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Monday, February 22, 2010

“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” 2 Chron 7:14 AMP.

When we search through scriptures, we keep seeing instances where God’s people had to cry up to God for a change in their situation..and God answered.. Most times as men (humans) we have a tendency to first result to our human efforts or ability..its often when our strength fails us that we remember the place of God.
Take for instance, most times when we misplace a valuable item..we first begin to search for it using all our human permutations..its only when our efforts have finally failed us that we remember to ask the Holy spirit to Help us.

This was the case with the children of Israel when they were being oppressed by the people of Midian...the bible records that when the Midianites became so oppressive to the children of Israel..God’s children first prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves, and strongholds..(Judges 6:2 NIV). This is what we tend to always do first as men..we tend to think of new ways of surviving..new ways of bearing our burden by ourselves…we come up with new ideas..new programs… broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jer 2:13).
But as shown in our main text above… when God’s children remember to humble themselves and turn back to God..to call on Him..to pray, seek, crave and of a necessity require His face and turn from their wicked ways..God will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.

The story of the Children of Israel and their oppression by the Midianites in Judges 6 is one example of how change can happen when we follow the process outlined in 2 chron 7:14 quoted above… Verse 6 of Judges 6 states that “ Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help” (NIV) then in verses 7 and 8 of the same Judges chapter 6 the bible tells us what happened after they cried up to God for help. “ When the Israelites cried to the Lord because of Midian He sent them a prophet, who said, This is what the Lord , the God of Israel says….” God eventually raised up Gideon and used Him to free His children from their bondage under the Midianites. In verse 16 of Judges 6, God speaking to Gideon said “ I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”

Also in the book of Exodus chapter 3 and verse 9 and 10, God speaking to Moses said “ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them…so now, go. I am sending you to pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
We all know the extent God went in response to the cry for help of His children when they could no longer bear the oppression of pharaoh in Egypt..God used Moses to do terrible things in Egypt that left pharaoh no option but to release God’s people.
Whenever we humble ourselves and cry up to God for deliverance..and for change..God can go to any length to ensure our release..because we are very precious to Him..In the book of Isaiah chapter 43 verse 4, God says “ That's how much you mean to me! That's how much I love you! I'd sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you” (MSG).

Another instance in the bible where we see God responding powerfully to the cry for help from His children is in the story of Deborah and Barak in the book of Judges chapter four. Verse 3 states that “And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of Iron , and for twenty years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel” (NKJV)
The above scripture makes me wonder and ask this question, what would have happened if Jabin did not have up to nine hundred chariots of Iron and if He had oppressed them for only ten years instead of twenty? …that’s what we do most of the time..we endure..we learn to adapt and adjust…some of us have so adapted to certain conditions that we have lost our initial shape and structure that God intended for us…I pray that you will arise and shout enough! And humble yourself before God…and cry to Him for help…

When we cry to God for help..He moves in awesome ways and does terrible acts if necessary to ensure His peoples release. In the above passage..When God’s children cried up to Him…He moved and enforced their release..There is no King called Jabin or Commander called Sisera that can stand in God’s way when God comes to the rescue of His children. In the above passage Barak thought God was going to use Deborah the prophetess to effect their deliverance hence he insisted on her coming along with him to the battle (Judges 4:8) ...but God had other plans…in other to prove that it was not man but God Himself who delivered the victory to them, God made the glory for killing Sisera to go to neither Deborah nor Barak, but to a woman called Jael who was not even present at the field of battle (Judges 4:21, Judges 5:24-27).
How many more instances of God rising in response to a cry for help from His children can we take..there are so many of them in the scriptures..Take for instance the story of Mordecai, Esther and the Jews in the book of Esther chapter 4, and also the story of Nehemiah and the condition of God’s children in Jerusalem ( Neh 1: 1-11).

In this our generation, we must realize that God has not changed, He is the same yesterday, today and forever.. If we truly Humble ourselves to pray and seek His face and repent of our wicked ways, God would hear us from heaven, forgive our sins and heal our land.
As Agents of Change, we must arise and cry to God for help.

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