Moving the heart of God, as I have titled this, may make you a little uncomfortable. Depending on your view of God, as well as your theological persuasion. You see I felt like in this post I was to expand a little on what I briefly touched on last post. That our prayers, prayer life and effectiveness of prayer depends very much on how we interpret our God.
If you do not believe that God can change His mind, that His will is absolute and is accomplished perfectly every time, then I may ask you... Why do you pray? Or do you? Surely it follows that if God's will is done in any circumstance, and that human beings, you and me, cannot interfere or move His will, then really there is no point in praying, other than an exercise in discipline. While prayer certainly is an exercise in discipline, it is so much more than that.
Prayer is an invitation from God to us, to be involved in creation with Him. Mind-blowing when we consider this. Maybe even inspiring enough to cause us to pray as much as we should! God in His infinite power and glory, should include us into His master plan to draw all men to himself.
Now some of you may be shaking your head at me, and let me put a disclaimer that this is my own personal thoughts based on private study of the bible, other books and my personal experiences in prayer. This does not represent the ideas or thoughts of YWAM that I know of, or any other organisation, institution, people group, church etc. :)
Now that we have that covered... Let me show you a verse that God brought to me the other day during my quiet time with Him.
“I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
Ezekiel 22:30
I saw this, and God spoke to me through the words. Throughout that book of Ezekiel God's heart is spoken to the Israelites His precious and chosen people. He repeatedly states that He longs to save them, He longs that they would return to Him, that they might have life,
Yet they do not. How can this be? If people are dying and rejecting God, and His will is to see all people saved and brought to Him, does that mean that He is not powerful? That He is not sovereign? Maybe you beleive that all men will come to Him and be saved eventually. This verse here clearly demonstrated to me, and showed me the line that God has between the Justice that is a part of His character, as well as His grace. He looked for a man, He searched for one desperately, knowing that without it, He must exact judgement.
But He found none. He found no man to stand in the gap, no man to pray, to intercede. For that phrase "stand in the gap" is to intercede, it is it's very definition. God was looking for an intercessor, for someone to pray, to listen and to obey, but there were none to be found. The nation of Israel could have been spared what they went through I believe, but instead God's character demanded that sin must be dealt with.
There are two things here that I want to end with. One, that Our prayers are instrumental in God's plan for redemption of humanity. Yes the victory was won on the cross. Never will I take away from that. It set me free. But for people to access this and take ahold of the mercy and grace that God has for them, God asks that we play a role. After all we are His children. Adopted sons and daughters, with an inheritance. Just as the Price of England has a role to pray in the State, so we also as princes and pricesses of the Kingdom of God have a role to play.
Two, that God is even now looking for a man. A woman. He is looking for a person to stand in the gap. His desire is to see ALL people redeemed by faith in the Son. I ask you, will anyone be found? Will nations be condemned, will peoples die with no hope of eternity because a woman or man could not be found?
I hope not.
What qualifies us to be someone that can be found by God? Well, He is looking for someone to stand in the gap. Right there is one thing. We must be a praying people. We must be a praying Church, a praying family, a praying Christian if we are ever to stand in the gap and see God's grace move through us.
God has a plan for you, will you let Him accomplish it?
He has a plan for others, will you be a part of it?
Be blessed, and as usual, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to post here, email or facebook.
Daniel