Sister Jeannie…
Holy Spirit, we give you liberty to have your way in us this morning, that you have your way in us in fortitude and perseverance, in glory, in joy and Christ in us, the hope of glory.
Sometime early in the morning, in and out of sleep, I had a heart’s cry that I hadn’t ever had before, or at least had never had language before. So I’m gonna talk about what that heart’s cry is. But first, Mike, could you read that scripture?
Mike…
I’ll just read it. 2nd Chronicles 7:12, So this is about Solomon. I’m gonna start reading in verse 12.
Jeannie…
Firstly, it’s about Solomon who asked for wisdom to solve problems. Go ahead.
Mike…
“And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, 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 I shall hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Jeannie…
Okay. Read it again. And now this time, when he reads it, listen within the context for the word sacrifice, locust, pestilence, repentance, heal, forgiveness. Go ahead.
Mike…
2nd Chronicles 7:12
“And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up the heaven so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, 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 I shall hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Jeannie…
Early this morning, I’d wake up and I’d say, “God, give me the grace to repent.” And then I’d wake up again and I’d say, “Give me the grace to stay in repentance.” Will you read it again?
[Jeannie and Mike go back and forth…]
And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night…
Okay, every time I tap on you, stop. Okay, read again.
“So he appeared to Solomon by night…”
Stop. Solomon by night. So he appeared to Solomon, the man that said, “What I have to have is wisdom.” And by night. Because he’d been crying out in the night. He’d been crying out in the night season. And God appeared. Can you imagine what it’s like to be a husband and have your wife do this? Like he’s awesome. Okay. Go ahead.
“So he appeared to him by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer…”
Stop. He has heard the cry of Solomon’s heart crying out for wisdom in the night, the cry of his heart. Okay.
“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself for a house of sacrifice.”
He’s chosen this place. His people to be a house of surrender of sacrifice of laying it all out and laying it all down. Okay.
“If I shut up the heaven, so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people…”
Pause. Does it appear as such we’re being eaten alive? We can’t even agree as a church what it means to choose life. Go ahead.
“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves.”
Pause. Are you called by his name? Yes. In the middle of being eaten alive? In the middle of a night season … in the middle of crying out … in the middle of needing wisdom? Is there precedent set in the Word that there are answers for this? And not only answers for this, but answers that produce results. Go ahead.
“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray…”
Pause. Father, give us the grace not only to repent, but to stay in a place of repentance. Go.
Actually, I want to add to that because I remember a few years ago, I was listening to a sermon by Creflo Dollar and he was talking about being humble. And one of the things he said that really stuck with me was that humble doesn’t mean we see ourselves as this lowly insignificant pile of dirt. What he was talking about is humbling ourselves means that we recognize completely that we cannot do it without Him. We realize that we cannot do everything in our strength, that we have to co-labor with Him. He is doing it, you know, and I think sometimes that message can get twisted. “Well humble means I shrink up in this little ball of nothing. Because I am nothing. I have nothing.” God didn’t call us to be a wet blanket. He called us to be strong and courageous in Him, have confidence in Him. So when it says humble, it doesn’t mean cower in the corners. No! It’s like, I can be humble and I can stand here because I am trusting in my God. I am humble to know that I cannot do the things in the works of God in my own strength, in my own power and by myself.
And humility says when I’m weak, I’m strong. Because when I’m weak, He’s strong in me. Humility says when I’m weak, I’m strong because when I’m weak, He’s strong in me. Humility says nothing is impossible with God. Humility says we pray for results. We pray from the throne room. We pray from eternity that says it’s already finished. That is what humility says. Okay, go ahead.
“So my people who are called by my name…”
Humility says we are called by His name. The name that’s above every name… the name that is never once been below anything… the name that you walk in today. That’s what humility says. Go ahead.
“They will humble themselves and pray. They will see that they can’t do this by themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways.”
What are wicked ways? What does Jesus say wickedness is? False humility. Do you know false humility is pride! False humility that says about ourselves that says about situations what God doesn’t say. Did you know those that said, “We can’t take the land,” was pride?
And they didn’t go in.
I love the tone of that. They didn’t go in! But we are going in.
But wicked ways could also be seen as I’m not trusting the Lord. I mean, just in that example, that was an evil report. Why did the Lord call it an evil report when they said, “Well, we can’t do that. That’s too impossible. There are too many billionaires who run all the networks. There are too many billionaires that are controlling the money. There are too many billionaires that control social media.”
Or I don’t want to be a billionaire. That could be wicked too, by the way. Let it hit home.
“Seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I shall hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Okay. I shall hear from heaven… Where there is only freedom! Where there is only glory! Did you know the phrase “appeal to heaven.” Do you know where it came from? We appeal to heaven when nothing else seems to be hearing us. Come on!
And even in that, you know, it’s kind of a joke. Some preachers use it when they say, “When we get to the end of it, let’s pray.” And they say, “Has it actually come to that?” Meaning, we have to become a people that really trust God so much that we go to Him first. It’s kind of like when you have an issue and I’m not saying… we need to have counsel, but how many of us just say, “I need to call that person? Or I need to call that person?” How many people say I have a problem? I need to stop. I need to either read my Bible. I need to pray in tongues. The thing is that God has the answer and He may use other people. There’s nothing wrong with that. But I’m saying if it gets to that point where we’re using heaven as our last resort, it’s time to repent. We have to change our thinking.
All we have to do is repent. And keep in the attitude of repentance. Okay. I’m gonna read this scripture then I want you to read that again. Okay? Matthew 4:17, “From that time, Jesus began to preach, crying out Repent, change your mind for the better, heartily amend your ways with abhorrence of your past sins, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This scripture says He will hear and answer from heaven. Our only part is to repent. But repentance looks like a lot of things. But we receive and I declare over the church that we not just repent once, but we continue in repentance because ridiculous glory and breakthrough is upon us. And as we stay in repentance, we continue to take more ground. We continue to occupy. When we go in and out of repentance, we go in and out of carnality. We go in and out of fleshly ways… in and out of just seeking relief. And God is saying, I will build My church and the gates… I just think it’s so interesting. The word gates means so many things. And I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her.
That’s where we’re at right now! You’re the one who’s winning. And when you repent, you know that. And when you stay in a place of repentance and surrender, you get super happy about it. They are bread for you. Did you know these giants? Isn’t it interesting that it’s giants that are bread for us? Giants. Okay.
I just want to say too sometimes that even the word repent can mean just feel sorry for yourself. Feel sorry. It means to turn the way you think. It’s to think differently. Jesus wasn’t saying, “Okay, now listen to me.” He was crying out. Think differently. Change your mind. Think differently. Because the kingdom of heaven is right here.
And when He said to think differently and to change your mind, He didn’t leave you without equipment there either. He gave you His Word that you have the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ sees the kingdom here on the earth. Here, here, here. Scripture says on earth as it is in heaven. You’re up to bat. So what do you want? Could you read that whole scripture one more time and then yeah. Okay. And then say obviously whatever you want.
“And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him … what’s interesting too is he said by night when he was all alone and he couldn’t be disturbed by other people. He came to him by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and chosen this place for myself for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up the heavens so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people…” If bad things are going on around you… Now, granted, we know this is the Old Testament. God isn’t sending all these things. Things happen because Satan is the god of this world. But yet we are above that. Side note. If everything feels like nothing is happening. 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 I shall hear from heaven. He doesn’t say, I’ll think about it. Or, you know, if you scream loud enough, you’ll get my attention. No He’s like I shall hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Aren’t we glad that we’re resourcing heaven? That’s gotta make someone mad. I don’t know, if I was that someone, I wouldn’t want us to pray and I wouldn’t want us to repent and I for sure wouldn’t want us to change our thinking. I for sure wouldn’t want those people to know that they’ve already won and they’re operating from a finished work. I for sure wouldn’t want them to know that they have the authority and the boss lives inside of them. And they can be bossy when they pray. And they can be bossy when they say… Because they have the name above every name. I for sure wouldn’t want any of that. And I really wouldn’t want them to know that when they’re weak, they’re strong. Because the one in them is strong and the glory and the joy of co-laboring.
Prayer…
We open ourselves up to you, Holy Spirit. You minister co-laboring to us this morning. You minister “kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” You minister the gift of repentance. Repentance is a gift. The ability to change the way we see things. It’s a gift that we receive. You minister repentance to us today, and we receive that gift. The gift of repentance that is intimately connected with kingdom. It’s like they go hand in hand. The mind of Christ goes hand in hand.
