Devotions

Some Christians seek guidance for the smallest daily decisions. If you want to know whether to buy a brand of toothpaste, God would say to you, “Just be sure to brush every day.” There are certain things we don’t need His explicit guidance for, because we already know to do them by what we read in His Word.

Recently, I was in Turkey near the border of Iraq, praying about how World Challenge might help in the refugee crisis. People were fleeing the violent persecution by ISIS and flooding into the area, but the U.N. wasn’t present to provide any order. The need was overwhelming as desperate people arrived with nothing but the clothes they wore. I talked to one young boy who had seen his parents blown up by an ISIS landmine. I couldn’t imagine the trauma this child had been through.

On the flight home I prayed, “Lord, would you have World Challenge provide help here?” I immediately felt a holy conviction surging through me, saying, “Why are you praying about this? You know to help!” I realized, “Of course World Challenge is supposed to be here. We have the hope of the gospel, and we will pray in God’s resources to help. That has always been this ministry’s DNA. Feed the hungry? Bring comfort to the suffering? Make a difference in an orphan’s life? Why do I need to pray? Let’s go!”

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me” (Matthew 25:35-36, ESV).

Make no mistake, I believe in prayer for guidance. But because we are God’s sheep and we know His voice, there are certain things we know to do. One of them is this: “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you” (James 1:27, NLT).
 

I love the mental picture of Jesus the Good Shepherd putting the lamb on His shoulders and carrying it to safety. I love the story of Christ feeding the hungry multitudes with bread and fish. And I marvel at the sight of Him bursting out of the tomb alive on Resurrection morning!

But there is one picture of Jesus that, frankly, doesn’t seem to fit. I wonder why God even put it in the Bible.

“On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, ‘Is it not written: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of robbers”?’” (Mark 11:15-17, NIV).

“The atmosphere of My Father’s house,” Jesus seemed to say, “is to be prayer. The aroma around My Father must be that of people opening their hearts in worship and supplication. This is a house for calling on the Lord.”

I do not mean to imply that the Jerusalem temple, built by Herod the Great, is the direct counterpart of our churches today. God no longer centers His presence in one particular building. In fact, the New Testament teaches that we are now His dwelling place; He lives in His people. How much more important, then, is Jesus’ message about the primacy of prayer?

The feature that is supposed to distinguish Christian churches, Christian people, and Christian gatherings is the aroma of prayer.

Does the Bible ever say anywhere from Genesis to Revelation, “My house shall be called a house of preaching”? Does it ever say, “My house shall be called a house of music”? Of course not. The Bible does say, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

The honest truth is that I have seen God do more in people’s lives during ten minutes of real prayer than in ten of my sermons.

Jim Cymbala began Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson and a frequent speaker at the Expect Church Leadership Conferences sponsored by World Challenge throughout the world.

Isaiah foresaw the humiliation of Satan. He also watched as God brought down all the power and pride of wicked principalities. “In this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill” (Isaiah 25:10).

Isaiah makes it clear: Satan’s humiliation happens on the mountain, in the place of prayer and worship, where Christ’s presence is manifested. Moab here was an actual enemy of Israel. But it became a symbol representing all that was evil and satanic.

Peter preached that Isaiah’s vision was already being fulfilled in the church at Jerusalem. “Those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:18-19). Peter reasoned that if the prophecies about Christ had been fulfilled to the letter, then all other prophecies would come to pass. And that included times of refreshing by being in the Lord’s presence.

Isaiah referred to such times of refreshing (see Isaiah 28:12). These are times when God chooses to revive and heal. And He does it not because we’ve earned it, but for the glory of His own name. Peter saw this fulfilled at Pentecost: Christ’s presence was manifested, bringing revival and refreshing to a crowd of thousands. Multitudes were set free, including whole families. We see this later when Peter brought Jesus’ presence into Cornelius’ house, and the entire household was saved.

Right now, I believe we’re in the very beginning of the last reviving. We’re going to see families brought out of captivity. Millions of backsliders will have their veils removed and wayward sons and daughters will be restored to their parents.

What is our part? We’re to do as Daniel did when he read Jeremiah’s prophecy and discerned the times: “I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” (Daniel 9:3). Daniel did what we’re all called to do: come to God’s holy mountain. May every devoted servant of Jesus Christ in these last days meet there!
 

In the coming days, many are going to come under the power and presence of Christ. Those who return to Him fully—who repent, forgive, and feast with Him in prayer and in His Word—will see all their tears turned into joy. Around the world right now, vast rivers of tears are flowing from those who’ve already been set free. After centuries of satanic bondage, people are being loosed from chains and they are crying tears of repentance and praise to their Deliverer.

Isaiah prophesied that when we begin to see God’s miraculous works in our midst, we’ll cry, “And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isaiah 25:9). Isaiah was so excited by what he saw, he nearly exploded in amazement.

“The rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth” (Isaiah 25:8). The word rebuke here comes from a Hebrew root suggesting “railing, disgrace.” This speaks of satanic powers that mock and rail against devoted believers. Such attacks come mainly when we are praying for a loved one to be rescued from a demonic stronghold.

Maybe you have heard these railing rebukes from hell. They taunt you, saying, “You boast that God answers prayer. Well, where’s His answer? You’ve fasted and prayed for your child for years, but you still haven’t gotten through. After all this time, nothing has changed. He’s never going to get saved.”

Then you hear this accusation: “It’s your fault. You planted the seeds of rebellion in that child (or that friend or loved one). It was you who hardened his heart.” Beloved, this is the devil’s foremost rebuke against God’s people and we are never to listen to it. Instead, we are to stand on God’s sure Word to us: “The rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth” (Isaiah 25:8)
 

“He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations” (Isaiah 25:7).

Here are two marvelous prophecies, the first of which involves the Jews. The veil Isaiah refers to here is the spiritual blindness that had covered Jews’ hearts since Moses’ time. The apostle Paul speaks at length of this blindness:

“When [they] shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:16). “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. . . . There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Romans 11:25-26).

Paul believed what Isaiah prophesied about Israel: that the Deliverer would cast off their veil of blindness. A Jewish remnant was going to turn to the Lord and obtain His mercy (see 11:30). Beloved, this prophecy is being fulfilled right now. Around the world, Jews’ eyes are being opened to Christ. One secular magazine reports that Jews are now taking a new look at Jesus. That’s all it takes—just one look.

But Isaiah’s prophecy also has another meaning, which has to do with your immediate family. It applies to every spouse, every child, every family member who has had a veil of spiritual blindness cast over them by Satan. I receive many letters from parents who write of their children being blinded by the enemy. They raised their young ones in a Christian environment but now the parents are confused and bewildered, saying, “I don’t understand what happened. They just don’t believe. Nothing I say gets through.”

Paul says the god of this world has blinded these young ones. They’ve lost faith because the enemy has shut out the light of the gospel to them. Therefore, it doesn’t do any good for a parent to try to look deeper for a reason behind it. It’s all the work of Satan. He wants to keep that child bound, confused and in sin. The problem goes way beyond counseling, preaching or parenting strategies. It’s going to take a miracle, plain and simple.

Our battle must take place in the Spirit. After all, we’re up against a spirit from the god of this world. And that wicked spirit is affected only by our feast on the mountain. It’s going to require the presence of Christ in our lives such as we’ve never known it. Only Jesus’ manifest reality will melt Satan’s bondage like wax, rendering it powerless against our loved one.