“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
God Wants You:
The Lord desires you greatly. In fact, He wants your fellowship in such an intense way that the Bible tells us that the impulse to seek God begins with Him. God knows that the human heart is not capable of seeking Him, so God gives the human heart strength to do it. We simply don’t have the hunger or desire, but God places that hunger and desire in us.
We are told in Scripture that hunger originates with the Lord Himself: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2).
That is why we are told, “Draw me, we will run after thee” (Song of Solomon 1:4). Until we are drawn by the Lord, we don’t have it in us to seek God. Therefore, the psalmist wrote, “Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name” (Psalm 80:18). He knew he had to be quickened and drawn before he could call upon the Lord.
Hunger is the sign of life in a believer. One of the first symptoms of illness is the loss of appetite. When hunger is gone, a person is increasingly open to more sickness and weakness. Real believers are hungry, and that hunger is placed in the heart by the Lord Himself, drawing you into His presence.
Three Realms of Prayer:
When we study the subject of being in God’s presence, we should always go to the source. The Old Testament gives a map for entering into His presence. That map leads us from the outer court to the Holy Place, and then into the Holy of Holies.
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
In this passage, the Lord presents three realms of prayer—the realm of asking, the realm of seeking, and the realm of knocking. Each area has a unique purpose in obtaining direct access to the throne room.
When Moses, under God’s direction, built the Tabernacle in the wilderness, he built it with three distinct areas:
Outer Court. This area was surrounded by a linen fence, and within it stood the altar of sacrifice and the laver.
Holy Place. In this room was found the candlestick, the table of showbread, and the table of incense.
Holy of Holies. Here was placed the ark of the covenant and the golden censor.
In the Tabernacle are revealed the three realms of prayer and the presence of God.
The Outer Court – the Realm of Asking
The Lord Jesus tells us, “Every one that asketh receiveth” (Matthew 7:7). Asking is where we begin and results in abiding in Christ. As He said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).
Asking begins in the outer court. This is where we make our requests known to Him: “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6).
That is where we ask and receive. That is where we come to the Lord and make our desires and needs known to Him.
It is also where we are cleansed by His blood as we confess our sins—where we find Him faithful and just to forgive us: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). For it is in the outer court that we find the altar of sacrifice, where the work of the cross and the blood of Jesus avail.
The outer court is also where we find the laver, the Word of God, and it is in this realm of prayer that we remind the Lord of His promises. We do this by asking according to His will, according to His Word: “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us” (1 John 5:14). That is why David cried, “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart” (Psalm 119:2).
The outer court, where we make requests, is where we fight the devil and our own desires. It is outside of where God is. There is no quickening power there, no presence of God there. It is a place of the altar of sacrifice and confession of sin.
Sadly, this is where too many people stop their prayers. They confess their sins. They ask for God’s help. Then they say “Amen!” and leave. They leave before experiencing the victory that is found inside the second realm, the Holy Place.
Only when we wait in the outer court, overcoming the flesh in this first realm, are we granted the privilege of advancing to the next realm.
The Holy Place – the Realm of Seeking
In the Holy Place, the seeking realm, stood the candlestick on one side and the table of showbread on the other. As the high priest entered and looked toward the veil, he would see the table of incense.
God commanded the priests to burn incense on the golden altar every morning and evening, the same times that the daily burnt offerings were made. The incense was to be left burning continually throughout the day and night as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
The incense was a symbol especially of the prayers and intercession of the people going up to God as a sweet fragrance. God wanted His dwelling to be a place where people could be drawn to approach Him and pray to Him.
God seeks before He is sought! You cannot seek God until He has sought you. We all want to seek God on our own, but beginning this process in the flesh will bring failure. We must wait until He quickens us. That is what happens when we enter into the first realm of prayer.
It is here in the Holy Place that the Holy Spirit grants you the power to seek the Lord. In we read:
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.” (Jeremiah 29:13-14)
It is in this realm that you begin to find the Lord and liberty from all captivity. It is here that God Almighty gives you illumination through His Word. It is here that you receive the truth of God’s Word. And it is also here that you will be nourished and satisfied by the promises of God, for it is here that you find the table of showbread.
Seeking the Lord, finding Him, and finding the fullness of your liberty will cause your heart to be filled with His Word. It will cause you to erupt in worship and prepare you for the greatest privilege a Christian will ever know—the knocking world.
The Holy of Holies – the Realm of Knocking
The third realm of prayer and God’s presence, the Holy of Holies, is the place of knocking and partnership with God. God speaks in the Holy of Holies. He does not speak in the outer court or the Holy Place.
The seventh chapter is one of the longest in the book of Numbers. It deals with the day the Tabernacle was fully set up, detailing the offerings. Then in the very last verse of that chapter we read these amazing words:
And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him, then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubims: and he spake unto him. (Numbers 7:89)
Moses had to enter into the Holy of Holies to be in God’s presence and to hear God speak. How glorious that moment must have been! It still is today, for the deepest form of intimacy with the Lord takes place only in the Holy of Holies.
There are no shortcuts. You have to go through the process. You have to come to the outer court and get on your knees, making your requests known to God in the first realm. It is easy to get distracted in the outer court because there is so much activity. The flesh is still in control. You get tired and worn out. You cannot hear God’s voice there, so it gets easy to give up.
Sometimes I spend an hour and a half or two hours in the outer court. You have to wait upon the Lord, asking. Suddenly you become aware that Psalm 80:18 is taking place. God is drawing you toward Him. You enter into the second realm of prayer, starting to seek the Lord. He continues drawing you. Time moves much more quickly as God allows you a foretaste of His presence, but it is nothing like what awaits you inside the Holy of Holies.
You must wait. That is the key. Most people will not. They get stuck either in the outer court or inside the Holy Place. They are distracted. They lose desire. They accept only a foretaste of God’s presence.
When you wait upon the Lord, though, you begin to experience a newfound strength: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
Suddenly spiritual strength is restored. All the tiredness you felt in the outer court and Holy Place starts to go away. You become aware that you are increasingly drawn into God’s presence. In the Holy of Holies you understand what Moses meant: “Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight” (Exodus 33:13). God shows the way so we can say with Moses, “That I may know thee.”
The third realm becomes reality, as the psalmist wrote, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). In the outer court, the first realm, we find asking and activity. In the Holy Place, the second realm, we have seeking and intercession. But in the Holy of Holies, the third realm, we experience quietness.
There His presence overwhelms me. I become soaked with tears. My heart cries out for more of Jesus, yet I don’t want to talk and break the calm. It’s the most glorious place! In the Holy of Holies you hear the language of the heart where “deep calleth unto deep” (Psalm 42:7). You become aware that you are in the presence of the Creator! Your spirit comes alive as never before!
The physical realm is the outer court. The soul realm is the Holy Place. But the spiritual realm is the Holy of Holies. It is where the flesh and soul are no longer in control. The silence is the product of abundance. You understand the meaning of the verse, “Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God” (Zephaniah 1:7). A holy hush permeates your soul. A wonderful peace floods over you, sweeping over your spirit, and overwhelms you.
The Calling to Communion:
Charles G. Finney, a Presbyterian minister in the 1800s, became an important figure in the Second Great Awakening, so much so that he was called the “Father of Modern Revivalism.” He knew amazing depths of God’s presence and wrote, “No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart.… These waves came over me, and over me, one after another, until I recollect I cried out, ‘I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me.’ I said, ‘Lord, I cannot bear any more,’ yet I had no fear of death.”
Such intense, ecstatic, intimate worship in God’s presence cannot be described with human words: “The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:20).
The Lord is asking us to come daily into the outer court to make our requests known and to receive blessing from His giving, loving hands. He is asking us to come daily into the Holy Place, seeking Him until we find Him. And He wants us to come daily into the Holy of Holies, where we can experience intimate communion with Him.
And that is my prayer for you, my friend!
Benny Hinn
http://www.bennyhinn.org/
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Building Watchman Towers of Prayer and Intercession
God is calling Christians to watch and pray. Are you on your post?
Are you building walls of religion or towers of prayer? Your answer could denote the difference between a woe-filled fate and a fulfilled destiny.
Prophets obsessed by the fear of man or unholy desires will not fulfill God’s ultimate plan. We must be careful, then, not to prophesy according to the party line in order to establish and preserve popularity in ministry circuits. If we fall into this trap we find ourselves in danger of perverting the gift of God by building walls of religion.
True prophets are not always the most popular five-fold ministry gift on the block because they are bold enough to release a word of the Lord that deals with sin or that warns the local church of potentially unpleasant circumstances coming down the proverbial pike. In order to properly carry this mantle, genuine prophets must build towers of prayer.
False prophets build walls of religion that lead people astray with fabricated edification, misleading exhortation and counterfeit comfort. “These evil prophets deceive my people saying, ‘All is peaceful!’ when there is no peace at all! It’s as if the people have built a flimsy wall, and these prophets are trying to hold it together by covering it with whitewash! Tell these whitewashers that their wall will soon fall down” (Ezekiel 13:10 NLT).
Verily, verily, the whitewashed walls of religion are going to come tumbling down in a heap of self-righteous rubble and the false prophets are coming down right along with them. Let’s not forget that Jesus pronounced woe on the Pharisaical hypocrites, calling them whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean (Matthew 23:27).
You can’t whitewash sin. You can’t whitewash religion. And you certainly can’t whitewash false prophecy. We must guard our hearts in order to maintain a pure prophetic flow and a life of prayer that will wash away the plans of the enemy instead of fortifying his deception by watering down the truth for the sake of acceptance.
True prophets may not always have the flare, charisma or appeal of their false twins, but who said they are supposed to? Jeremiah wasn’t the most popular prophet in his time, nor was Ezekiel in his day. John the Baptist had his head served up on a silver platter for warning the people of the looming decision between everlasting life and eternal hellfire. But they were the unadulterated mouthpieces of God. And so it should be.
One of the key disparities between the true and the false prophet is prayer. The Bible says the foolish prophets discussed in the 13th Chapter of Ezekiel did not stand in the gap or make up a hedge for the house of Israel so that it could endure the battle. These diviners did not intercede in prayer to protect God’s people.
True prophets, by contrast, may not win any popularity contests in the local church, but they will sacrifice to make intercession. Instead of building walls of religion, they build towers of prayer; watchtowers in the spirit that allow them to see the assignments coming against the local church. They take that revelation and use it as spiritual mortar to make up a hedge in prayer.
You can’t separate a prophet from prayer any more than you can separate an evangelist from preaching the Gospel. The very first time you ever see the word “prophet” in the Bible, it is connected to prayer. In the Book of Genesis when Abimelech took Abraham’s wife, the Lord said, “Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live…” (Genesis 20:7). So while not every intercessor is a prophet, every prophet is an intercessor.
Consider the prophets of old. They were often called watchmen. Scripture reveals three types of prophetic sentinels whose mission is to stand guard, keep watch and report what they see. We find Old Testament prophets on the walls, walking in the streets of the city and in the countryside.
“I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence…” (Isaiah 62:6) Watchmen on the walls are positioned to see far distances in the spirit and discern whether friend or foe is approaching. The watchman gives word to those in authority so they can decide whether to sound an alarm of welcome or an alarm of war. In today’s local church, these watchmen help protect against enemy attacks. Every prophet is called to this post.
“They surround Jerusalem like watchmen surrounding a field, for my people have rebelled against me, says the Lord,” (Jeremiah 4:17 NLT). This relates to the prophets in the harvest fields. Prophets have a clear role in evangelism as watchmen who protect Gospel-preaching efforts against the destructive work of principalities and powers that keep the lost from hearing the truth. Prophets should be deployed on local church outreaches and international missions to watch, guard, pull down and destroy opposition to the Good News.
“The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city” (Song of Solomon 3:3; 5:7 NIV). In today’s times, this watchman is assigned to stand guard over the Body of Christ to see emerging problems. This is a larger responsibility that carries with it a heavier prayer burden and greater implications for the Church at large.
The point is anyone who stands in the five-fold function of prophet should keep their spiritual binoculars around their neck and watch. But not just watch – watch and pray always. Anyone carrying a prophetic mantle needs to closely examine the fruit of his or her ministry. If we have prophesied peace unto popularity, then we need to repent. We need to trade in our whitewash for some substantive mortar and start building towers of prayer that will bring genuine edification, authentic exhortation and legitimate comfort to God’s people.
Let us not be foolish prophets who build our ministries on the sands of seduction for the sake of acceptance because Jehovah promises that rain will pour from the heavens, hailstones will come hurtling down and violent winds will burst forth against those whitewashed walls and expose them (Ezekiel 13:11-12).
Instead, let us build our ministries on the Rock and prophesy the mind of Christ so that when the hurricanes of religion come against the local church and when Jezebel hurls her spiritual sleet at the sanctuary and when the winds of witchcraft blow against the walls, the foundation of our ministries and our local churches will be fortified to stand and withstand in the day of battle.
Jennifer LeClaire is the editor of The Voice magazine. You can visit her online at www.jenniferleclaire.org
Are you building walls of religion or towers of prayer? Your answer could denote the difference between a woe-filled fate and a fulfilled destiny.
Prophets obsessed by the fear of man or unholy desires will not fulfill God’s ultimate plan. We must be careful, then, not to prophesy according to the party line in order to establish and preserve popularity in ministry circuits. If we fall into this trap we find ourselves in danger of perverting the gift of God by building walls of religion.
True prophets are not always the most popular five-fold ministry gift on the block because they are bold enough to release a word of the Lord that deals with sin or that warns the local church of potentially unpleasant circumstances coming down the proverbial pike. In order to properly carry this mantle, genuine prophets must build towers of prayer.
False prophets build walls of religion that lead people astray with fabricated edification, misleading exhortation and counterfeit comfort. “These evil prophets deceive my people saying, ‘All is peaceful!’ when there is no peace at all! It’s as if the people have built a flimsy wall, and these prophets are trying to hold it together by covering it with whitewash! Tell these whitewashers that their wall will soon fall down” (Ezekiel 13:10 NLT).
Verily, verily, the whitewashed walls of religion are going to come tumbling down in a heap of self-righteous rubble and the false prophets are coming down right along with them. Let’s not forget that Jesus pronounced woe on the Pharisaical hypocrites, calling them whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean (Matthew 23:27).
You can’t whitewash sin. You can’t whitewash religion. And you certainly can’t whitewash false prophecy. We must guard our hearts in order to maintain a pure prophetic flow and a life of prayer that will wash away the plans of the enemy instead of fortifying his deception by watering down the truth for the sake of acceptance.
True prophets may not always have the flare, charisma or appeal of their false twins, but who said they are supposed to? Jeremiah wasn’t the most popular prophet in his time, nor was Ezekiel in his day. John the Baptist had his head served up on a silver platter for warning the people of the looming decision between everlasting life and eternal hellfire. But they were the unadulterated mouthpieces of God. And so it should be.
One of the key disparities between the true and the false prophet is prayer. The Bible says the foolish prophets discussed in the 13th Chapter of Ezekiel did not stand in the gap or make up a hedge for the house of Israel so that it could endure the battle. These diviners did not intercede in prayer to protect God’s people.
True prophets, by contrast, may not win any popularity contests in the local church, but they will sacrifice to make intercession. Instead of building walls of religion, they build towers of prayer; watchtowers in the spirit that allow them to see the assignments coming against the local church. They take that revelation and use it as spiritual mortar to make up a hedge in prayer.
You can’t separate a prophet from prayer any more than you can separate an evangelist from preaching the Gospel. The very first time you ever see the word “prophet” in the Bible, it is connected to prayer. In the Book of Genesis when Abimelech took Abraham’s wife, the Lord said, “Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live…” (Genesis 20:7). So while not every intercessor is a prophet, every prophet is an intercessor.
Consider the prophets of old. They were often called watchmen. Scripture reveals three types of prophetic sentinels whose mission is to stand guard, keep watch and report what they see. We find Old Testament prophets on the walls, walking in the streets of the city and in the countryside.
“I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence…” (Isaiah 62:6) Watchmen on the walls are positioned to see far distances in the spirit and discern whether friend or foe is approaching. The watchman gives word to those in authority so they can decide whether to sound an alarm of welcome or an alarm of war. In today’s local church, these watchmen help protect against enemy attacks. Every prophet is called to this post.
“They surround Jerusalem like watchmen surrounding a field, for my people have rebelled against me, says the Lord,” (Jeremiah 4:17 NLT). This relates to the prophets in the harvest fields. Prophets have a clear role in evangelism as watchmen who protect Gospel-preaching efforts against the destructive work of principalities and powers that keep the lost from hearing the truth. Prophets should be deployed on local church outreaches and international missions to watch, guard, pull down and destroy opposition to the Good News.
“The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city” (Song of Solomon 3:3; 5:7 NIV). In today’s times, this watchman is assigned to stand guard over the Body of Christ to see emerging problems. This is a larger responsibility that carries with it a heavier prayer burden and greater implications for the Church at large.
The point is anyone who stands in the five-fold function of prophet should keep their spiritual binoculars around their neck and watch. But not just watch – watch and pray always. Anyone carrying a prophetic mantle needs to closely examine the fruit of his or her ministry. If we have prophesied peace unto popularity, then we need to repent. We need to trade in our whitewash for some substantive mortar and start building towers of prayer that will bring genuine edification, authentic exhortation and legitimate comfort to God’s people.
Let us not be foolish prophets who build our ministries on the sands of seduction for the sake of acceptance because Jehovah promises that rain will pour from the heavens, hailstones will come hurtling down and violent winds will burst forth against those whitewashed walls and expose them (Ezekiel 13:11-12).
Instead, let us build our ministries on the Rock and prophesy the mind of Christ so that when the hurricanes of religion come against the local church and when Jezebel hurls her spiritual sleet at the sanctuary and when the winds of witchcraft blow against the walls, the foundation of our ministries and our local churches will be fortified to stand and withstand in the day of battle.
Jennifer LeClaire is the editor of The Voice magazine. You can visit her online at www.jenniferleclaire.org
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