REVIVAL TALK

--> Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem Psalms 122             This Psalm is a Psalm of David.   In these scriptures he writes about the joy of going to the House of the Lord.   Verse 1 reads, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”   He continues in verse 6 with this admonition.   “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you.’” Why does the Bible encourage us to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem?”   Jerusalem was the one place among the twelve tribes of Israel that God chose to place His name.   Deuteronomy 12:5 reads, “But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.” The Lord promises blessing to those who are a blessing to His covenant people.   God spoke these words to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be b

--> The Fifth Month – Av The Month to Hear For a number of years I have been studying and praying for insight into how the Lord moves and works in time. We learn in 1 Chronicles 12:32 that the Sons of Issachar had an understanding of the times and knew what Israel ought to do.  They were masters of the Hebrew calendar.   In Exodus 12:2 the Lord established the Hebrew calendar. “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.” The Hebrew calendar begins at Passover in the month of Nissan.  This calendar was God ordained and introduced in the Bible.   To better understand how God moves in times you can study the Hebrew calendar and the patterns that have been established in the Word of God.  Our Gregorian calendar is on a different time cycle than the Word of God. The Bible refers to the month of Av as the fifth month counting from Passover.  It corresponds to the months of July/August on our calendar.  This year

Developing the Discipline of Listening Part Three – Discerning the Voice of God In the previous lessons we studied the discipline of listening to God.  We learned from Hebrews 3:7 that the Lord is speaking to those who are in covenant relationship with Him. Verse 7 reads,  “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit saith: Today, if you will hear His voice.”   As believers one of our most important priorities is to spend time in prayer receiving inspiration and direction for our lives.  Fifteen times the Word of God directs us to “hear what the Spirit is saying.”   With all the voices and noises competing for our attention today how do we discern the voice of God?  How do we know that God is speaking to our hearts?  There are a number of ways that God will speak to us.  In this study I want to focus on three: First, the voice of the Lord will be corrective.  You can be assured that voices from our own flesh will prove only to puff us up or to bring pride.  The voice of th

Developing the Discipline of Listening Part Two – Discerning the Voice of God We live in a noisy society.  There are a number of voices that compete for our attention every day.  Our meals are interrupted by phone calls on our cell phones. We have hundreds of channels available on our television sets.  Have you noticed that the commercials have greater volume than the shows or movies we watch?   With the technology we use it has become very difficult to disconnect.  We receive hundreds of emails and text messages every day on our smart phones.  Our houses are wired to the Internet.  Our lives have become so busy that we need to  rediscover the discipline of listening.         Too often prayer becomes a monologue.  We download our needs, desires, and wants to God.  I believe that we must make our petitions known to our Father, but we must also take time to listen for His direction and instructions.  Prayer is designed for intimacy and communion with God. Prayer is God’s

The Discipline of Listening James 1:19 – “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”             Paul Tillich writes, “The first duty of love is to listen.” [i]   One of the primary responsibilities of the believer is to learn to listen to the voice of the Lord.  Fifteen times in the New Testament, more than any other command, the believer is commanded, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.” [ii] If we are going to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, then we need to learn the joy of hearing His voice.  Listening requires discipline.  We must become good listeners. There are times in our lives that we need to still ourselves, stop talking, stop praying, and learn to wait in His presence and hear what the Spirit is saying to you.  You might ask, “How do I know that God will speak to me?”  God is always speaking.  The question is not, is God speak