“I say that dark times are coming, and dark times are upon you! But I am calling a church who will rise up in holiness, a church who will rise up in my strength! You will be victorious, you will be victorious for the gates of hell shall not prevail! What keeps you back? What keeps you from seeking me and taking hold of me and my promises to you and walking forward in my strength? Oh I say, what hinders you? Come to me, come to me and know me!”
Searching questions: What keeps me back; what keeps me from seeking Him; and what hinders me? I have found when the Spirit brings the inquiries my rationalized answers seem so trivial, so trite, so senseless.
So rather than answer from my past, I look for a response in the ever-presence of what He said. Because I like to think that I pray; after all, I plan to every day. And I have done watchings, and fastings, and all-night prayer meetings.
Yet, still the question: What keeps you…?
But also, the answer: Taking hold of Him and His promises.
I had failed to really pray the promises of God.
By His design, my prayer is His chosen vehicle that drives His promises back to Him.
In their return His will can be accomplished on earth as it is in heaven; and I will be victorious, and strengthened, and the gates of hell will not prevail against me as part of the “called out ones” known as the church.
In my devotional time, as I read and pray His promises, I will come to really know Him and see His word take shape in this world.
“On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
– Isaiah 62:6-7 NASB
