Special Focus - Praying for our Nation - 2 Chronicles 7:1-3, 12-20 - June 30, 2024

 

Special Focus – Praying for our Nation – 2 Chronicles 7:1-3, 12-20 – June 30, 2024 

GOD blesses those who humbly look to HIM. 

Have you ever been searching for a solution to a situation and ready to give up when all of a sudden you are prompted to pray? You pause and pray and to your surprise the solution comes to you. Some things require the wisdom of GOD. 

Many people are sensing something major is about to take place in the world and especially America. When we get concerned, that is a prompt for us to pray to our One True GOD, I AM/YAHEW through faith in JESUS, GOD’S only SON. We also pray and thank our LORD when good things take place in our country, family, business, church, etc.

In our study this week, King Solomon had asked GOD, as recorded in 1 Kings 3: ⁷ “Lord my God, you have now made your servant king in my father David’s place. Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership.^[c] 8 Your servant is among your people you have chosen, a people too many to be numbered or counted. ⁹ So give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?”

¹⁰ Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had requested this. ¹¹ So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life^[d] or riches for yourself, or the death^[e] of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to administer justice, ¹² I will therefore do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again. ¹³ In addition, I will give you what you did not ask for: both riches and honor, so that no king will be your equal during your entire life. ¹⁴ If you walk in my ways and keep my statutes and commands just as your father David did, I will give you a long life.”

¹⁵ Then Solomon woke up and realized it had been a dream. He went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant, and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then he held a feast for all his servants. (GOD still speaks to HIS chosen in dreams, as well as in HIS still small voice and through HIS Word, The Bible.)

The heart of the leader of our nation toward GOD, through faith in JESUS is vital.

King Solomon, King David’s son asked GOD for wisdom to rule HIS people. That pleased GOD and GOD granted King Solomon more in order to rule HIS chosen.

Let’s explore! King Solomon was dedicating the new temple to GOD. It was a magnificent structure built to honor the one true GOD of the universe.

 

Something to ponder. Since the physical temple no longer exists, where does GOD reside? HE still resides in a temple. (The answer is on page 6.) Let’s explore!!!

 

Let’s read 2 Chronicles 7:1-3:

The Dedication Ceremonies

7 When Solomon finished praying, fire descended from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. ² The priests were not able to enter the Lord’s temple because the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord. ³ All the Israelites were watching when the fire descended, and the glory of the Lord came on the temple. They bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground. They worshiped and praised the Lord:

For he is good,
for his faithful love endures forever.

This took place when the Israelites were under the law. This was before JESUS became GOD’S perfect acceptable sacrifice to pay for sin, in full.

 

GOD revealed HIS power to the people through a very visible demonstration as revealed in our scripture:

When Solomon (King Solomon) finished praying, fire descended from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. ² The priests were not able to enter the Lord’s temple because the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord. ³ All the Israelites were watching when the fire descended, and the glory of the Lord came on the temple. They bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground. They worshiped and praised the Lord:

For he is good,
for his faithful love endures forever.

King Solomon prayed, and GOD demonstrated HIS power to the people.

 

Fire cleanses and purifies. Do you recall the refiners’ fire used to refine gold? The person watching the goldsmith refining the gold as he kept turning up the heat and kept skimming off the dross. The onlooker got impatient and asked the goldsmith, “How do you know when the gold is ready?” The gold smith replied, “When I have the heat as hot as it can get and look over into the pot of gold and see my reflection, it is then that I know it’s ready.”

 

When Spirit-born Christians are filled with the Glory of GOD, there is no room for anything else and JESUS is reflected. Impossible for humans to achieve in their own strength but all things are possible with GOD through faith in JESUS.

 

The secret for any leader of a Nation or country is for its leader to be a Spirit-born believer in JESUS The CHRIST and for that person to make HIM the LORD of his/her life. When a person/leader thinks he/she is God, there will be trouble for that person/nation/country.

 

Let’s read 2 Chronicles 7:12-16:

The Lord’s Response

¹² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him:

I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple of sacrifice. ¹³ If I shut the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on my people, ¹⁴ and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. ¹⁵ My eyes will now be open and my ears attentive to prayer from this place. ¹⁶ And I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.

GOD was telling King Solomon, when trouble comes to the land you are ruling, let your first response be to come to ME for guidance and help.

This was before the passion of JESUS, as such sacrifices were still needed since they were living before JESUS gave HIS sinless life to pay for sin in full. When any person seeks forgiveness for his/her sin and asks GOD, in the name of JESUS, to forgive him/her GOD forgives that person and cleanses that person of all sin. That person is spirit born into the eternal family of GOD.

The passion of JESUS paid for all sin, in full, by the shedding of HIS sinless blood. Why blood? We read in Hebrews 9:22 - According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

JESUS gave HIS sinless life, no one took HIS life from HIM!

JESUS fulfilled the Law and as such all who place their faith in JESUS are no longer under the Law but under GOD’S Grace when they place their faith in JESUS. They are also given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee that they are GOD’S Son or Daughter. How do we know that? It is written in 2 Corinthians 1:22

It is He who has also put His seal on us [that is, He has appropriated us and certified us as His] and has given us the [Holy] Spirit in our hearts as a pledge [like a security deposit to guarantee the fulfillment of His promise of eternal life].

 

2 Corinthians 5:5

Now HE who has made us and prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the [Holy] Spirit as a pledge [a guarantee, a down payment on the fulfillment of His promise].

 

Let’s read 2 Chronicles 7:17-20:

¹⁷ As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and ordinances, ¹⁸ I will establish your royal throne, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man ruling in Israel.

¹⁹ However, if you turn away and abandon my statutes and my commands that I have set before you and if you go and serve other gods and bow in worship to them, ²⁰ then I will uproot Israel from the soil that I gave them, and this temple that I have sanctified for my name I will banish from my presence; I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples. ²¹ As for this temple, which was exalted, everyone who passes by will be appalled and will say, “Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?” ²² Then they will say, “Because they abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They clung to other gods, bowed in worship to them, and served them. Because of this, he brought all this ruin on them.”

America is opening up itself to all religions, including paganism.

What are we to do?

Where does truth reside? Where is the temple since the Passion of JESUS?

Consider - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (Amplified Version)

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have [received as a gift] from God, and that you are not your own [property]? You were bought with a price [you were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made His own]. So then, honor and glorify God with your body.

 

We who have been Spirit-born/born-again house the Holy Spirit. Salvation through faith in JESUS renders each Spirit-born person a priest.

 

1 Peter 2:9 (Amplified Version)

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a [special] people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies [the wonderful deeds and virtues and perfections] of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

 

Every Spirit-born Christian is the new temple that is not built with the hands of men but built by faith in JESUS and equipped by the indwelling Holy Spirit. All authority has been given to Spirit-born people as reflected in Philippians 4:13 ¹³ I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill His purpose—I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.] (Amplified)

 

When GOD calls, HE also equips. Our part is to trust and go, when GOD calls. The first step of faith is the hardest until GOD builds our trust in HIM, through our faith in JESUS. The words of the old hymn, “Trust and Obey” comes to mind. As we approach the second coming of JESUS, we must trust and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit to tell others about salvation through faith in JESUS.

 

Consider this. How did we begin this lesson? Fire came down and cleansed the temple, such that even the Priest could not enter. A good fire cleanses and provides visibility and warmth in a dark world.

 

When GOD sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, how did GOD manifest HIS arrival? As tongues of Fire. (Acts 2)

 

GOD cleansed the human temple for all who place their faith and trust in JESUS, to be the temple for the Holy Spirit to reside. Spirit born people are the light for those in the darkness of Evil.

 

Spirit-born people are to spread the good news of salvation and forgiveness of all sin through their faith in JESUS, WHO became sin in their place. When JESUS gave HIS sinless life upon the cross, all who place their faith in HIM also died with HIM, were buried with HIM and GOD raised them from the dead when HE raised JESUS. NOW THAT IS SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT! HALLELUJAH!!!

 

Blessings!!!