I love Sunday mornings (yes, I know it is Monday morning when I am sharing this) because being in a home church means I have extra time to go for a prayer walk, listen to our “church prep” sermon,[1] and arrive out at my outdoor prayer chapel for some time of praying through God’s word.
For weeks I have been praying my way through Isaiah as a way to increase my understanding of the context of chapter 49, the one I am prayer-journaling (meditating) through. This is the verse I shared in church yesterday from Isaiah that captivated me as I prayed it back to God:
“and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,”[2]
This brought to mind a number of people who have led the way in churches regarding the idolatry of self-protection. I was warned about this idol of self-protection over thirty years ago, and three decades has proven the warning valid!
The above scripture makes it easy to understand how to pray about such things. The “spirit of the Egyptians” is the enemy spirit, the spirit of rebellion against God. Egypt represents both the quintessential enemy of God that had once held his people captive, but also one of the lovers his people kept turning to for help and refuge instead of to him as their God.
This is the issue with self-protection in the church: it holds God’s people captive, and it is their favorite idol of refuge when they are afraid. The promise of God regarding the Egyptian spirit is definitely valid for today!
My meditation on this brought to mind people who have had such a spirit of idolatry (including sacrificing others on the altar of their self-protection), that it was not difficult to understand how to ask God to confound the fellowship of these idolaters and cause such fighting among them that they will completely lose the courage of this spirit of rebellion in them.[3]
But then I found myself praying about this through the Beatitudes Jesus used to introduce his Sermon on the Mount[4]. I prayed that God would:
·
“Bless them with poverty of spirit so they would
open their hearts to you,
·
“And bless them with mourning over their sinful
idolatries and cruelties so they would feel your comfort soothing the wounds
that have driven them to desperation,
·
“And bless them with the meekness that is so
aware that nothing inside them can protect them and help them, and no idol they
worship of matter, or man, or demon, can deliver and save them, and bring them
to rest in the sovereignty and authority of Jesus Christ our Lord so they are
able to seek to know and do your will,
·
“And bless them with such a hunger and thirst
for righteousness, O God, that they would know they are emptied of their
Egyptian spirit, and void of the righteousness of God they have forsaken, and
that they see in Jesus Christ such grace and glory and goodness that they
believe the good news that there is a righteousness that is by grace through
faith, that you made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us in order that your
people could become the righteousness of God in Christ,
·
“And bless them with such an experience of this
grace and mercy of God that they would be transformed from mean to merciful,
and from cruel to compassionate, and from rebellious to reconciliatory,
·
“And bless them with such a profound experience
of the righteousness of God that is by grace through faith, and such an
amazement and wonder at how good and loving and gracious you are, that their
hearts would be purified with first love so they would be all about the kingdom
and righteousness of God in everything they do,
·
“And bless them with such an experience of the
peace of God in their salvation that they become the most loving and relentless
peacemakers who want everyone in their lives to have peace with God instead of
the praise of man, and would unite with other believers to make the Prince of
peace known through the Gospel of peace so others will come to experience being
‘justified by faith’ so they ‘have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ’ along with us all,
· “And bless them with the grace of persecution for their righteousness in Christ that is so strong, and pure, and wonderful, that Satan aims his attacks against its unstoppable power and glory so that they would come to rejoice with us in the persecution we all share in Jesus’ name where they were once Satan’s pawns in that persecution!”
I hope that helps and encourages you to see how praying
scripture back to God gives us confidence that we are praying things that are
God’s will, but also that we are praying in context of the life of the kingdom
of God that is always seeking God’s best for others in the agapè-love (divine
love) that wants God’s glory and people’s good to magnify God’s grace, love, mercy,
forgiveness, restoration, and reconciliation in every answer to our prayers.
© 2023
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
[1]
For a number of years, we have
helped our church families set our minds on spiritual things prior to arriving
at our church fellowship by viewing in our own homes a sermon video by a
variety of pastors. This not only helps us prepare ourselves spiritually for
fellowship and worship, but it also gives us input and counsel from far more
pastoral voices than we have in close contact.
[2]
Isaiah 19:3
[3]
This is the context of Isaiah
19, that God was describing how he would get the Egyptian territories fighting
one another in confusing resulting in the Egyptian spirit being brought to
nothing.
[4]
Matthew 5:1-12
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