3. Wait for God to Communicate.
When Jehoshaphat finished his prayer, there was nothing more to say.
While the enemy army drew nearer, “All
the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there
before the Lord” (v. 13). They simply waited.
The Lord’s communiqué matched their situation perfectly. They were fearful, so He comforted them: “Do not be afraid or discouraged because
of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s . . . Do not be
afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will
be with you” (vv. 15, 17b).
They didn't know what to do, so He gave them explicit
instructions: “Tomorrow march down
against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find
them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to
fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance
the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem.”(vv. 16-17a).
Prayer was never intended to be a monologue. A friend of
mine once taught a workshop entitled, “Praying with Your Ears.” Learning to
practice “listening prayer” has transformed the spiritual lives of many of
God’s children, and has prepared them for the gathering storms ahead.
So how do we listen? How does God speak? Well, certainly through His word. He would never contradict the truth of
Scripture. But He might bring impressions to a yielded mind. He might
communicate through the counsel of a friend, or through circumstances. Sometimes
even through dreams. For years I have depended upon semi-annual prayer
retreats, where I withdraw for a day or two, to pray. And to listen.
The night after the tornado, the Lord communicated with
Dionne. While we were thankful that God
had preserved our lives and home, we were still very discouraged. We had been
trying to sell our home for months, and one disaster after another prevented
it.
In the aftermath of the storm, our property looked like a
war zone. A dozen of our huge trees were shattered, completely covering our acre
lot and crushing our neighbor’s fence. The back wall of our garage hung by a
few nails, and the roof was damaged. Why would anyone want to buy our house
now! We went to bed very depressed.
That night Dionne could not sleep. She got up, grabbed a Bible, and headed for
the living room. Desperate for a word from God, she prayed for God to speak.
The Lord led her to Isaiah 43:1-3—Fear not, for I have redeemed you.
I have summoned you by name. You
are mine. When you pass through the
waters I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not
sweep over you. When you walk through
the fire, you will not be burned. The
flames will not set you ablaze. For I am
the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior . . .
The next night, twenty-four hours after the tornado, we
sold our house!
4. Respond with Courageous
Obedience.
Obedience may not always require courage, but in this case
it did.
Early in the morning they left for the
Desert of Tekoa (v. 20).
Only hours before, they
had been paralyzed with fear. Now, in obedience to the Lord, they rose early to
meet an army bent on their destruction. And rather than lead with their best
soldiers, Jehoshaphat
appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his
holiness . . . (v. 21). They marched forward, praising God with the
triumphant words of Psalm 136:
Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.
Did you ever think of
worship as an act of courage? In my first year of seminary one of our students
was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. One of our professors broke the
news to us, and before he led in prayer, he said: “In times like this, I don’t
know what to do but worship.”
Worship takes courage
because it is the ultimate expression of trust.
When you stand in the path of the storm, when circumstances are close to
destroying you, when you look around and see nothing but chaos, to worship is to
say, “Yes, but my God is bigger than this. I trust Him and His promises more
than my eyesight, more than my perception of reality.”
So we worshiped and
prayed. Weeks later, we rejoiced that God had chosen to heal our friend.
The howl of the wind and the crash of the thunder may threaten to dislodge us from the habits of obedience we normally practice: worship, witness, stewardship. To keep our footing will take courage, the courage to obey even in the darkest hour of the storm.
For next time: The God of the Storm
The howl of the wind and the crash of the thunder may threaten to dislodge us from the habits of obedience we normally practice: worship, witness, stewardship. To keep our footing will take courage, the courage to obey even in the darkest hour of the storm.
For next time: The God of the Storm
