Hezekiah’s Life – Careful How You Pray
Studying Biblical characters is fascinating to see how their relationships with God developed and how they reacted when adversity occurred. As for many of the Old Testament kings, there were those who never had a relationship with God. Perhaps only about 20% of all the leaders in the Bible finished well. There were a number who, when fa
Hezekiah was one of the Judean kings. From 2 Chronicles 29-32, 2 Kings 18-20 and Isaiah 36-39, we get a pretty clear picture of Hezekiah’s life. He was a good king, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Along with character, he had the competence to help his people for he knew where they were at spiritually and as for vision, he knew where the people had to go. He connected with the people for they diligently followed the commands of Hezekiah to repair the temple and get right with God.
In his first adversity, the Assyrian king, Sennacherib mocked Hezekiah and God, then threatened to destroy
During the siege Hezekiah was fa
By looking at all the passages together about Hezekiah gives us a picture of the whole story about Hezekiah’s character. In 2 Chronicles 32:25-26, Hezekiah’s heart became proud, prideful and God’s wrath came upon both Judah and him. The good thing was he repented and God held back His wrath.
In those fifteen years, Hezekiah became very wealthy and received great honor. During that time a Babylonian envoy came to visit and Hezekiah showed them all of his riches and vast wealth. God allowed this to “test him and to know everything that was in his heart” (2 Chronicles 32:31). Isaiah indicated to him that the day would soon come after Hezekiah was dead when
If we aspire to be godly, spiritual leaders, one of the key components is our prayer life. Do not desire to be a spiritual leader if you are not willing to allow God to radically develop your prayer life. To know what He wants a leader of His to be doing, you need to listen to Him. This comes from reading and obeying on the Word of God, both talking and listening to God and being in close fellowship and communication with other spiritual leaders.
Hezekiah was walking with God and desiring to be the person God wanted him to be. When he got sick, Hezekiah prayed asking God to heal him. The discussion is not whether God heals or not, rather it is what he prayed for.
Was it wise for Hezekiah to ask for an extension on his life? Could the last 15 years that he requested have been too much for him to handle? With great power and victory comes great responsibility. Could that success and power have been more than his character could keep under control? God is sovereign – because of His sovereignty and greatness, could He allow us to receive things in our lives that are not the best for us, yet still accomplish His will?
Would God allow non-spiritual leaders to be “in control” of churches and governments to accomplish His ultimate will and purpose? So then how do we pray for leadership, and getting people pla
The underlying principle here is to be listening to God, seeking what is best for His Church and praying His will be done. Spiritual leaders are the physical leaders here on earth for God’s Kingdom, needing to be sensitive to the direction God is taking the Church.
ILLUSTRATION
Circles of Influence
Get out a blank sheet of normal size paper. Draw about a 2-3 inch diameter circle in the middle. Next, draw a bigger size circle around that smaller one and then finally draw one last circle around the other two. When finished, you will have three concentric circles. Inside each one, you need to write many names, so give yourself room to write.
In the first circle you drew, write down all the people you come in contact with each day. In the second circle, write down the people you see within a week or two. That can mean seeing them once a week or two, or a couple times a week. Finally in the outer circle, write down the people you see a couple times or once a year. Take your time doing this. Think about the people you come in contact with. Now depending on the time of year, the people and the quantity in the circles will vary. Plus your school classes change as often as each quarter, so people will be going in and out of the three circles.
Once finished, look at the number of people you come in contact with. We call these your Circles of Influence. Too often you think that there are very few people you can or do influence, when in fact, you potentially impact and influence many. A group of 20 students did this and the average number of people in the three circles was 75 to 80.
You have influence power. The fact is we influence people all the time and in reverse, people influence us all the time. The question is how are we influencing others and how are we being influenced. The people in those circles are a natural Jesus influencer group.
Matthew 5:14-16 says, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
As a Christian, you represent Jesus as his ambassador (2 Corinthians
Jesus told us that we do not need to go to a foreign country to be His ambassadors. We are to do it with the people we frequently come in contact with. Let them see Jesus in you, as you serve them and treat them with love and respect. Opportunities to explain the reason for how we live our lives before them will come. Tell them what it means to be a Christian and how your live has been impacted by Jesus.
“Preach the Gospel always and when necessary, use words.” That statement has been attributed to St. Francis of
YOUTH MINISTRY INSIGHT
Benaiah – Spiritual Courage
Guts! Courage! That is how you would describe Benaiah, one of David’s mighty men. “Benaiah, son of Johoiada, was a valiant fighter from Kabzell who performed great exploits. He struck down two of
Some people would call him crazy. Plus it is one of those things you are not to try at home! Being in a pit, this lion probably felt trapped and would be more vicious than ever. Add to the equation that it was a cold, wet, slippery day because of the snow. Traction for people is not at a high commodity on these days. Several facts about lions include they can weigh up to 500 pounds, run 35 mph and their vision is five times better than a human with 20/20 vision. Chances were all bets were on the lion to win this match. Benaiah did not have the odds on his side.
Yet we read that he caught the lion and killed it. We do not know how he killed it, but he killed it. No wonder David made him his chief bodyguard. I will take Benaiah as my bodyguard any day. Benaiah also killed a huge Egyptian (seven and a half feet tall) who had a huge spear while Benaiah only had a club. Benaiah got a hold of the spear and killed the Egyptian with it.
Is this advocating killing animals and people? Not at all. What I am encouraging is to have courage to serve the Lord, just as Benaiah served the King of Israel. Standing alone when everyone else is saying, “Do it!” or “Go all the way!” is very hard. Staying away from activities that you know you should not be involved in when your friends are involved and wanting you to join in, is very hard to do. Checking a porn site or magazine when no one is looking or entertaining an impure thought or an impulse to get even with someone with a juicy piece of gossip may seem so innocent, but it can quickly spiral downward to other sinful behaviors.
Chances are Satan is not going to hit us with the “big, bad” sin. Rather he chips away with minor, incidental things and pretty soon, we are doing things we never dreamed of doing. It takes spiritual guts to say no, not only to the big things, but as importantly, to the little “no one will know” sin activities.
It also takes a lot of guts and courage to admit that you have sinned and that sinning is going against an awesome, holy God. Yet that courage leads you to freedom from sin bondage, being a slave to sin and its habits.
Another area it takes spiritual guts is to serve Jesus, however He leads in your life. You may find yourself in some uncomfortable situations as you see it, but He is stretching you and wants to use you for His glory. What an awesome privilege that is.
Spiritual guts and courage are found throughout the Bible from Benaiah to Jesus to Paul and many others. Check out Hebrews chapter eleven. Do you have spiritual guts?
QUOTES ON PRAYER
"In its simplest meaning, prayer has to do with a conflict. Rightly understood it is the deciding factor in a spirit conflict. The scene of the conflict is the earth. The purpose of the conflict is to decide the control of the earth, and its inhabitants. The conflict runs back into the misty ages of the creation time" (S. D. Gordon)
"Most of our praying is just asking God to bless some folks that are ill, and to keep us plugging along. But prayer is not merely prattle, it is warfare" (Alan Redpath).
"Prayer is one of the most important aspects of building disciples. If one is to help men grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, he must pray. Indeed, if he does everything else right in terms of building disciples, yet fails to pray, nothing significant will happen" (
“The great people of the earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time and pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. This something else is important - very important and pressing, but still less important and less pressing than prayer.”. S.D. Gordon
“Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God’s infinite grace and power. All that God is, and all that God has, is at the disposal of prayer. We need to use the key. Prayer can do anything that God can do and as God can do anything, prayer is omnipotent.” R.A. Torrey
“In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God’s thoughts after Him; to desire the things he desires, to love the things he loves, to will the things he wills.” Richard Foster
“Prayer will reach down, down, down into the deepest depths of sin and ruin and take hold of men and women who seem lost beyond all possibility or hope of redemption and lift them up, up, up until they are fit for a place beside the Son of God upon the throne. R.A. Torry
“It is impossible for a believer, no matter what his experience, to keep right with God, if he will not take the trouble to spend time with God ...spend plenty of time with God, let other things go, but don’t neglect Him.” Oswald Chambers
“We should pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair an opportunity. We should pray when we are not in a proper mood, for it would be dangerous to remain in so unhealthy a condition.” Charles Spurgeon
“I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.” Martin Luther
