June 8, 2008
" In returning and rest will you be saved; In quietness and confidence will be your strength." (Is 30:15)
| INTRODUCTION TO WEEK TWENTY-TWO | |
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INTRODUCTION TO WEEK TWENTY-TWO
This week, we continue to press in during WEEK TWENTY-TWO of our 40 Weeks of Prayer and Fasting, to offer prayers of repentance for the sin in the church, the sin in the nation, and the blessing of Israel.
We now address these areas:
1. SIN IN THE CHURCH: THE FRUIT OF JEZEBEL: (Part One)
2. SIN IN THE NATION: NATIVE AMERICAN ISSUES (V)
THE SIN OF BROKEN TREATIES
3. THE BLESSING OF ISRAEL: LEADERSHIP CRISIS
| SIN IN THE CHURCH: FRUIT OF JEZEBEL (Part One) | |
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REPENTANCE FOR SIN IN THE CHURCH:
THE FRUIT OF JEZEBEL (Part One)
Through Jezebel's manipulation, intimidation, and control the church of Jesus Christ has:
A. FAILED TO DISCERN THE TIMES - Church is unaware of the seriousness of the hour; we are fast asleep.
· Hosea 4:1-6-People perish for lack of knowledge
· Eph. 5:14-17-Awake thou that sleepest
B. EMBRACED THE LUST OF THE WORLD/HAS A FORM OF GODLINESS
· Hosea 4:7-12-A spirit of whoredom is inside the church
· 2 Tim. 3:1-5-Men are lovers of self, covetous, boasters, proud, unthankful, unholy, high-minded . . .
· Rom. 1:18, 28-32-Men are haters of God, holding truth in unrighteousness
C. FAILED TO LOVE GOD WITH HEART, SOUL, STRENGTH AND MIND
· Luke 10:27 - Failed to love God and neighbor
· Rom. 12:9,10,16; John 13:34,35 - Failed to walk in pure love of the Father within the Body of Christ
· John 14:15,21,23 - Failed to demonstrate love through keeping of commandments
"Father God, as we have read through this teaching, we thank You for searching our own hearts to see if there be any wicked way within us. We ask You to forgive our sins, as You reveal them to us, and to help us to be transformed more and more into Your image - Christ within, the hope of Glory. In Jesus' Name. Amen."
| SINS OF THE NATION: NATIVE AMERICAN ISSUES (V) | |
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REPENTANCE FOR THE SINS OF THE NATION:
NATIVE AMERICAN ISSUES (V):
THE SIN OF BROKEN TREATIES
According to the Word of God, the breaking of a treaty or a covenant between two nations brings a curse upon the land. In the Book of Second Samuel, the Bible records that the Israelites had sworn a treaty to protect the Gibeonites-a treaty that was later broken by King Saul:
"Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, 'It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites.' So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; the children of Israel had sworn protection to them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah." (2 Samuel 21:1,2)
Looking to our own land and our own history, the Native American tribes are actually each a sovereign government-governments which our own U.S. government has had to recognize since our inception as a nation. And clearly, the land on this continent belonged to those Native American tribes. As our nation was founded and then grew in size, each time "the white man" moved west to claim land, a treaty had to be signed between the Native Americans and the U.S. Government allowing them to do so. Tragically, each time that treaty was ultimately broken.
This pattern of making and breaking treaties has continued for hundreds of years until, by now, every treaty that our government made with the Native American tribes has been broken. NONE were honored; and neither were the Native American peoples, either.
Prayer:
"Father God, we ask You to forgive us for the breaking of treaties, and the many atrocities we have perpetrated against the Native American people, both as American citizens and as Christians, too. Only You, Lord, know the great and deep pain we have caused these people; and only You, Father God, through Your Shed Blood, can forgive us for this sin and bring healing, renewal, hope and salvation to Native American men and women all across this land. We ask You to remove the barriers that the enemy has built between us; and take down the dividing wall that even exists today between the "white man" and the "Indian."
"Let all the guilt, anger, shame, remorse, revenge, hurt and pain associated with these acts be swept away through the washing of the Blood of the Lamb; and teach us how to demonstrate Your love and Your amazing grace to the Indigenous Peoples of the United States of America. We ask all of this in Jesus' Precious Name, amen and amen."
As the Native American chiefs once smoked the peace pipe with American settlers and soldiers, trusting them to honor their sovereignty, we grieve that that trust was then broken. We now claim Eph. 2:14- 17, asking our Lord to bring healing and true peace between us:
"For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near."
Amen.
| THE BLESSING OF ISRAEL: LEADERSHIP CRISIS! | |
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THE BLESSING OF ISRAEL:
LEADERSHIP CRISIS!
"Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before them. . . . I will restore your judges as in days of old, your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City." (Isa 1:23,26)
Thank you for praying for the leadership crisis in Israel! As we wrote in our last Prayer Alert it is always impossible to predict what will happen in Israel and the Middle East. Right now, however, it seems like the days of Prime Minister Olmert are numbered, and that there will be new national elections in Israel later this year.
This is an incredibly important time to pray for Israel. The nation is at cross roads. We can see from countless examples in history that in the third generation after a new beginning, the leaders usually become corrupt. This is where we are right now in Israel. We need to pray for leaders according to the instructions given to Moses in Exodus 18:21 "able men, such as fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain".
The crisis with Iran and their proxies, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and all the other Palestinian terror groups, is real and very serious. Israel desperately needs the kind of leadership listed in Exodus 18. Let us pray with faith and perseverance.
Moreover, the nations are right now pressuring Israel more than ever to divide Jerusalem and the Land of Israel and give up its God given inheritance. This is a sure recipe for disaster. It is a very serious time indeed and we need to stand in the gap and pray for divine intervention on behalf of Israel. We must pray that He will raise up leaders in Israel who will not give in to the pressures from the nations.
· Pray that God will raise up new, righteous leaders in Israel free from corruption!
- "I will restore your judges as in days of old, your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City." (Isa 1:26)
· Pray for "able [leaders], such as fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain"!
- "Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers." (Ex 18:21)
· Pray for leaders who will not give away more land to terrorists!
- "In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves; and they will devour all the surrounding peoples, on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem will yet again dwell in their own place, even in Jerusalem." (Zec 12:6)
· Pray that the spirit and power of Elijah will reveal the Lamb of God!-
"The next day, he saw Yeshua coming to him, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! . . . for this reason I came immersing in water: that he would be revealed to Israel.'" (Jn 1:29,31)
God bless you as watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem!
Lars and Harriet Enarson
The Elijah Prayer Army
| Song of the Week | |
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SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER
"Pray continually." (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
Words: William Walford - 1845
Music: William B. Bradbury - 1861
BACKGROUND:
The words to this hymn first appeared in The New York Observer, September 13, 1845, accompa nied by the following, written by Thomas Salmon:
"During my residence at Coleshill, Warwickshire, England, I became acquainted with W. W. Walford, the blind preacher, a man of obscure birth and connections and no education, but of strong mind and most retentive memory. In the pulpit he never failed to select a lesson well adapted to his subject, giving chapter and verse with unerring precision and scarcely ever misplacing a word in his repetition of the Psalms, every part of the New Testament, the prophecies, and some of the histories, so as to have the reputation of "knowing the whole Bible by heart."
'He actually sat in the chimney corner, employing his mind in composing a sermon or two for Sabbath delivery, and his hands in cutting, shaping and polishing bones for shoe horns and other little useful implements. At intervals he attempted poetry. On one occasion, paying him a visit, he repeated two or three pieces which he had composed, and having no friend at home to commit them to paper, he had laid them up in the storehouse within."
"How will this do?" asked he, as he repeated the following lines, with a complacent smile touched with some light lines of fear lest he subject himself to criticism. I rapidly copied the lines with my pencil, as he uttered them, and sent them for insertion in the Observer, if you should think them worthy of preservation."
To enjoy this wonderful hymn, go h ere.
| A Closing Thought . . . | |
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HOW TO KEEP FROM BEING DECEIVED:
by Derek Prince
Four Safeguards - Protection from Deception
This week: HUMBLE OURSELVES
The first safeguard is contained in 1 Peter 5:5b-6:
"God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. . . .
I believe the first essential requirement is that we humble ourselves. The Bible says, God resists the proud. So, if we are trying to come into the presence of God but we are proud, we may push but He pushes against us - and He pushes harder than we can. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God will make us humble. God always puts the responsibility upon us to humble ourselves. It is a decision we have to make. No one can make it for us. People can pray for us and preach to us, but we have to make the decision to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt us in due time.
I have already said that I believe pride is the greatest single problem, the most common problem and the most destructive problem. We saw earlier that pride goes before destruction. If we do not turn back from the way of pride, our end will be destruction. However, I find a very helpful and inspiring passage in Psalm 25:8-9:
Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.
The humble He guides in justice.
And the humble He teaches His way.
It is the grace of the Lord that He is willing to teach us sinners at all. But God enrolls His students, not by their intellectual qualifications, but by their character. A lot of people may go to a Bible school or a seminary, or whatever else, but never be enrolled in God's school, because God only enrolls the humble. The humble He guides in justice ... the humble He teaches His way.
The King James says, the meek. I find that meek has dropped out of the modern translations. What is the difference between humble and meek? As I see it, humble describes your inner attitude; meek describes the way you express it. Perhaps we do not need the word meek very much nowadays because there are very few people to whom it applies! There is usually a reason when words drop out of contemporary usage.
[Next week: Second Safeguard -- Receive the love of the truth]
| Who We Are | |
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