The Trumpet--The Mouthpiece Part II

Just like God had a plan and purpose for Jeremiah before he was in his mother's womb, God also had a plan and purpose for John the Baptist before he was even conceived.  Remember how the Angel Gabriel visited Zacharias in the temple and told him he would have a son?  The angel spoke to Zacharias about John saying, "He will also go before [Jesus] in the spirit and power of Elijah, 'to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."  John the Baptist was called to prepare the people for when Jesus, the Messiah, would come.  When John began preaching, his message was a message of repentance.  Repentance prepares the way for a visitation of the Lord.  In Luke 3:4-6, John quoted the book of Isaiah saying that he was, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
     
     'Prepare the way of the Lord; 
     Make His paths straight.  
     Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low; 
     The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth;
     And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"


This is what prayer and repentance does; it makes a clear path for the Lord to come and visit His people.  It makes a clear path for the Lord to come and say what He wants to say, do what He wants to do, and be who He wants to be.

Not only is this crucial in our individual lives, this understanding is so important for intercessors to understand how we can pray to prepare the way for God to visit our churches, our cities, our nation.  There are so many ways that God leads intercessors to pray.  He knows what He wants to do, He just needs someone who will be obedient and pray first, "preparing the way" for Him to come.

Let's look at repentance closer, in an example of Daniel's prayer life.  When Daniel interceded for God's people in Daniel chapter 9, over and over he repented for the sins of the people and asked for God's forgiveness and mercy.  Get your Bible out and read chapter 9.  Notice that he wasn't just praying, "God, forgive THEM" or "God forgive ME."  He was praying, "God, forgive US."  He included himself with sins that the people committed and confessed them as his own.  He identified with them and asked for God to forgive.  This is so powerful!  As God leads you, when you are burdened about certain sins committed in specific geographical regions, repent for those sins as if they were your own and see what God does with it.  (I'd love to hear your testimony!)

Look what happens next in this same chapter:  While Daniel was "praying and confessing [his] sin and the sin of [the] people israel, and presenting [his] supplication before the Lord" Gabriel came and gave Daniel a word from the Lord (Dan. 9:20).  In this example, Repentance prepared the way for God to come and speak!!  WOW!  Think about that for a minute.  Pretty amazing....

Ezra is another example.  He prayed prayers of confessing sins of the people from his current time and also from years before.  People who committed sins and had already died.  Why did he do this?  It wasn't to help those who were no longer alive--that's impossible.  Here's the thing...when people sin, it opens a door for the for the enemy to set up strongholds--strongholds in a person's life, yes, but also strongholds in certain geographical regions.  These strongholds can affect many people living in the same area.  These strongholds affect how the people think, which affects how people live.  Well, repentance tears down those strongholds.  Ezra's repentance began opening the door for God to bring revival in his day.

When God's people are burdened about certain sins that dominate certain regions, we can pray that God would forgive this sin and I believe that repentance is where change begins.  I believe before boldly going out and attacking the stronghold, that repentance comes first.  We can confess and repent like Daniel and Ezra for the sins committed that opened the way for demonic spirits to come in the first place.  I believe that when we start repenting in this way, that it prepares the way for God to come and visit.  And how can demonic spirits stand strong in the presence of the Lord?  God's visitation gives God's people the strength to "resist the devil."  Then he has to flee.