This week is the last week of our Seattle
Services, but we are still at a critical time in our nation’s history.
We have never needed prayer more than we do in this day and age. As
such, we have never put out as much effort as we are applying now. Last
week, our time of intercession, particularly the time spent interceding
for our President, was incredibly powerful. Even if you disagree with
the decisions of our President, remember that the Bible instructs us in 1
Timothy 2:1-3 to pray for our leaders:
“I exhort therefore, that, first of
all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be
made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we
may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. For
this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior”.
This instruction comes with a promise; “that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life,” as well as a reminder that praying for those in authority, i.e. our President, “is good and acceptable in the sight of God.”
As God says, we must pray for this man, my
friends. Pray for his salvation, pray for him to be given wisdom, and
pray for God to guide him as he leads our country. What he does in this
hour will affect us for years to come and as children of God, it is our
responsibility to listen and abide by the Word of God. Do not let your
frustrations stop you from praying. Join us this week as we continue to
pray for our President, the nation, and the other critical prayer points
affecting our land.
Two weeks from today, we will be in New
York interceding for our nation. Intercessors from all over the United
States, Canada, and even as far away as China will be joining us for
this time of intercession. Please keep our team, the intercessors, and
their families in your prayers during this time.
This is a critical Gathering of the Eagles
conference. We will join together to take critical issues facing our
Nation to the Lord. If you would like to understand the work we are
doing through the Gathering of the Eagles and our Joel’s Army Prayer
Cells, you can read our Save the Nations Prospectus. It is full of
valuable information meant to educate you about issues facing our Nation
and guide you in your time of prayer.
As important as the previous points are,
they pale in importance to the need to continue praying over the
Philippines. Our love and prayers continue to go out to them as they
work to find loved ones, search for basic necessities, and try to
re-build their lives. Moreover, we are raising and sending funds to the
Philippines to aid them in this effort. If you would like to contribute
to this effort, please go use “D109 Philippine” on the Catalog page of
our website. You can also contribute by mail by indicating “Philippine
Nation” in the memo portion of your check.
Lastly, the next installment in “Hunger
for God is not Enough” will be following this message. In part A, Nita
shared the importance of living out what you read in the Word of God.
The lesson you learn, the precepts contained within, and the nuggets of
truth found in the pages of the Bible are there to teach us how to live
our lives in such a manner as to demonstrate the love of Christ. One can
hunger after God so intensely that all we want to do is spend time in
prayer and reading the Bible; this is a beautiful thing. However, if we
do not take those valuable lessons into our relationships and how we
relate to others, then we are missing so much of what is at the heart of
the messages contained in God’s Word.
I pray this message will teach, train, bless and encourage you.
In Him,
WFJM Staff
________________________________________________________
HUNGER FOR GOD IS NOT ENOUGH
Part "B"
By
Nita Johnson
Seattle
The Lord wants you to lift up your eyes,
and hunger and pant for the righteousness of Christ—not your own
righteousness. Self-righteousness is a serious danger. Never has it been
more serious than it is today. When you are living in the passion of
your own righteousness, you always have to justify yourself to someone.
The only problem is that when it is all over, you will find that you
were wrong. Then you have the embarrassment because you should have
humbled yourself and walked in the way of righteousness instead of
lifting yourself up in your self-righteousness.
When your eyes fall upon the righteousness
of God, it shocks your soul. The first thing you realize is that you
are not where you thought you were. His righteousness is so high, so
great, so perfecting, and so provoking. When you look upon His
righteousness, you cannot continue to gaze upon your own. Then you are
willing to be corrected, established, broadened, deepened, and
heightened.
A deception that people get into in the
Church, after they have been saved a little while, is that they start
thinking they are a little bigger than they ought to be thinking. Maybe
they are doing some works in the Church, such as being on the worship
team or part of the prayer ministry. The minute that inward gaze
happens, we lose the gaze upon our Lord, and we find ourselves getting a
little bit bigger than Jesus.
When He brings me into His presence, one
of the first things He does is to humble me to the dust. Then, when I
know how small I am, He will speak His lofty words. I wrote four or five
chapters of one of my books by lying at the feet of Jesus. I would pray
until He came in. I found myself literally lying at His toes, clinging
to His ankles, pleading with Him to help me understand, and asking Him
to tell me what He wanted me to write. Then and only then would He
speak, and I would know what to write.
We cannot hear His voice until we lose
sight of us and who and what we think we are. This is what “the counsel
of the ungodly” means in Psalm 1:1. You do not have to be a murderer or a
thief. I am seeing it right now in a vision. Walking in the counsel of
the ungodly is when you are walking in the counsel of your own soul. It
is when you are so lifted up that you think you have the final word. You
might even come to the Word and judge and criticize it because you are
walking, standing, or sitting in the counsel of the world! I cannot tell
you how many times a week I get requests from people, asking me to
mentor them. I write them back, and I tell them, “No. You cannot endure
the mentoring I would have to give you.”
You have to come to a place where you
realize you are an empty vessel that desperately needs to be filled with
righteousness and with the correction of the Holy Spirit. If you do not
understand how much you lack, you will not drink of the living well
that He wants to give you. He never lets me grow to the next step until
He takes me through a journey to teach me how badly I need it. When He
has convinced me that I am not even spiritual, then He will speak to me
and help me grow like the palm tree. Didn't He tell us that “only the
sick need the doctor”? (Mt 9:12, Mark 2:17, Luke 5:31)
If your soul is filled with self-righteousness, my dear friend, you are
sick. You may not know it because you feel much richer than you did
before you got saved. But if your soul is not emptied of the ways of the
unrighteous, then to the degree that the world lives in you, you are
sick. That is kind of scary, isn't it? If you felt what I am
feeling right now, you would lay yourself in the dust and not get up
until Jesus says, “I will fill you.” The pain without that filling is so
intense.
Psalm 1:2 Amp. But his delight and
desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the
instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and
studies) by day and by night.
I have told you about when I went through a
great trial. My prayer life went way down because I was too sick to
give to myself the hours that I used to give. I was not able to fast
because it would make me so sick to fast. My time in the Word went way
down. I got to the point that it was painful to lift the Bible and read
it. It was a fiery trial, and I almost did not survive it. I kept
thinking, “I miss You so much, Lord. I wish I could do the night
watches. I wish I could spend the hours in the Word. I wish I could
spend the time in prayer that I used to.” I am not talking about sitting
down in a chair and praying, but I am talking about deep intercessory
prayer like I have walked in for all of my Christian walk. I missed Him
so much. I missed His council and His law. I missed that manifest
Presence that I have always walked in. I would repent and repent and
plead with Him for strength to rise up and start walking
again. But I had to go through that. He was deepening me, judging what
needed to be removed, and shaking it. He was taking me into the deep
places in my soul to reveal the weakness in my faith.
Many walk away when it is a time like
that. I cannot. Considering where He has taken me and what He has given,
how can I walk away? The momentary affliction is nothing compared to
the glory. If you despise the affliction, you also despise the glory;
you just do not know it. So He has to reveal the ungodly counsel in our
own heart and soul. We come to utterly despise it, and we will go
through anything to have it removed.
He wants our delight and our desire to be
in the law of the Lord. He wants us to become those who meditate on His
precepts, His instructions, and the teachings of God.
Psalm 1:2-3 Amp. But his delight and
desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the
instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and
studies) by day and by night. And he shall be like a tree firmly
planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its
fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and
everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity].
He will bring you there if you will humble
yourself, be broken before Him, look at what you need to look at, and
endure the cleansing.
In HIm,
Nita
To be continued next week.
