Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper (I)

I am thinking that it is no coincidence, that the Lord brought this verse to my attention this morning, after having blogged for the last couple of days on not losing our confidence, and on pressing in. The focus of both blogs was on claiming promises and concerns concerning our (my) loved ones. And part of what the Lord is reminding me this morning, is that His goals, while they include our loved ones, are much, much bigger. The context of this morning’s verse from 2 Chronicles 20:20 has to do with the establishment and the prosperity of the nation of Israel. And the clear application for us, is His concern in these areas to our cities, to our provinces to our nation, and even for the world.

I heard a prophetic word last night concerning the role Canada is to play in the healing of the nations. And again, it is no coincidence, that the Canadian flag contains a Maple leaf, since leaves, we are told, are for the healing of the nations Ezekiel 47:12. But before looking more closely into this verse, I need to say something about what it means to prosper. In this covetous age, many have understood words like this to refer only to financial prosperity, and the accumulation of stuff. I want to talk about pressing into the prophecies. But if we are pressing in only on financial prosperity, then according to James 4:3 we likely will not receive, because we are in danger of wanting to spend it on our own pleasures. As I say, His goals are far, far greater!

The same word (prosper) is used in Psalm 1, where we are told that if we delight in the Law of the Lord, and meditate on it day and night, then we will prosper in everything that we do (verses 2, 3). The meaning of the Hebrew word has to do with success in our endeavours. In the context of this morning’s verse, Israel faced an overwhelming Army coming against it. So the promise to prosper, if they believed the prophets, was of victory, success and of overcoming in the coming battle. New Testament application of physical warfare in the Old, pertains to the spiritual warfare. This warfare, we are told, is against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12) And yes we do need to be concerned about the welfare of our loved ones, but we also need to be concerned for the welfare, prosperity and success in the spiritual battle for the hearts and minds of the up and coming generation. Father, this battle is fierce. So we need to take the whole armour of God (Ephesians 6) and to fight with the spiritual weapons of our welfare (2 Corinthians 10). The primary weapon this morning’s verse is talking about, is faith. So I choose this morning Lord to believe the promises that You have given, and to believe the prophetic words spoken over Newfoundland, Canada and the nations. I pray reign and rule of God come, bring heaven down to Earth in revival Lord, in Jesus Name Amen