Let’s review. When Christ rose from the grave, He merged law and faith into a single Covenant in His blood. Of course, we know that law still works for those without faith. That’s what evangelism is: Demonstrating Biblical Law to people who don’t have it. That’s about as much as most people will recognize at first. The Law is a gateway to faith, though. It’s just the starting point for something far bigger.
But it’s not a bad place for those whose faith does not awaken for awhile. This is why we emphasize Biblical Law as a matter of lifestyle and conduct. It gets you in the door for His promised shalom. We often break that down into reasonable prosperity and provision, health and healing, safety from threats, and a social stability that makes life tolerable until He calls us Home. These things are our witness to the world outside the Covenant. And we try to make it contagious by offering peace and compassion to anyone who will take it.
Within this frame of reference, those of you led by the heart will have a mission and calling that sets you apart. But it serves us well to break things down to the simplest terms now and then, and all the more so during times of tribulation.
I’d be quite surprised if some of you don’t see the darkness crawling across the US. Every day I can sense from the moral realm the creeping demonic madness that slowly metastasizes on our society. The world around us has no protection because they reject the Covenant, any covenant.
When you know that tribulation has been decreed, the thing to do is begin praying that His wrath falls on you, first. “Start with me, Lord!” Because for those of us in Christ, His wrath is gentle and healing. For those outside the Covenant, it is madness and chaos. It’s the same hand of God; the difference is whose you are.
On today’s ride, I felt moved to imprecatory prayer (see Psalm 35 for a sample). I got to a regular prayer spot and stopped to perform a vaguely priestly ritual, something any of us can do when the Spirit moves. It was simple; I faced the direction the Lord told me and raised my hands. Sometimes I faced the palms outward, and sometimes turned my palms up, to match the tone of the words. You don’t need a recitation of specific wording, just an outline for your own words.
I called on the Lord to come for a visit, and to start with me. I wanted the cleansing of His wrath on my own sins and weaknesses, confessing my unworthiness. Then I asked Him to see the enemies of His revelation and how they were oppressing His children. I associated the globalists with the Tower of Babel and called for His hand of confusion to work among them, to divide them and set them against each other. I prayed that Trump would be successful in smashing them here in the US, while others acted as His whip hand in other places. Then I prayed for eyes to be opened, that the congregation of the heart-led would grow.
Time enough somewhere down the road to pray against the Zionists and imperialists. Today the issue is globalist idolatry.
There was a time when my bicycling was all about having time to get reacquainted with myself and with the natural world around me. I needed the solitary workout to clear my head. Consequently, I didn’t ride that hard most of the time. Most of my rides were to reduce the clutter in my soul until I reached a good place to stop and pray, a functional chapel. That has become less of an issue now, as I ride more for the health effects. My time on earth is limited and I want my fitness to be as high as possible so I can live with vigor and strength for as long as I last. Riding is one of the few things left my body can do for aerobic effect. Given what I teach, is it any surprise I focus on keeping my heart strong? Thus, I ride pretty hard now and stop only when the Spirit moves strongly.
Keep your focus on the core of the Covenant and see the mighty works of God in the midst of tribulation.
Good job keeping up with the riding and prayers. All heart-led folks would do well to do both (not riding necessarily, but some kind of physical upkeep).
I do confess I had to look up “imprecatory.” I had forgotten it 🙂
Yeah, I’m a vocabulary freak. 😉
I like wildflowers. The picture of the flowers growing over trash makes a visual parable. Whoever has eyes, let them see.