He could hear the phone ringing and crawled to his knees where he had fallen asleep again, flat on his face in his prayer closet. He got the door open only to miss the call as it ended. (He didn't generally take his cell phone or anything with him when he went in to pray. No keys, no wallet, nothing.) Chuckling the preacher looked at the name on the caller ID and called the number showing on his phone.
The first words out of the person's mouth on the other end were, "How did you know?" They went into details about what he had spoken to them and exactly what he had told them that God dealt with him about their situation and just kept asking, "How did you know? What did God tell you? How did he tell you?" He had never seen so many hungry people dying for a Word from God in their personal life. The Bible says there would be a famine in the last days, not of meat and of drink but of the Word of God!
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People always wanted to know the secret of God talking to you. There is no secret. It's all in the Book. Seek me early. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sins and will heal their land. We have to do more than humble ourselves and pray. We have to stop doing what displeases God. To continue to do what you are doing and expect different results is the utmost in lunacy! We have too many people who want to humble, seek and pray and not TURN! You can't head down a path God refuses to go or that violates God's word and expect him to go. Yes he will never leave us or forsake us, but we CAN leave and forsake him! There are just some places he will not go! If we learn that, submitting and keeping in constant communication with him becomes natural.
I learned at an early age what it took to hear from God. Getting a word from God for someone else is always a lot easier than getting a Word for myself. The anointing works that way, otherwise they would not have told Jesus, "Physician heal thyself!" He responds to human need so when you give yourself to prayer and fasting and consecrate your life to him and have a calling to minister, God ministers to those you come in contact with. I can't explain it. It just happens.
Sometimes no words need to be spoken, God just speaks it into my spirit and I know what needs to be said and done. Other times I look at them and something in their eyes, spirit or demeanor instantly tells me what they are facing, doing wrong, struggling with or hurting from. I've learned that many out there are not gifted in this. The gifts have to function together. Word of knowledge or discerning of spirits alone is not enough. Either one without the word of wisdom to direct you in properly determining how to apply what you know can be dangerous. Some people never learn that sometimes what they know is for their benefit, not for them to say anything about.
I once gave a friend some information I had been studying and praying about for months. They seemed blown away that God would be so pointed and direct in dealing with their situation. It was something God gave me, but it plugged directly into their situation, a perfect fit. God wanted them to fast and pray and intercede for a family member who was lost.
Why do we feel we need a Word from God to prime us and pump us up to do that? From Genesis to Revelation we have a long litany of one intercessor after another. From the broken spirited Judah who said, "How shall I go to my father and my brother not be with me," to the fiery-tempered Moses, who cried, "blot
How long will it be before we realize this? God is looking for those self-less enough to intercede not only for their friends but for their enemies, crying out to God on their faces until a spirit of intercession grips them and the pains in the chest take hold and they wrestle and weep and travail until their heart is nearly broken for that one soul for whom God has burdened them.
Our problem is we cling to our own burdens when we should be carrying His burden! Come unto me all ye that are weak and heavy ladened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly and my burden is light.
Our burden is nothing but pain, suffering, doubt, fear, worry, trouble, storms. He wants our eyes off the storms, off the situations, off other people's actions and responses, and on what God wants to do in our lives and in the lives of others through us.
Here is the secret for those of you who have to know how to effectively minister in the Holy Ghost to those around you. God will not use you effectively or to any great degree until you can walk up not just to a total stranger, but to your worst enemy and minister to them in love the things God wants to do through them. He will not trust his gifts or word of knowledge or wisdom to someone who will not put on the mind of Christ and love all men equally even when they may not love you in return. He died for us when we were unlovable.
Moses was not on good relations with all the people under him. They angered him. Some murmered against him. They didn't like his leadership, his manner, his speach. They blamed him repeatedly, saying this Moses it is his fault! He led us here. He caused this. He did this. He's to blame. Many thought they could do better, yet God would not talk to them like he would Moses and said so.
Yet even when Moses was angry at the people he threw himself between the Lord and those who often angered him and said in effect, "Lord if you are going to wipe them out, go ahead, but when you do, TAKE ME OUT TOO, BLOT MY NAME OUT OF YOUR BOOK!"
God looked at Moses and realized he meant it and he was not going to kill a man in right relationship to Him, not even for 2.5 million backslidden Israelites. There is a lesson to be learned there!
Moses had been called out of the rushes and out of a wilderness experience to lead God's people and God spoke to him as a friend, face to face. He even told them some of his prophets he would speak to in visions of the night and dreams, but he would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
You can be no more powerful with God than to intercede not just for your friends but your enemies, those who have hurt you, those who have wounded you, those who despise you and those who reject you! Jesus did this in Gethsemane, when he interceded until blood came from his pores, but he submitted to the will of the Father and became obedient even unto death. That's the mark of a true Intercessor.
We can't give ourselves to prayer until it is no longer convenient and then get up and go enjoy what we want to do in life and go our own way and be our own person. We have to stay plugged in to God's purpose, plan, will and His divine nature. It sometimes means doing things we don't want to do, saying things we don't want to say, going places we don't want to go, being things we don't want to be and helping people we really don't always want to help or even be around or talk to. If you are going to be a true intercessor, you don't have a choice. If you think you do, then you are fooling yourself.
Who knows what you can accomplish in the Spirit if you will give yourself to prayer, fasting, intercession and consecration. God will only talk to and use broken vessels. The unbroken he will not use. Judgment stops at the feet of an intercessor.
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