Luke 6:12-13 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
In these days, we have to pray for wisdom! In the letter of James, the Lord’s brother, he writes, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally…” [James 1:5] The context for this request is trials! Since this is a time of almost constant trials, God knows we need His wisdom, more than ever.
As a minister and watchman, I’m often asked what I expect to happen, and what is my advice for it. I can say one thing for sure; the world situation is extremely volatile, with shifting paradigms, and we absolutely must get God’s individual and personal wisdom to navigate these last days.
Yeshua (Jesus) Himself spent a lot of time in prayer. You might think He didn’t need to do that since He was in constant fellowship with his Father, anyway. But it’s clear He needed to get away to concentrate on that relationship and to listen carefully and intently. If the very Son of God needed that time in prayer, how much more do we?
Luke reports that the Lord spent all night in prayer before He chose His disciples. Apparently this was a prerequisite for one of the most important decisions He had to make. Take it to heart; important decisions should NEVER be made without committing yourself to God in prayer, and the more significant the decision, the more concentrated time you should spend hearing God’s mind on the issue.
Make sure you are seeking the Lord for wisdom in these days, to be led of His Spirit, especially when decisions are before you. Rely on His promise to grant you wisdom generously, as He will to all that ask. Perhaps, in the past we’ve made bad decisions because we neglected to seek Him in prayer. We didn’t ask, and thus failed to receive His wisdom. This time, and every time, from now on, follow the Lord’s example…
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Continuing our study on prayer I want to emphasize the confidence we can have as we approach the Lord. The exact moment we move toward Him to pray, we are exercising faith….which immediately pleases Him. He knows that we need His mercy and grace, and because He constantly intercedes on our behalf, we can be assured He will hear us and respond. Our approach is not based on our own merits, but on His righteousness and mercy. Having been tempted at all points as we are [Hebrews 4:15], His identification and understanding enable us to approach His presence with bold confidence.
The Jewish leaders of His time rejected Yeshua (Jesus) when He first came. He didn’t meet their expectations. They were expecting a Messiah who would bring relief from the Romans, restore the Kingdom of David, and usher in an era of tranquility throughout the world. It is probable that their intense jealousy of Yeshua blinded them to the numerous passages in the Tenach (OT) which describe Messiah as a suffering servant, since they were certainly aware of those passages.
This weekend, the Jewish people will celebrate the festival of Purim. This holiday commemorates Israel’s amazing reversal in Persia during the reign of King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) when Queen Esther and her uncle Mordecai gained victory for the Jews and protected them from annihilation at the hands of the evil Haman.
Over two decades ago, when I moved to Israel, I had the opportunity to spend considerable time with a pastor and his wife. This pastor imparted significant wisdom to me during that period, counseling me to “be like the children of Issachar,” he directed me to this specific passage in 1 Chronicles 12.
Over the past few days, I’ve been discussing the will of God and how to walk out His will daily in our lives. The Lord’s general will involves the development of our character and the ways in which we relate to Him and to our fellow man. Much of this is the same for every believer. But each of us is unique, and each has a potential life vision unlike any other. God has an individual will for every soul that belongs to Him, an individually shaped destiny which varies according to our gifting and calling and purpose in His Body.
The word for “restitution” in this passage is the Greek word – “apokatastasis”. This is the one and only place it is found in the New Testament. The word literally means to “restore again” or “to repair”. The plan of God in sending His Son Yeshua (Jesus) was to restore that which had been broken and ruined. The Lord’s saving work is a global repair job. Each one of us has come to Him already ruined by sin. But God’s will and His promise is to restore and renew us through His Son.
As God worked on creation for six days and rested on the seventh day, so our seven day week is established on that pattern. If, as the scripture declares, with the Lord one day is as 1,000 years and 1,000 years as a day, then the seven-day cycle also finds expression in a great historical “week”. As we approach the 1,000-year reign of the Messiah, this “millennium” as it is called, (described in some detail in Revelation chapter 20), is clearly understood as a time of global rest, peace, and righteousness throughout the Earth.