Surely the Lord GOD does nothing,

.... unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken! Who can but prophesy (Amos 3:7, 8)?  Many fail to understand the nature of prophecy, thinking that when God speaks,  nothing can change it. And certainly this is the case many times. Nothing was going to change the Christmas prophecies of Christ's birth,  for example. But this is not always the case, and to think so fails to understand the Father heart of God, and the nature of His relationship with us. Because of the wicked deeds the children of Israel did while Moses was receiving the ten commandments, God told Moses he wanted to consume them. But Moses interceded and “the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people” (Exodus 32:7-14).

We need to understand the connection of the fulfilled prophecy to intersession, and the significance of our prayers. It is too simplistic to say “without God man cannot, without man God will not,” but many times this is true of the prophetic words we are given.  In particular positive prophetic words that are spoken need to be bathed in prayer. We need to understand such words as God inviting us into partnership with Him. And Him saying to us ”How badly do you want this?” In this regard He gives us the parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). In other words we need to keep on knocking!  Consider the principle  “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). When the child is departing,  we need to come before the Lord storming the gates of heaven for his soul. I just finished watching a movie “St Augustine, the son of her tears.” Through thick and thin and many tears,  he was birthed into the Kingdom by his mother's prayers!

The Lord is not some far off distant God. The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him (Psalm 25:14), so it is not just with His prophets that He reveals things. It is all about relationship, about intimacy with Him, about spending time in the secret place. Indeed “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1).  Jesus told us “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). All this is contingent on our accepting His invitation to abide in Him (verse 4). What will we do with these things?  Will we press into the prophesies and the promises, accepting His invitation to walk with Him,  or will we miss out on the most amazing relationship ever?

Father, You  tell us that if we draw near to You, You will draw near to us (James 4:8). But it's not as though You did not make the first move! You did that Lord by breaking into history, in what we are called to remember at this season,  the incarnation. And as we approach Christmas Lord, let us not get caught up in the hype of it all.  I don't want to be a lukewarm lover,  so stir us up Lord,  so we may perfectly love You and worthily magnify Your Holy Name in Jesus Name Amen