We often will say we need to change our cities and our nation. I say that the cities, states, and nations will change when families are restored back to God.
This is about our sons and daughters. It is about breaking chains, holds and demonic strongholds off of our children.
Most of which, at one time, have had an encounter; an experience with Christ. However, they have walked away.
Some have walked further away than others, at least in our mind. I remind us today that the distance is the same between them all and Christ. Regardless of how steeped in sin we feel they are, their distance to return is the same as the one that we believe to be closer.
It will matter little how far away one is from Christ when He returns, the result will be the same.
However, the distance back to Christ is the same for everyone.
For that reason, I believe there is a stirring, a reviving and a renewing of the cry of parents for their children.
It is a clarion call for our children to return home, to come back to the Father.
You must have persistent, passionate and bold prayers for the vision that you have received; of the return of that which has been taken or that which has been promised to you.
The bible is filled with precious promises about the return of children.
I think it’s high time that we band together, in a unified force and start reclaiming what is rightfully ours and promised by God. We have been given authority, we should use it.
I perused the bible, and I noted that each time that God commanded his people to take something it never happened through a slick track, a television program, or sleek marketing.
Those items are needed but it is not what impresses nor is what brings victory.
Instead this battle is won in the trenches of our prayer rooms, prayer closets, and our obedience to the Holy Spirit.
This battle is against an enemy who seems to have entrenched himself, deep in the hearts of our children. It may seem that the child is fortified and the battle is hard. Our eyes see that there are defenses to every way of attack.
There is no defense against prayer.
Joshua faced a similar battle – it wasn’t over a child necessarily, yet it was over the future generations and the promises of God. He arrived at Jericho a well-fortified city that seemed to have a defense for every area of attack.
In reading the text again of the battle plan for Jericho, I noticed something in Joshua 6:12,15.
12 And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord.
15 But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they marched around the city seven times.
They had the promise and the instruction and they arose early in the morning.
I believe one of the foundational points to taking back what is ours is to get an early start. Bombard the enemy and the heavens with prayers early.
There is no defense against prayer.
Heartfelt, impassioned prayer and consistent intercessory prayer, begins to tear down the strong holds and dissolve the power of sin’s hold on their lives. Prayer makes the people of God more sensitive to the Holy Spirit. This allows for us to see the pathway that God is leading us down and to walk through doors that God is opening for us, to shine the light of Jesus into the darkness.
People of prayer are people of love and people in darkness need the light to lead them, in love, to Jesus. We shouldn’t shine the light to blind them or spotlight how in darkness they are. Instead use the light to guide them, not hurt them.
That is how the Holy Spirit brought us; not through harshness but through gentleness.
I hear a clarion call for parents, believers and prayer warriors to bind together. For our children that are wandering, those that are lost, wounded, hurt, deprived, and needing a fresh encounter with Jesus.
We need not join together and be in misery and mope or pray disheartening prayers. We need to join together and pray as they did in Acts 4:23-31. When they prayed the place was shaking, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness.
Without an encounter with Jesus Christ, our children are doomed to destruction.
Here is what God told Joshua…
Joshua 6:17
17 Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, it and all who are in it. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
Now we live in a time that people are waiting for the sudden destruction, before we will pray.
Destruction is happening not from the outside suddenly, but from the inside gradually.
Disease runs rampant; sickness, infection, and pain are all around us.
Death comes through countless doors; suicide, murder, and abortion.
Despair abounds, there is a growing sense of hopelessness as people’s aspirations and dreams melt before them.
Disillusionment is deepening as children see their homes break apart and relationships crumble around them.
Disappointment devastates people. Businesses going under, contracts and agreements violated, and friendships dissolving.
Dishonesty, deceit, divorce, dismay, destruction; it’s all around them. Yet, in the pews, prayer closets and prayer rooms HOPE is rising.
The Lord is calling His people to march around their cities, their inheritance, with their prayers, in so doing we will see the walls come crumbling down.
Hell has been building walls of destruction all around them, but the church is going to see, through the power of prayer, those walls come crumbling down.
God is able to shatter the walls and make them fall down flat. God is able to disperse the demonic powers and send an invasion of the Holy Spirit into the areas of despair and destruction.
God is prepared to rescue the Rahab’s… Rahab wandered in her sin, because no one told her of the Love of God.
Rahab is a prophetic study. This harlot from Jericho is an example of the hungry soul, that’s searching for a different reality.
Rahab = Hebrew root word meaning “wide space, roomy.”
It speaks to the empty hearts, wide open to whatever life can throw at them, and whatever the enemy will do to them.
However, her heart was also open to whatever LIFE, could be brought to her. Though she was a prostitute, when the spies came, she acknowledged that their God was greater than any other.
She was indoctrinated in a pagan culture, trapped in her own sins. Yet, she was open to the fact that there was someone, who was better than anything that she had ever known, the Living God.
Her openness, spared her life, not only did it spare her life; it also caused her to be related to Jesus.
How many of our children, if prayers are lifted, and walls come down, would respond to the Living God, and not only live, but become related to Jesus.
John 1:12 – But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Further Study References: Proverbs 22:6, Acts 16:31, Psalm 115:14, Psalm 112:1-2, Proverbs 14:11, Proverbs 20:7, Isaiah 49:25, Proverbs 11:21, Jeremiah 31:16-17, Psalm 25:12-13, Isaiah 61:8-9, Psalm 128:3, Isaiah 54:13-15, Psalm 36:7-9, Isaiah 44:3-5, Psalm 102:28, Deuteronomy 7:13, Deuteronomy 30:19-20, Psalm 127:3-5, Hebrews 1:14, Joel 2:28-29, Acts 2:14-18, 2 Corinthians 1:20, Isaiah 55:11-13, John 1:12, Romans 8:14