As I awoke this morning I was thinking about how to pray against the evil happening in the natural world and how to be effective.
Prayer can heal the land. But more than just prayer is required. People have to turn again to God (repent) and turn from their evil ways (that are causing the destruction in the land).
2 Chronicles 7:14 – If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
Why does evil happen? At the root it is because the world is under a curse. Death and destruction certainly isn’t God’s perfect will. But when mankind acts and lives contrary to His original plan in Creation, it brings evil onto the earth.
It is connected though to the thoughts and beliefs of this present age and the lifestyles of the people in the land. God’s Creation rebels against sin. The further this country gets from God and His ways, the more natural disasters have been happening. Is there a connection? I believe there is. It isn’t direct judgment; it is more the laws of sowing and reaping put into motion.
Nature is in harmony with righteousness and truth. When things are used in the purpose they were made for, in line with God’s original plan in Creation and His original design and intentions, things go better.
Isaiah 55:6-13 – Seek, inquire for, and require the Lord while He may be found [claiming Him by necessity and by right]; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have love, pity, and mercy for him, and to our God, for He will multiply to him His abundant pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out [from the spiritual exile caused by sin and evil into the homeland] with joy and be led forth [by your Leader, the Lord Himself, and His word] with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name of renown, for an everlasting sign [of jubilant exaltation] and memorial [to His praise], which shall not be cut off.
Jeremiah 7:19-20 – Am I the One Whom they provoke to anger? says the Lord. Is it not themselves [whom they provoke], to their own confusion and vexation and to their own shame? Therefore thus says the Lord God: behold My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.
When people continue to act contrary to God’s ways and God’s word, it is themselves they are hurting. They bring confusion and vexation and shame upon themselves.
The judgment against the people of a land also affects nature, the trees and the fruit of the ground. Could this have something to do with all that is happening in nature in our country – that people call judgment and say, wow, it’s really the last days.
Jeremiah 9:12-14 – Who is the wise man who may understand this? to whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through it? And the Lord says, Because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them, and have not listened to and obeyed My voice or walked in accordance with it but have walked stubbornly after their own hearts and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,
Jeremiah 12:4 – How long must the land mourn and the grass and herbs of the whole country wither? Through the wickedness of those who dwell in it, the beasts and the birds are consumed and are swept away [by the drought], because men [mocked] me, saying, He shall not [live to] see our final end.
Jeremiah 23:10 – For the land is full of adulterers (forsakers of God, Israel’s true Husband). Because of the curse [of God upon it] the land mourns, the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. They [both false prophets and people] rush into wickedness; and their course is evil, their might is not right.
Ezekiel 22:29-31 – The people of the land have used oppression and extortion and have committed robbery; yes, they have wronged and vexed the poor and needy; yes, they have oppressed the stranger and temporary resident wrongfully. And I sought a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore have I poured out My indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their own way have I repaid [by bringing it] upon their own heads, says the Lord God.
Interesting: stand in the gap FOR THE LAND that I should not destroy it.
God will allow on earth whatever we allow. God has given us authority. All authority in heaven and earth was given to Him and He passed it onto us – for the salvation of mankind. His greatest desire is for all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. This is the heart of God I hear so many pray and long for.
Many times we can stop catastrophes and natural calamities through prayer. Other times we can lessen the effects of them and save the lives of some that the devil would like to kill.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 – Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
God wants all men to be saved. God wants ALL men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. This is the focus of the present dispensation. It isn’t a time of judgment but a time to spread the good news of God’s grace.
By our prayers or lack of prayer, we determine the kind of outward life we will live. Much of what happens in the world around us is connected to our prayer lives.
Jeremiah 29:7 7 – And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.
When we pray for those in leadership, we can life a quiet and peaceable life. When we seek the peace of the city and nation in which we live, in its peace we will have peace.
Watchmen
Isaiah 62:6-7 – I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, who will never hold their peace day or night; you who [are His servants and by your prayers] put the Lord in remembrance [of His promises], keep not silence, and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes her a praise in the earth. The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm
Isaiah 56:10 – [Israel’s] watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; dreaming, lying down, they love to slumber.
Jeremiah 6:16-17 – Thus says the Lord: Stand by the roads and look; and ask for the eternal paths, where the good, old way is; then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk in it! Also I set watchmen over you, saying, hear and obey the sound of the trumpet! But they said, we will not listen or obey.
Luke 9:51-56 — When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? But He turned and rebuked them, and said, you do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went on to another village.
Jesus rebuked them for wanting to command fire down on those who didn’t receive them. He rebuked their judgment spirit. Jesus did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them. Jesus isn’t in the destroying business; He is in the saving business. He is in the giving life business.
John 10:10 — The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
The thief is the one that destroys not God. The enemy is the one who steals, kills and destroys. God gives life. He saves men’s lives and not destroys.
Luke 13:1-3 — Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
V. 4-5 – Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
He mentions two kinds of catastrophes that came on people, violence of men and actions of nature.
Jesus asked them why these terrible things happened to some and not to others. He said it wasn’t because they were greater sinners than other people. It didn’t happen because it was a judgment. The Bible is here giving us some answers that the church isn’t paying attention to.
We are not spared because we are smarter, better or holier. The evil that happens isn’t because people are worse than others.
Evil happens because the earth is under a curse. Evil happens as a result of people living contrary to God’s original intention. God does not desire evil. He desires our salvation and for things to go well with us.
That is why He needs us to stand in the gap, to make intercession, to pray, to speak the words He gives us – that their own ways do not come upon them.
Take your place today as a watchman on the wall. Take you place as one who stands in the gap and prays until we see God’s will upon this earth as it is in heaven.
See some other posts on this subject:
- https://adventuresingod.com/stand-in-the-gap/
- https://adventuresingod.com/not-flesh-blood/
- https://adventuresingod.com/mercy-triumphs/
- https://adventuresingod.com/recipe-for-revival/
