My heart is stirred for our Nation, and indeed the Nations! It is time to wake up, rise up and speak up.
We point our finger at the Prime Minister/President, Government, politicians, public services – NHS in the UK/healthcare in the USA, Police and Schools for their failings, the list goes on… In our private lives we do the same, pointing the blame at the circumstances we find ourselves in, a partner or someone else; the blame game continues endlessly. Whilst we do this, three fingers point back at us and one up to God. We, God’s children, we the Church, cannot abdicate our responsibility!
2 Chronicles 7:14
“IF my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I WILL hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.”
What a promise God has given to His children to appropriate for the nation they live in and for their lives. A promise with a wonderful outcome. A promise requiring our responsibility. A promise God opens with a question and closes with answers for our world today… “IF MY PEOPLE…” Whether you are reading this from England, within Europe, America, Africa, Middle East, India, Asia, Australia…. child of God rise up and take your stand for the Land God has placed you in. God has given us – His Children – the nations; they belong to God, to righteousness, to blessing and goodness; take back what Jesus paid for with His life blood – let us not simply let evil reign and have it’s way – that dirty devil lost his rights at the cross!
Psalm 2:8
“Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.”
There is a secret for us to capture here in 2 Chronicles 7:14. In the Hebrew language the number 7 is the number of completion and perfection. The number 14 is double 7 – double portion. This verse contains God’s ability to make perfect that which concerns us – as Saint Augustine once said:
“Without God we cannot, without us God will not”. Saint Augustine
He has chosen to work through us, His Church, His Children on earth to show His power, love and wonders to the world He loves. This verse contains the ammunition to bring God’s completion and double portion blessing, double for trouble as I often say, to our lives, marriages, families, businesses and nations – it starts with you and I…. “IF MY PEOPLE…”
There are three keys contained here; are you ready to journey this verse and unlock some doors of revelation with me?
Key 1 – “If My people who are called by My name…”
Knowing who and who’s you are will give you the confidence to rise up in your God given authority. My children are called by my name, well my husband’s name actually, the name he also gave to me when he married me. I always want to uphold that name and not bring shame and disgrace to him, the husband I love, and I hope our five children feel the same way. When we give our lives to Jesus we are given a new name – the old things pass away and He makes all things new in our lives. My married name may be ‘Field’ but as I step out daily into this world I smile in the face of every adversity to know I bear a higher name – I like to think of it as ‘Godchild’ – nothing and no-one can mess with you or I when we know we are ‘God’s Child” and that we bear His name over our lives – know you are a child of God and win! We carry the force of heaven everywhere we go, angels work and war on our behalf, we may feel small but we walk tall when we know who is behind us.
It is important we know this truth in order to walk in total authority and confidence. This is the “God kind of life” that empties hell and makes the devil tremble. Notice God placed the responsibility here not on Governments, public services, or on the people who don’t know Him but on those who are called by His name. Are you God’s child today? Do you bear His name? Can you hear Him say:
“Rise up – take responsibility – transformational power is within you to move mountains, bring heaven to earth and nothing shall be impossible for you – only believe and receive Heaven’s mandate over your life today”!
If we see need in our nation or around us, even in our own lives, He requires those who are called by His name to rise up by the power of God’s word and bring His right into all that is wrong. Church of Jesus Christ and child of God we have been given quite a commission. Take this first key and unlock the door to health and wholeness in your own life first and turn this key to unlock blessings as you pray for those around you and over the nation you live in!
Key 2 – God calls us to “humble ourselves and pray”
Prayer is purely communicating with our heavenly Father and releasing God’s desires, solutions and miracles all around us. You can pray anywhere – God just wants to hear your heart and reality, whether that is in the car, in bed at night, grocery shopping – make prayer (constant communication with your Heavenly Father) a continual way of life. A constant and continual open communication line to our God has been made accessible to all who come to Him through Jesus – let’s not waste it. Let the divine exchange begin…
To humble ourselves and pray is to turn from our ‘wicked ways’ of self dependency, self reliance, self indulgence, our own methodology and acting like we are God over our destinies. As we continually acknowledge our need and dependency on the one true God – the maker of heaven and earth, our Father and Creator; we will live expansive lives and see God’s Kingdom expand as miracles explode on the earth. It is time for us to realign with God’s ways and heavens ways and not expect God to conform or be confined to our ways and methodology.
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
I have heard the call to humble myself and pray. In some cases that means sacrificing what I thought was urgent and vital for me for what is really important. Perhaps that requires getting up early to pray, giving up some sleep or time on Facebook to read God’s Book and seek God’s face…! As a married couple, my husband and I have heeded the call – we pray together and as we do we know we are saying to God we need your help and strength daily for our marriage, in our home, finances, business, for every decision we have to make, for our children’s’ total protection, health and well being. We humble ourselves daily coming together to pray knowing we cannot do one moment of this life without Jesus at our centre and in every intricate working of our world.
There is prayer that is convenient and then there is prayer that is inconvenient. For some, praying together may feel embarrassing – inconvenient and uncomfortable at first but stay with it. Getting up a little earlier or sacrificing sometime elsewhere for some power packed time with God may feel inconvenient and uncomfortable but it will become the most convenient and comfortable part of your daily life, infact it will become your vital necessity and greatest joy – stay with it!
Key 3 – God Calls us to “Seek His Face”
During the worship at our home Church, Soul Church, on Sunday morning, my ten year old son Joel came up and wrapped His arms around me. I cuddled him close and together we continued to worship. I became conscious of being watched and looked down to see Joel’s beautiful eyes “seeking my face” lovingly and adoringly, with his lips puckering up at me.
In that moment I sensed God speaking to me:
“It is possible to be so close to people, and even think you are close to me, but if you do not turn to see the face of the one you are with, you can miss the kiss”.
I stooped to kiss my gorgeous son on the lips, held him a little tighter to me and realised in that moment you don’t get much closer or more intimate than this. God is calling His children to a deeper level of love and intimacy with Him where we will lovingly seek His face and as we do our Heavenly Father is about to shower such kisses of favour and breakthrough over us, His children, that we will not have room to contain His blessings. I hear the Spirit of God saying “expect overflow as levels of intimacy grow”. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you – He’s longing to. Intimacy is a key to answered prayer, the miraculous and breakthrough.
“May God grant me out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit Himself indwelling my innermost being and personality.” Ephesians 3:16 (Amp)
MAY DAY…MAY DAY…!” God says “It’s time to pray”!
Do you hear the S.O.S. calls going out all around you? I heard them from Grenfell Tower as the flames spread like wildfire engulfing lives and homes. I heard them on the streets of Europe; in Paris, Germany, Brussels, in the heart of Manchester and London as terror struck. I heard them in the turmoil caused as the government in England reeled from unexpected Brexit and election results and the USA was in shock at the appointment of former business person , not politician, to POTUS Donald Trump. I heard them in the cries of a friend fighting cancer…. the cries are deafening, they seem endless, surely you can hear them too?
We live in unprecedented times – the cries are everywhere and yet the answer – wisdom, healing, strength, comfort and miraculous solutions are right there. We, God’s children cannot turn away….”May Day… May Day…!” Will you join with me, turn to Jesus, humble yourself and pray? God provides us with the answers whilst at the same time asking of us, His children, the vital question:
“IF my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I WILL hear from heaven and WILL forgive their sins and heal their land.”
There is no time to hesitate – healing for Nations, divine restorations, breakthroughs and miracles await, as we, God’s children, take up our heavenly mandate….
OPTIONAL PRAYER
Father God, we acknowledge our need for you in our lives, homes, families and nations. Forgive us for self reliance, self dependency, self interest and self indulgence. Make us God conscious and others conscious – we hear the cries and answer your call. We say yes to you and yes to your ways. We say yes we will humble ourselves and pray. We say yes to your invitation for intimacy and turn from every worldly distraction to seek your Heavenly face. We say thank you for we know you hear us, answer us, and pour out upon us and our Nation your forgiveness, grace, healing, protection, favour and restoration. In Jesus mighty name, Amen.
