The history of Israel is written for our instruction. Are we those who are teachable in this hour? Periodically, there were kings who responded. Not all the kings responded, but at times there were ones who did.
Looking at it from our perspective today, we can say in a general way that the northern kingdom—those who had left the Lord and were doing their own thing—is representative of the apostate church. It is where man is in control and is doing his own thing. They used the name of the Lord; the northern kingdom still used God’s name, but they did not listen to Him. They did not do what He wanted them to do. They simply went their own way.
But within the southern kingdom, there were times of returning to the Lord and revival. In general, it stayed in a weakened condition because it would get strong and then recede. There were ebbs and flows.
Comparing that with today, it is probably more like our days of the Laodicean spirit. There is a lukewarmness going on today, and the Lord is calling us to be revived and to overcome in the midst of these things.
But in times of declension, what is the Lord looking for? In times when there are those departing from Him, what is He seeking?
The key verse we have been considering is found in 2 Chronicles 16. This gives us a glimpse into what our wonderful Lord is doing, what He is seeking, what He was doing then, and what He continues to do now. We are so thankful for that.
If we look at 2 Chronicles 16:9, it says:
For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth,
that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.
Throughout these times of declension in the history of Israel, even though there were ones falling away, the Lord looked upon those who had a heart for Him. He saw them, and He responded. He came in and strengthened them, blessed them, met them, and encouraged them. That is what He desires to do in our day and time too.
As we look back at the history of Israel, we know that the standard by which the kings were measured was David. That can be a comfort to us, because David was a great king. But David was far from perfect. He had his faults, but that did not disqualify him from serving the Lord.
We are thankful that we have our faults too—often we have our faults. But praise God, because of the blood of the Lamb, it does not disqualify us. We can repent as David repented, come back, and continue on. That is a great encouragement.
David’s wonderful testimony was that he was a man after God’s own heart. In the kings, we see that the testimony of those whom the Lord was able to use for His purpose was that they did right in the sight of the Lord. They had a heart toward the Lord, and they did right in His sight. They were living not only for themselves, but for God’s heart and His purpose.
We can find great encouragement as we look at these kings. In the midst of difficult circumstances, all they had was a heart for the Lord. That opened the door for God to come in, meet them, strengthen them, move through them, and bring about times of recovery.
As we look at the church today, we are in a time of declension. In these last days, we all have to confess—and it is pretty easy to do so—that we, as God’s people, are not where we should be.
We are thankful for all we have received and for the great blessings we have. But if the Lord asked any of us, “I have given you all of this. Are you where you should be?” we would all come up short. But praise God, that does not disqualify us. In His longsuffering, wonderful lovingkindness, and mercy, He continues to respond to those who have a heart for Him.
Throughout church history, we see times of great departure and darkness, whether in the Middle Ages or whenever. When God found ones with a heart for Him, He moved, He responded, and He brought about recovery. But, similar to Israel, tragically throughout church history there has always been this ebb and flow, this back and forth.
Today, God is looking for ones who will respond to His heart and purpose. The question before us is: Where are we? That is why we have been looking at these kings. In His great way, God has a simple call to us: return to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Him. That is all He is after. He is after us returning to Him.
Fortunately, each king stands on his own, so we do not have to go back and review all the kings. Last time we looked at Hezekiah. His testimony was that he did right according to his father David. He went back and allowed David to be the standard of his life.
In times of declension, who is our standard? We are thankful that we have only one: our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the standard. It is not man, tradition, or ritual. Christ is our standard.
Hezekiah did many good things. He cleansed the country of idols, restored the temple, and restored the Passover feast. But then there came a time of crisis in his life, when the Lord said through Isaiah the prophet, “You are going to die.”
Hezekiah responded by pleading with the Lord: “Look at all I have done for You. Lord, look, I have done this. I have done this. Do not make me die.” What it showed was that he was more interested in enjoying the pleasures of this earth and his earthly rule than in going to be with the Lord.
If Hezekiah had, at that moment, simply said, “Not my will, but Thy will be done,” and gone to be with the Lord, he would have ended his life with a wonderful testimony. But tragically, he lived fifteen more years.
In the life of Hezekiah, we see a great example of the contrast between God’s perfect will and God’s permissive will. During those additional years, Manasseh was born, and he became the worst king in all of Judah. He ruled fifty-five years, and it was a tragedy.
During those final fifteen years, ones came from Babylon. Hezekiah was proud of all his riches, so he opened the house of God and the treasures of Judah and showed them everything. Babylon said, “Wow,” and later Babylon came, captured all of it, and took Judah into captivity. Hezekiah did not end well, but we are thankful for the faithful time that he did have and for how the Lord used him.
Manasseh was Hezekiah’s son. We are not going to look fully at Manasseh, but 2 Chronicles 33 contains one verse that summarizes his life. You would not want this written on your tombstone.
In 2 Chronicles 33:2, speaking of Manasseh, it says:
He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the children of Israel.
Everything that God had driven out, Manasseh opened the doors and brought back in. He reigned fifty-five years, longer than any other king in the history of Judah. It was evil upon evil, and it became so bad that God finally had to deal with him.
It is interesting that God continued to speak to Manasseh. In 2 Chronicles 33:10, it says:
And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they gave no heed.
Does that verse not echo throughout the ages? The Lord is speaking to us today in many different ways. Are we paying attention? Are we teachable? Are we instructable?
The Lord continued to show His lovingkindness to Manasseh and the people, but they did not receive it. Finally, it became so bad that they were captured by Assyria and taken into captivity. But there is a little positive note in Manasseh’s life.
When he was taken captive, they bound him with bronze chains, put hooks in him, and dragged him away. Once he got to Babylon, he saw the contrast between what he had possessed and where he now was. He repented.
To me, this is a great encouragement. Manasseh was categorized as the most evil king in Judah. He had turned his back totally on the Lord. But once he came to his senses and repented, God was right there to forgive him and bring him back.
So often, when we mess up, what are the words we hear from the enemy? “God is finished with you. You have done something so bad now that God will have no use for you. There is no hope for you.”
But we can find hope in Manasseh. He came to his senses at the end of his life. It was far too late for the consequences upon Judah to be avoided; they still had to occur because of his sins. But on a personal basis, he was brought back to a place of bowing the knee before the Lord and trying to do good for Him.
I find that such a great encouragement, because I wrestle at times with these things. When you really sin and mess up, the bombardment of the enemy’s accusations can be so intense. It causes you to want to give up. “It is useless. How can I ever keep going on? I have done this, and everybody else in the fellowship is so perfect. They are all saints, and look how nice they look, but I am so yucky. I cannot ever go back to a meeting. I am a sinner. I cannot have fellowship with people who are so righteous.”
The enemy bombards us with all these thoughts, and at times we give in to them. But praise God, hopefully and eventually we come to our senses, and God is right there.
As soon as Manasseh humbled himself and turned his heart back to the Lord, God was there to forgive him. He restored him, brought him back, and he continued on. He was never the king of Judah that God would have desired him to be, but he learned in old age. May we learn from that. There is great encouragement there.
Fortunately, now we can move on to Josiah. During the latter, better years of Manasseh’s reign, Josiah was born. In 2 Chronicles 34:1-3, we are introduced to Josiah.
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem.
And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.
For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images.
We see how, at this young age, Josiah already began moving forward. It is a wonderful testimony. I love how it says of Josiah in verse 2 that he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. He was a man of purpose.
He was captured by a vision. We talk about vision, and vision captures you and keeps you on the right course. When you have a certain purpose, and that purpose has captured your heart, things may try to pull you to the left or right, but you do not pay attention to them. You stay focused: “This is what I need to do. This is where I am going.”
Nothing can come in and pull you aside—not evil, sins, or even good things. Family, friends, traditions, and circumstances can all pull us in different directions. We have seen that in the lives of these kings. They were pulled by family members, traditions, and the circumstances in which they lived.
But Josiah reminds me of our Lord. It was as though he set his face toward Jerusalem and was going there. Nothing was going to distract our Lord to the left or to the right.
Now remember, Josiah was not perfect. These kings are examples and pictures for us; they have their faults. But in general, the Lord’s testimony of Josiah’s life was that he did not turn aside to the left or right. He stayed focused.
This is so important in this hour: that we be those captured by God’s heart. What is upon His heart? What is His purpose? What is His vision? Where are we going? What are we pursuing?
Are we always turning this way when something else comes along, then going that way? During one season, do we go one way, and during another season, another way? What is our purpose? Where are we headed? This is what is so precious in Josiah.
Josiah became king at eight years old. We see a great contrast between Josiah and Joash, who became king at seven years old.
The testimony of Joash was that he did right all the days of Jehoiada. Jehoiada was the priest whose wife saved Joash from being slaughtered. She took care of him and raised him up, and then the time came when Joash was made king. Jehoiada walked with him all the time.
The tragic thing about Joash was that he never established his own personal relationship with the Lord. He was dependent upon Jehoiada; he was always dependent upon a man.
But Josiah, at a young age, began to seek the God of his father David. He had this heart, and he was seeking to establish his own personal relationship with the Lord.
We see the necessity of having a personal relationship with the Lord and not relying upon others. We are thankful for brothers and sisters and for those who have gone before us. We can be encouraged and strengthened by them, but we cannot become dependent upon them. Our dependency is on the Lord.
This is the great contrast between Josiah and Joash. Josiah developed a personal relationship with the Lord. I really cannot emphasize strongly enough the absolute, vital necessity—particularly in these last days—of having the Holy Spirit work within our lives to establish that personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. That is what gets us through to the end.
It is absolutely essential. You can use whatever word you want—vital, necessary, essential—but the only way we will make it through in these days is for each one of us individually to have that personal, daily, intimate relationship with Christ.
We do not need to fool ourselves. It is pretty simple, brothers and sisters. The Lord’s desire is that we return to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Him.
We can search for many things and become fascinated by many things within Christianity. But unless we have this personal, intimate, daily relationship and walk with Him, we are not going to make it through all the way.
I am not saying we lose our salvation. That is affirmed by the table we have just taken. But as far as entering into the joy of the Master, entering into everything He has for us, and entering into the blessing and goodness of His purpose—this Christian life is not rocket science. It is having a daily relationship with Him.
That is what it is about, and that is what we see in Josiah. It is the fundamental reason why we can say that he succeeded and was faithful while Joash failed. Joash never entered into that relationship. But most of these kings who were used by the Lord knew whom they believed, walked with Him, and as they went on, saw more and more of His heart.
Just as Hezekiah had a heart for all of God’s people, so did Josiah. When Josiah became king, he went not only throughout Judah but also throughout the northern kingdom of Israel, cleansing idols.
Josiah was a sign of the times for God’s people in that hour. We talk about signs of the times in terms of earthquakes, fires, and everything going on. But those who knew God’s heart, when Josiah was raised up, knew that something was happening. They knew that God was getting ready to do something.
Josiah had actually been prophesied of by name three hundred years before. Turn back to 1 Kings 13. This is right after the nation of Israel was divided into the northern and southern kingdoms.
Jeroboam, king of the north, wanted to keep the people of the ten northern tribes from going to Jerusalem in the south. So he built two golden calves—one in Dan in the north and one in Bethel in the south—and told the people they could worship there instead of going to Jerusalem.
The Lord sent a man of God to Jeroboam at the beginning of this division. In 1 Kings 13:1-2, we read:
And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Beth-el: and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.
And he cried against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord; behold, a son shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall they burn upon thee.
That prophecy was literally fulfilled in Josiah’s time. He went up, destroyed those altars, burned everything, and they were destroyed.
Those who had knowledge of God’s heart were awakened. When there was suddenly a king named Josiah, they said, “Wow. This is a sign to us. God’s time of judgment is coming to an end here. God is getting ready to do something.”
They did not know all that would happen concerning captivity, but during Josiah’s time, those who had a heart for the Lord recognized that this was a man of God, prophesied of by name and raised up by the Lord for a specific purpose.
This challenges us: Do we know the signs of the times? We are not merely looking for prophetic events. We are looking for when God sends a sign to wake His people up.
One thing I think God is trying to do with the church in the United States, through many hardships and many things going on, is simply wake us up. He is saying, “Hey, I am coming back. I am returning soon. Wake up.”
Whether we are talking about natural disasters, apostasy within the church, or the many other things going on, it is God’s cry of love to us: wake up and recognize that we are living in the last days, in the time before our Lord’s soon return. Are we going to be those people who respond and wake up?
There is a great cry to the people of God in this hour. We often think of the Lord as the One who has a still, small voice, and we are thankful that God has a still, small voice. But God does not always use that still, small voice.
The prophet Amos shows us that God roars. God is roaring; He is crying out to His people. In Proverbs, Christ—wisdom personified—is in the streets shouting. He is on the street corner shouting to the people, “Do not go this way; go that way. That is a path of death.”
We are thankful for the still, small voice, but at times God also shouts at us and roars at us because we are asleep. He is trying to wake us up. They are shouts of love, roars of love, to awaken His people to the day and time in which we are living, and to return us to simplicity and purity of devotion to Him.
Are we responding, or are we simply continuing to go on? Thank the Lord, there was one like Josiah who responded.
Josiah continued on and began restoring the house of God. As he had it repaired and cleansed, they discovered the Book of the Law. This is in 2 Chronicles 34:14.
The Book of the Law had been put aside by Manasseh and his son Amon. The people had no regard for the Lord’s Word at that time. This shows us how far Judah had fallen from God. The Word of God had been totally displaced, with no use or value at all.
But praise God, in 2 Chronicles 34:19, Josiah heard the words of the Book of the Law, and the Word of God captured his heart. There was an authority and a reality in those words. It brought about a crisis in his life.
He saw how these words had been forgotten, and it totally changed his life. He humbled himself. The Word of God became the authority in his life. Even though he was king and had all worldly authority, his encounter with the living Word of God brought him under a greater authority.
As I was reading that, the question that came to me was, “Mac, when was the last time the Word of God impacted your life?” When was the last time that, as we were reading the Word, it really hit our hearts, penetrated us, and captured us?
Would that we be those who have that encounter every time we are in the Word, because He is so jealous to speak to us.
It reminded me of Isaiah 66:2. After speaking of how mighty, powerful, and creative God is, the verse ends:
But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word.
Would we be those trembling at the Word of God in the right way—seeing its power, authority, and reality?
When Josiah saw this, he reached out to the prophet to seek confirmation and to understand what was happening. We have seen the influence prophets had upon each of these kings.
If we use this as a pictorial example, the prophets speak of the Holy Spirit. They speak of the voice of the Lord, the Spirit of God speaking into His people. This is why the prophets are of such value.
Josiah reached out and allowed the prophet—the Spirit of the living God—to speak and confirm the Word, because he knew its value. Josiah lived during the time of Jeremiah, and they had a close relationship. That is why, at Josiah’s death, we see Jeremiah’s lamentation over him.
Habakkuk and Zephaniah also prophesied during the days of Josiah. Josiah placed value upon the prophetic word, upon what we would call the Spirit of God speaking and confirming His Word.
Through the prophetess Huldah, God confirmed His Word. Lo and behold, God used a woman to confirm His Word. It is wonderful how the Lord uses not only prophets but prophetesses.
We do not know much about Huldah, but she was faithful. When God called her, she was there to solidify and validate the Word of God. Through the messengers, Huldah told Josiah, “Yes, what you read in this Book is true. Judgment is coming. But because you have humbled yourself, it will not happen in your days. It will happen after you.”
Because of the sins of Manasseh, judgment would come upon the southern kingdom of Judah. At this point, we see a great contrast between Josiah and Hezekiah.
When Hezekiah learned that judgment would not come during his own days, he was thankful. He said, in effect, “Thank the Lord that judgment is not coming in my time.” But he did not care for the people. Judgment would come later, but at least it would not fall on him. It was a self-centered ending to his life.
But when Josiah was told that judgment would come upon the people, though not in his days, he was thankful, but he was concerned for the people of God. He said, “Judgment is coming. What am I going to do? Sure, it is not going to happen during my time, but how about these other people? How about the rest of God’s people?”
In 2 Chronicles 34:31-32, Josiah gathered the people together. It says that he made all who were present stand with him. It is a forceful word. He was the king; it was not a voluntary thing. He made them come because he wanted everybody there to hear the Word of God. He had a heart that they would be saved.
He saw what God was going to do and knew that the only hope for the people was to hear, repent, and humble themselves before the Lord.
That reminds me of the phrase in Hebrews: “It is still called today.” What a comfort that is. It is still called today. There is opportunity for God to work in each and every life. As God’s Word goes out, there is still opportunity for us to respond. It is not too late.
One day it will not be called today. It will be too late. But praise God, now it is still called today, and there is opportunity for us to return to Him.
Josiah brought all the people back, shared the Word of God with them, cried out to them, and they celebrated the Passover in a marvelous way. They had this wonderful celebration because he knew that this was the starting point for recovery.
The Passover speaks of the person and work of Christ, of all the aspects of the cross of Christ and what He has done. Just as we took the Lord’s Table today, it is a marvelous testimony.
I was reading Brother Sparks, and I am going to borrow from him. He was talking about the Passover and comparing it with the Lord’s Table. He spoke about the “allness” of it. Sparks comes up with these words—the allness of it.
He said the Table is all-inclusive. The Passover was all-inclusive because all are welcome. At this Table, all are welcome. There is a place for each and every one of us.
It is not only all-inclusive, but all-uniting. There is no other basis for unity than the finished work of Christ. That is what unites us.
It is also all-corrective. It addresses every sin and issue of life. There is nothing that the work of Christ at Calvary, as we remember Him at that Table, did not address. It is all-inclusive, all-uniting, and all-corrective.
What a place to start in the recovery process. Praise God today, Christ is our Passover, and He has done a great work. The enemy may say, “It is hopeless. There is no way,” but Christ says, “Yes, I am the way.” We can press on in Him and come into all that He has for us.
This was what Josiah saw. He called all the people together and cried out that they would respond, that they would at least hear. Whether they were teachable or not, we do not know. We do not have many individual examples. But there was an opportunity. The Word of God went out, the Spirit of God went forth, and everyone was there to hear the glorious gospel.
Sadly, at the end of Josiah’s life, in 2 Chronicles 35, he went out to fight the king of Egypt. The king of Egypt was going to fight the king of Babylon, but for some reason Josiah decided to go out against Egypt.
The king of Egypt said, “God has sent me out not to fight against you, but to fight against this other king.” But Josiah would not listen. No reason is given for his actions, but it is a sad ending.
After Josiah’s death, one of his sons reigned for three months, and Egypt came in and took over. Later Babylon invaded, took the treasures, took everything back, and Judah was taken captive into Babylon. This was their low point.
We know this was the seventy years that Jeremiah prophesied, during which they were in Babylonian captivity. But our encouragement throughout all of this is the Lord. He is faithful.
Even in times of apparent hopelessness, the Lord was in control. During the first exile under Jehoiakim, they took Jehoiakim and the young men into Babylon. Do you know who went with that first exile? A young man named Daniel was taken away.
During the second exile, under Jehoiachin, the young men were taken into exile. Do you know who went with that group? A young man named Ezekiel. Both Daniel and Ezekiel were born during the reign of Josiah.
We do not know much about their background, but I wonder whether, when Josiah called all the people together to celebrate the Passover, there were godly parents who responded to the Word of God and trained young Daniel and young Ezekiel.
In the midst of tragedy, God was still able to prepare ones who could respond to His Word. I believe Daniel and Ezekiel had godly parents who cared and trained their children in the right way, even in the midst of declension and judgment.
We are thankful that both Daniel and Ezekiel were used by God during that time of judgment to preserve those in captivity, encourage them, and prepare the way for the Lord’s recovery work later, as we see in Ezra and Nehemiah.
It may look as though God is not in control, but as Daniel declared, the heavens do rule. Daniel knew he was there with a purpose. Ezekiel, in the place of despair, living in Babylon and having to prophesy those prophecies, also bore witness that the heavens rule.
This is a great encouragement and a great challenge to us: that we would be those who really respond to God’s call while it is still called today. He is crying out to us with a heart of love.
As we have been looking at these kings, we have been encouraged by how they responded in times of declension. We learn many lessons from their faithfulness and also from their failures.
Some people have said, “Mac, you have been talking about these kings, but I thought you were going to encourage us, because a lot of the kings are pretty discouraging.”
Well, our encouragement is that God is faithful. Our encouragement is in Him. We learn lessons, and we are taught by those who have gone before us. Yes, they encourage us somewhat. But where is our true encouragement? Where is our true strength? Where is our true comfort? It is in the God of all comfort, the God of encouragement.
That is what we see in the midst of all this: God is faithful, and God continues to work. Even when there were ones turning their backs upon the Lord, He was continuing to work. He was preparing ones who, at the right time, would come forth.
We are without excuse, and the Lord is calling us in this hour to respond.
In conclusion, I have tried to summarize these necessities for recovery. I always find it a challenge when you try to summarize things like this, but seven is a good spiritual number, so I came up with seven. Whenever you are doing anything, you want seven or twelve. Those are two big numbers, okay? Twelve would not fit on there.
The first is the most important: we need that personal, intimate relationship with Christ that we talked about earlier. That is the very foundational thing. It is the absolute necessity.
We need a living relationship with Him, not merely knowledge about Him, not merely knowledge of His teachings, and not merely participating with other saints in His gatherings. We need to have a living relationship with Him.
You might be able to tell that I really enjoy Proverbs. One of the most tragic sayings to me is in Proverbs 5, where the writer says, “I was almost in utter ruin in the midst of the assembly.”
We would think that if you are in the midst of the assembly, you must have a good relationship with the Lord. But we can find an artificial encouragement and artificial strength merely from being with brothers and sisters. Our true sense of strength and encouragement is in having that personal relationship with Him.
We do not want to deceive ourselves by thinking, “I am doing pretty good just by being in the midst.” The Lord wants that living relationship with Him.
Very close to that is number two: having a heart for the Lord and His house. This is the matter of vision. David was the man after God’s own heart.
We see how, when a king was used by the Lord, one of the first things he did was focus upon the house of God, the place where His name dwells. It was the testimony.
Today, brothers and sisters, the place where the Lord’s name dwells is among His people. We desire for the testimony of Jesus, the testimony of His name, to shine forth and for us to press on into all that He is after.
The rest are simply numbered; they are not a ranking of one being more important than another. They are all interrelated and essential. The third necessity is the cross.
One reason we see these things as necessities is because we see the enemy’s great attack upon them in this hour. It is not politically correct now to talk about the cross or about denying yourself. You are told, “You are a Christian. You have a right to feel good. You have a right to live a good life. You have a right to do what you want to do.”
No, the Lord says you do not. He says, “In Me, I will be your exceedingly great reward.”
Most of the time, as we look through these kings—and if we are honest, as we look at our own lives—the troubles we have come when we say, “I want my will and not Your will.”
We need to be those who pray, “Lord, not my will, but Thy will be done,” that You would receive Your rightful place within our lives.
We need the cross—not just the teaching of the cross or the concept of the cross. When we speak of the cross, we are not speaking merely of the historical cross. We celebrate the historical work of the cross every Lord’s Day, that work Christ did two thousand years ago, and we are thankful for that.
But we also need the cross working daily in our lives: the living cross, active in dividing soul and spirit, separating our desires from His desires.
Then we come to the reality of the Word of God. When we come into that reality, it places a new authority over us.
The Word of God is greatly challenged today, but it gives us the basis for all our daily decisions. It gives us the wisdom of what is from Him and provides an absolute standard. We are not talking about man’s opinion.
It is sad that you can hear people say, “Yeah, I know the Word of God says this, but I think this.” Wait a minute—there is a problem there. When the Word of God says something, it really does not matter what you think.
In a Bible study, sometimes it is hard to say that bluntly. But we often say, “Oh yeah, the Word says this, but I think this is what it means.” No. The Word of God says this. There is an absolute authority there that we need to return to and allow to work in reality within all our hearts and lives.
Next is the matter of prayer. It is not so much a prayer of asking, “Lord, help me. Give me this. Give me that.” Rather, it is prayer as the position of being utterly dependent upon Him.
It is prayer that refuses to lean on our own understanding, but declares His sovereignty, declares that He is on the throne, declares that the heavens do rule, and declares that He is the Mighty One. There is an utter dependence upon Him.
This is what goes on during times of recovery.
Number six speaks of having a whole heart for the Lord. This is the matter of consecration.
There are two aspects of this. First, we must not compromise with various circumstances. We see how certain kings compromised and did things that were a total abomination.
We do not need to be those who compromise. There is such a spirit of relativity and compromise: “Let us just get along.” No, we cannot. There are certain standards God has established, and we cannot compromise.
Second, in consecration there is separation from the world. There is a dividing between what is of the Lord and what is not. We need to be those who make a clear stand, truly separated unto Him.
Finally, there is having an ear to hear what the Spirit says. We use the term spiritual exercise, but it means allowing the Holy Spirit freedom to work within us.
The Lord always has His prophets speaking to us. The Holy Spirit is always speaking to us. He is calling us and crying us back to Himself. But are we those who are teachable and correctable in this hour? This is what He is looking for.
This is not a checklist. These are lessons that we learn from history, necessities set before us as we live in days of declension. Are we going to respond? Are we going to live according to what He has called us to?
Whether we use the term that we have lost our first love or that we are living in lukewarmness, the Lord is crying to us to return to Him—to that place of simplicity and purity of devotion to Him.
As we have looked at these kings, we pray that we would find Him as our true encouragement and allow Him to meet us and draw us back into all that He desires. God desires that His church be strengthened in the days and times in which we are living.
He is jealous that there would be those who overcome in the midst of our present situations. He has made every provision for us in Christ Jesus, in His Word, and through the Holy Spirit.
He has roared out to us in this hour. May we be those who respond to the call of God upon us in these late days.
Lord, we are so thankful that You are a God who continues to cry out.
Lord, we are thankful that even when we are unfaithful, You are faithful. We are thankful for Your wonderful faithfulness. We are thankful, Lord, that You have called us and chosen us unto Yourself.
Lord, You have made us a people set apart unto You. We pray that within our hearts we would be those who are teachable, that we would have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church in this hour, and that we would cooperate with You.
In Jesus’ name, amen.