Today’s prayer from the watchman to the Lord is “O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.Be our arm every morning,our salvation in the time of trouble.” Then the Lord answered, “And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”. ““But where is this wonderful place Lord?” The watchman asked further. Then he knew. How did he know? Just by following the faith people, living in the Spirit, walking by faith and not by sight.
As it is spacious and empty he loves to sit there alone and waits upon the Lord. The early morning and evening time is the best. The garden is just a glass door away, with some trees and patches of grass and stone pavement. Mature red palms, an unnamed tree, a fir tree, and a young thriving avocado tree are all doing well.
One day he received a phone call. A brethren in Christ who had not contacted him for many years suddenly called him. The man had been fasting for 28 days and had encountered the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He was filled with joy and tears. He wanted to talk to someone and no one was willing to hear him out from his circle of brethren and friends, including his own wife, pastors and elders. They come from one of the most traditional churches in this region. They do not want to know his experience of baptism of the Holy Spirit and are also against praying in tongues (in the church or anything to do with the church ministry).
The pastor has even warned sternly that he should never speak or pray in tongue when he is at the pulpit (as a worship leader //deacon), leading worship or prayer meetings, or as a cell group leader, or anywhere around the church or where the church members gather. He was stunned. He has served the Lord for years and become bone dry. He has observed that others too have the same dryness in their souls and spirits. Their bodies too suffer sicknesses which warrant constant medicine intake. After he was filled with the Holy Spirit he was overjoyed and nourished by the Lord, feeding on the word of God like never before. The brethren also testified that he decided to stop his medicine during his fasting and he was healed of a chronic pain at the back of his neck!
So the watchman was contacted when this Spirit-filled brethren suddenly recalled his name! The watchman agreed to meet with him as the brethren indicated that he wanted to know more about Holy Spirit-filled living. At first they met around 10am. Then the Lord prompted that the brethren should join the watchman waiting upon the Lord early to learn hands-on. So they decided to meet at the newly renovated space at 5am daily Monday to Friday.
After the first meeting, they were joined by a couple who lived nearby. They decided to wait upon the Lord too in the early hours before going to work. So the 5am-8am/9am morning ‘wait-upon-the-Lord’ faith in action training had birthed. No agenda. No planning. No program. No schedule. No fixed message. No fixed time frame. They just learned to listen to the Lord Holy Spirit and obeyed.
The Bible verses flowed as the Spirit of the Lord led them. The Lord Jesus had promised, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
Indeed, the watchman and the earnest seekers of God, daily encounter the reality of these verses, “Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar.”
“But there the Lord in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams,”
“And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.”
________________________________Bible verses for today:
Isaiah 33 (ESV)
2 O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.
3 At the tumultuous noise peoples flee;
when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered,
4 and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
as locusts leap, it is leapt upon.
5 The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,
6 and he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the Lord is Zion’s[a] treasure.
7 Behold, their heroes cry in the streets;
the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
8 The highways lie waste;
the traveler ceases.
Covenants are broken;
cities[b] are despised;
there is no regard for man.
9 The land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert,
and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
10 “Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
“now I will lift myself up;
now I will be exalted.
11 You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;
your breath is a fire that will consume you.
12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”
13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;
and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid;
trembling has seized the godless:
“Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?
Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”
15 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
who despises the gain of oppressions,
who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed
and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,
16 he will dwell on the heights;
his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;
his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.
17 Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty;
they will see a land that stretches afar.
18 Your heart will muse on the terror:
“Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute?
Where is he who counted the towers?”
19 You will see no more the insolent people,
the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.
20 Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!
Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
an untroubled habitation, an immovable tent,
whose stakes will never be plucked up,
nor will any of its cords be broken.
21 But there the Lord in majesty will be for us
a place of broad rivers and streams,
where no galley with oars can go,
nor majestic ship can pass.
22 For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver;
the Lord is our king; he will save us.
23 Your cords hang loose;
they cannot hold the mast firm in its place
or keep the sail spread out.
Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;
even the lame will take the prey.
24 And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;
the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.
Footnotes:
- Isaiah 33:6 Hebrew his
- Isaiah 33:8 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scroll witnesses
