Thursday, January 23, 2014

Do not remain silent



This is from the blog Daily Meditation:

Esther 4:14: For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

You cannot keep quiet when you see injustice around you. You need to raise your voice and be part of the solution, allowing God to use you. You are the change-agent this world is waiting for. Your little positive action in your little corner of influence has eternal repercussion and will not go unrewarded.

If you cannot do anything, you can pray. When you move the hand of God in prayer, you get to change things on the earth, as it is written; whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven, the same for whatever you loose on earth. Every prayer effort is real effort.

You may not be able to speak with the President on the need for change but you can speak to God. Paul told Timothy that he wants him to give priority to praying for all men (1Timothy 2:1-6), for kings and all decision-makers so that we might live in peace, godliness and honesty.

We are agents of God on the earth, and as we engage in prayer, saying: let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-10). One of the things in heaven is peace. You can draw the peace in heaven to the earth through prayer. We cannot presume, in whatever nation you are, that because there is peace now there will always be peace (which also involved all things that make for prosperity), you need to stand in the gap in the place of prayer to bring the reality of heaven to the earth.

You cannot remain silent when the spiritual atmosphere of a place is being taken over by darkness. We cannot say it is the end of time and leave our role in the place of prayer, allowing things to go into decay. We need to execute kingdom authority in the here and now in this generation. In the last but one psalm, the psalmist revealed that the people of God have the privilege to bind the forces of darkness.

In the place of prayer we get to wrestle against principalities and power to weaken their influences in the realm of men (Ephesians 6:10-18). Our presence of earth should have impact on the operation of the devil. We should shine as light. We open our mouth to resist the devil on the earth (James 4:7) and also loose the presence of God(in light) to come into operation and bring divine liberation to men.

Esther in the focus verse was asked to speak to the king, to get him to act against the enemy’s intention for the children of Israel. Apparently she was safe in the palace of the king; she had hidden her identity while in the contest to be the queen of the land, and now she is queen. But when her people (Israelites) were in trouble (set up to be killed and assaulted on a particular day throughout the land), through the machination of Haman, she had to intercede for them with the king and not keep silent. In this wise, she cannot think of herself, of how dangerous it is for her to approach the king (to go to the king without being invited is to risk being killed). To speak up for others means you have some measure of selflessness, like Christ (Matthew 20:28).

When the apostles got into trouble with the Pharisee who threatened that they should not preach in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:1-33), the church, the bride of Christ prayed and the power of God was released to make even more miracles to happen in the name of Jesus; so that the threat against the church only served to fuel more work of God in the midst of the land, when the church called on God. (No threat should make you shut up; continue to call on God in prayer.) Likewise, on the day Israelites were to be killed, through the intercession of Esther, they were the one plundering their enemies. They were greatly feared.

Mordecai wanted Esther to speak up for the children of Israel, so that relief and deliverance can come for them through her effort. It is the same thing the blood of Jesus does for us; the book of Hebrews says that the blood of Jesus speaks better things than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:24). The blood of Abel spoke out in demand for vengeance (Genesis 4:10, Hebrews 11:4, Revelation 6:10), while the blood of Jesus speaks out in demand for justification and redemption for anyone who believes that he has a hand in the death of Jesus; that Jesus died for him. To say Jesus died for you means you acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of a saviour, and that Jesus is that saviour, with that you are saved. Jesus did not seek for revenge, having accepted the call to be the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world.

Cain had a hand in the death of Abel, he was responsible for the shedding of his blood and he was judged for it, we have a hand in the death of Jesus because he died for our sins, and because he rose from the dead, Jesus was able to be a source of eternal salvation for those who believe in him. His blood cried for mercy for us. Jesus’ last request from God concerning man was: forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing (Luke 23:34).
Those who believe in him have passed from death to life, from darkness to light because of the better things that his blood speaks. They receive the gift of forgiveness.

Since he is the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world in the order of the Old Testament sacrificial system, the blood of Jesus speaks forgiveness of sins, it speaks mercy, it speaks justification, and it speaks sanctification.

Because it is through the blood that our conscience gets purged from dead works (Hebrews 9:14), making ready a place for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, therefore the blood speaks for the operation of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Since the Holy Spirit cannot act except when there it is holiness, the blood is important for our relationship with God because it is the Holy Spirit who makes intimate relationship with God possible.

The blood speaks up for our relief and deliverance. It is in the context of that that Jesus is said to ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). His blood is constantly speaking for us, making us objects of God’s favour in perpetuity.

The reality of the blood constantly speaking on our behalf is the guarantee that we will be with the Lord in perpetuity, that our sins have been taken away and we are free from bondage to it. That means the blood of Jesus speaks freedom from sin. John declared the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins (1John 1:7). In the blood is our relief for eternal damnation and deliverance from satanic bondage. (Satanic bondage operates through death which also operates through sin [Hebrews 2:14-15, Romans 5:12, 14].)

What about the word of God in your mouth? We have the mandate to declare the word of God. The word of God represents the will of God, and it is by declaring the word that we declare the will of God. We are God’s spokesmen to declare his counsel, and cause his will to be done on earth. Put his word in your mouth. The bible says you shall decree a thing and it will be established to you (Job 22:28).

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