Obedience That Moves God (Part 1) And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. 2 Chronicles 7:12-16 KJV When we are obedient to God there are things that He will do because of our obedience. Prior to this Solomon had just finished the building and dedication of the first Temple. Which is something that his father David wanted to do but was not allowed to because he had shed innocent blood. When we look at this passage of scripture we see God has appeared to King Solomon and told him that He heard his prayers and that He was going to dwell in the Temple and that would be the place the people would come to make sacrifices to God. Though God does not dwell in any particular building in this day in time He does desire to dwell in a temple, that is the temple of our bodies. The Bible tells us 1 Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? Just as the Temple belonged to God and did not belong to Solomon or the Priest, our bodies do not belong to us. When we give our lives to Jesus we are no longer our own as we have been bought with a price and that price was the blood that Jesus Christ the Son of God shed on the cross for us. Then God goes on to say that if He should send all kinds of plagues on the land that He has an expectation of His people or those who are called by His name or those who are identified as His people. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour we are now identified as one of His people because we are called Christians. With this name we are expected to act differently from those who are not called Christians. Then God tells His people what He expects of them. First He wants us to be humble. The humility He desires is for us to fast. Fasting is a lost discipline in Christianity, but is something that we should do. Jesus is our example and if He fasted then we need to do the same. We can see that David humbled himself with fasting in Psalms 35:13 which states, But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. Jesus also told us that we should fast in Matthew 6:16 - 18 16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Notice Jesus didnt say if ye fast but rather when ye fast which denotes that we should fast. We need to fast as it is an expectation especially when we have a desire of God. We cannot manipulate God with fasting, as everything we do must come from the heart, but when we are in great need it shows our humility and how much we need to hear from God. Fasting goes with prayer which is where we will pick up this teaching tomorrow. May the peace and love of God be with you always!
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 11:18:01 +0000