July 1, 2009

Tomorrow my husband and I will be celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary.  One of the very first gifts he gave me when we began dating was a Bible.  Inside the cover of wonderful gift was written these words:  "God's phone number - Jeremiah 33:3."  In the few words that compose this Scripture we find God's promise to answer us when we call upon Him and His ultimate desire to make Himself known to us.  The Lord desires for His children to be dependent upon Him and to know Him and His will for our lives, but we cannot know Him unless we are seeking Him (Jeremiah 29:11-14).

 

On one of our first dates my husband took me to church at The First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia where Dr. Charles Stanley is senior pastor.   We spent our first years together being discipled each week by this great servant of God, and the teaching I received during that time laid a strong foundation for my life and marriage.  One thing Pastor Stanley said that has resonated with me all these years was:   "The shortest distance between our problems and the solution is the distance between our knees and the floor."

 

Years later when the Lord led me to study the life of Corrie ten Boom I read a statement she made that helped me to understand the power that exists in this posture of humility before the Lord:  "The enemy finds great humor when we are up to our ears in work, but he trembles in fear when we are on our knees in prayer."  Out of all the military positions we may attempt to take in our spiritual battles it is only on our knees that we have any hope of achieving ultimate victory against the advancing enemy (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).  If our greatest power exists on our knees why, then, do we so often make God our last resort instead of our primary pursuit?  We, as a Church, have lost our impact and have become weak  because we do not pray as we should!

 

Personally, it is in those daily moments before the Lord, when my face is on the floor, that I find myself  broken into a thousand tiny pieces. It is only in this place of humble dependence upon Him that  the Lord takes the broken fragments of our life and begins His wondrous work of rebuilding and restoration, a work that is not possible when we stand self-sufficient on our feet (2 Chronicles 7:14).  

 

This weekend a trumpet call has been issued for the children of God to take their positions on the frontlines of the spiritual battlefield; to kneel before the Lord our God and Maker and allow Him to fill the gap in our lives that has rendered us ineffective in our present battle, providing us with the power that we have been lacking because we have not sought the Lord as we should.  The President of Family Research Council in Washington DC, Tony Perkins, has obediently responded to God's call to sound the trumpet and call believers across our nation to come before the Lord on our knees in humble repentance and prayer on Sunday, July 5th (see www.Call2Fall.com).  

 

This five-minute prayer time, in our Sunday worship service, is a divine opportunity to respond to God's call to unite with our Christian brothers and sisters, and publicly profess our humble dependence and need for God.   The independence we enjoy and celebrate on July 4th is being threatened because we have forsaken the One in Whom we are dependent upon.  We are a Christian nation, founded and established because of the humility and obedience of the faithful saints who have sought the Lord on their knees and responded to God's call to bring His light to this land, setting up a lighthouse for the world to come to salvation in Christ Jesus.

 

Today, our lampstand is in danger of being removed; evil and darkness is making its advance and casting a shadow on those who have been called to be "the light of the world" (reference Matthew 5:14; Revelation 2:4-5).  While we desire to see God's hand move upon this nation, His desire is that we seek His face.   We want to be blessed, but He desires we know the Blessor.   We cannot know Him if we are not seeking Him - the storehouse of heaven will not open until we open His Word and open our hearts.  Our cries will not be heard until we confess our sin (reference Isaiah 59:1-2).  We may not tear down the high and bulging walls of deception and immorality that are weakening the fabric of our nation in these few moments on Sunday morning, but our willingness to come before the Lord, on our knees, both individually and corporately, will allow the Lord opportunity to tear down the walls have been built up around the hearts of His children and have been blocking our view and hindering our ability to impact this nation for the glory of God.

 

As we begin to  prepare to celebrate our nation's independence with our family and friends may we take time in these next few days to prepare our hearts and offer our gratitude to our God Who has blessed us so abundantly in this land.  May we bless our Lord by showing Him our love and humbly responding to His call to seek His face with all our hearts that He might show us wondrous and awesome things that He desires us to know! 

 

Begin today by visiting the Call2Fall website and answer the call to unite with believers across this nation in humble dependence upon God by clicking "I'm In"; check the church map (under "Start Here" on the menu bar) to see if your church is participating - if not, ask your pastor to  prayerfully consider the powerful opportunity this time will provide their congregation to unite together in prayer,  allowing many to experience victory on their knees as the walls that have hindered their relationship with the Lord begin to crumble; and finally, the Word of God and prayer go hand-and-hand:  "the power of one is dependent upon the presence of the other!"  Therefore, may we prepare our hearts by spending time in His Word - a good place to begin is by reading and meditating (and praying!) the prayers of those who have sought the Lord in times of national need:  1 Kings 8:23-53; 2 Kings 19:14-19;  2 Chronicles 6:14-42; 20:6-12;  Ezra 9:6-15; Nehemiah 1:5-11; 9:5-37; Daniel 9:4-19; John 17:1-26.

 

When God places a burden on the hearts of His children to pray He has already prepared the answer - He is simpy waiting for our response.  We are not to worry about the results, but we are held accountable to respond to His call.  May every believer respond in humble obedience to the Lord's call upon their heart to seek Him daily and desire to know Him more intimately.  May our hearts be more open to His Word and His will that He might also respond to us, "Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what He spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before Me and tore your robes and wept in My presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD" (2 Chronicles 34:27). 

 

May the Lord hear us because we have allowed ourselves to be broken and emptied of our sin, and may we hear Him because we are no longer distracted by our circumstances or the temptations of the world, but are, instead, completely content to rest in Him!  May our nation continue to be blessed because we, His children, have blessed God by seeking, submitting, and serving Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength!

 

Remaining at His feet,

 

Traci Alexander

Trumpet and Torch Ministries

Psalm 27:4, 13-14

 

P.S. The Trumpet and Torch Ministry exists to lead believers into a deeper more intimate relationship with the Lord through prayer, fasting, and "feasting" on the Word of God.  Please visit www.trumpetandtorch.org for more information.