-bearer to the king, he held a position of privilege and responsibility. It was not an accident, but a Divine appointment.

The privilege of intercession led him to take personal responsibility for the intervention that was needed. His burden for his nation left him tearful over the condition of His people and fearful of the consequences of intervening. He could lose his job, and his life. He did it anyway. Thank God he did.

Nehemiah prayed for God to intervene in the heart of one man before he spoke one word to him. Nehemiah didn’t lean on his own eloquence or confidence to create compassion in his heart for the cause of God’s people. He turned to God. Nehemiah’s prayer appealed to God, to move the heart of the king to express compassion. Without asking, God moved in Nehemiah’s heart to create great courage. Prayer always does.

NOTE TO SELF: God may place a burden on your heart and call you to intercede for a specific person or a specific need. Don’t be surprised if he uses you as a personal instrument to carry out His plan for intervention. Encourage pastors and key lay people all over this nation to pray for their country to turn back to God. Pray for them to be willing to be instruments of His intervention in this nation. Nehemiah did, and God used him. The rest as they say is HIS story.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Reports

“Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear. O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.” Habakkuk 3:2

There was a time before news “journalists,” when those who delivered the news were called reporters. They didn’t invent the news. They just reported it. Those days are gone forever, but the reports keep coming, as the heads keep talking. Empty though they may be.

The prayer of the prophet Habakkuk was prompted by a report he had heard about God, and driven by the fear of God. He appealed for mercy. This is the desperate cry of a man who knew what he needed, was convicted he didn’t deserve it, and believed God was his only hope for it.

Scripture connects the dots and provides a picture of what revival looks like. It is an outpouring of God’s mercy upon people who deserve his wrath. It is a response to the humble death cries of people who know they are in a desperate condition, and they have no one else to blame but themselves.

Revival is not a new and improved work of the flesh, glorifying the achievements of an ambitious pastor and a self-centered church. Revival sets a man on fire, but it doesn’t necessarily put his name in lights.. Revival is not the result of a man making a name. It is God making a difference.

Never forget this. Revival is the work of God The prophet prayed, “…revive Your work in the midst of the years.” Those who long for revival are on their way to receiving it, when they admit they don’t deserve it, and they can’t create it.

The airwaves and news pages of this nation have been filled with bad reports for years. In recent days the level of malignant messages have spread like a cancer eating away at the soul of America. The response to these reports has been varied, yet relentless. For some the news has been joyful, but for others it has left them hopeless. The prophet gives direction to us “in the midst of the years.”

The prophet did not expect God to dilute His righteousness by minimizing His wrath. He called on God in all His holy anger to transform it into a powerful, purifying outpouring of His mercy. Mercy is healing, but it is not painless. Those who receive it are purified. Anyone who has ever had peroxide poured into a puss-filled cut knows the experience. Expect tears.

This is the very essence of revival. God descends from Heaven and by His Spirit, He walks among His people, purifying them by His undiluted Presence. When His people pray, God brings revival. Revival is God. We pray. He stays. Is your church praying for the Presence of God. The only other option is the wrath of God.

Revival is not series of meetings. It is a prolonged, outpouring of God’s mercy upon His own people, until they become saturated by His Presence. Revival pours out from the four walls of the church and into the public square when purified people are more concerned about receiving the approval of God, than they are about seeking the approval of man.

“Revival is a community saturated with God.” Duncan Campbell

Revival will be rejected by people inside the church, as well as by those outside of the church. The purification process is painful because it is humbling. Prideful people are prayerless people. Admitting failure is more painful than the failure itself. Calling upon God for mercy for your own sin is more painful than pointing out the sin in others. Revival gets personal before you get right with God. Get the picture?

NOTE TO SELF: Pray for mercy. You don’t deserve it. You need it. Pray for your nation to experience a fresh work of God’s mercy “in the midst of the years.” The spirit of desperation precedes the outpouring of revival. Pray for God’s people to become desperate enough to come to the end of themselves and the beginning of God. The wrath of God is kindled to its greatest intensity by the rebellion of His own people. Pray for the church to repent and to turn back to God, praying to Him, in the name of Jesus, these same words, “in wrath remember mercy.”

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Words

“When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before God of heaven. I said,

‘I beseech You, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.” Nehemiah 1:1-7

The Words from the recent Supreme Court decisions unleashed upon our nation an endless stream of comments spewing over the airwaves and released a floodgate of posts on social media. As the judgments of man collide with the judgment of God, cultural Christianity is being called to account for what they truly believe. The fundamental choice in life is to choose between wisdom and foolishness, between a fear of God and the fear of man. Some will choose wisely. Some will play the fool.

The purification of the church is never a pretty picture, but it is part of God’s plan for Spiritual Awakening. Those who are determined to come down on the right side of history, while landing on the wrong side of God’s commandments are in store for a rude awakening. Those who remain faithful to God’s commandments are in store for a Great Awakening. Make sure you stick the landing.

One of the least popular passages of Scripture in the Bible may very well be, “Judgment begins at the house of God.” The birth of the next Great Awakening won’t begin in The White House, the schoolhouse or the state house. It will begin at your house.

Nehemiah’s response to the words that came to him about the condition of his nation brought him to great sorrow and sadness, but they led him to personal repentance.  This is always the right response for God’s people to a national tragedy.

Fixing the blame where it belongs is the key to fixing the problem. Repentance comes from the mind of God. It is not meant to punish or shame. It unlocks the door to personal as well as corporate revival, by renewing and refreshing companionship between The Father and His children.

Nehemiah didn’t try to pray down the wrath of God on the enemies of his nation. He was moved to pray and to intercede for the people of Jerusalem. To be sure, they were suffering under the hands of their enemies, but he didn’t voice a prayer for blessing, but a prayer of confessing.

“…confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.”

The point of repentance is where the next Great Awakening begins. This is the turning point. It is not a matter of taking a nation back, but turning a nation back to God, one heart at a time. The contemporary church may try to postpone it or deflect it, but the ancient message from the book of Nehemiah calls the church to do it. Nehemiah didn’t try to blame others for the condition of his nation. He held himself accountable, and said, “I and my father’s house have sinned.”

In America, a tearless, prayerless church has presided over the creation of a form of Christianity that values style over substance, and image over integrity. Before God heals a land, He holds His people accountable to express a spirit of humility, not a spirit of independence.

Recently fireworks exploded all over the land celebrating the birth of our nation. They are always spectacular, drawing “oohs” and “ahhs” from delighted crowds of people watching in the darkness. Rockets fired into the air paint vivid, beautiful, multicolored lines upon a velvet backdrop, but they only last a few seconds.  Even so, the experience can be an inspiration. The author of our National Anthem found this to be true.

“The rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof to the sight, that our flag was still there.” Francis Scott Key

The Words heard by Nehemiah broke his heart. They drove him to prayer, but not to despair. He was desperate for a solution, not despondent over the bad report. He turned to God. This is the only way for God’s people to respond when they discover they have lost their way.

The church of Jesus Christ is not a rocket thrown into the air, to briefly light the night. The church is built upon The Rock, and called to be just like their Savior, “The Light of the world.”

NOTE TO SELF: Take the words that have come your way, and darkened your nation, and place them in God’s hands. Allow Him to shed His light on any area of your life that has contributed to the weakening of your church’s or your nation’s respect for His Word. Repent of it. Restore consistent companionship with Him. This world is dark, and His Word will still light the way home.  While you are in it, light it up. Like the old songs says, “Let it shine!. Let it shine! Let it shine!”

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!