YAHWEH'S MOUTHPIECE

Show us Your mercy and grace
Take us to Your holy place
Forgive our sins and heal our land
We want to dwell in Your presence one again

Every move of God upon the earth requires the permission and partnership of men for it to be birthed.

“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.”

As much as we say we are expecting revival, when the Lord comes he comes to execute vengeance and judgement upon the earth, because the cry that has come before Him is the cry of iniquity from the earth, just as in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous.” There must be men to raise a cry and plea for mercy so that the Lord comes to revive His work in the midst of the years, and in wrath remember mercy. In Sodom and Gomorrah, there was lacking a cry of righteous men for mercy over the land and so, the judgement of God came upon the city. For God said, he would not destroy the city if He found ten righteous men.

The Lord says, “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap and make up the edge before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.” Ezekiel 22:30 – 31. Take note of what God said. He wasn’t just looking for a man; He was looking for a man among them. It is the inhabitants and residents of a land that can give God earthly permission to visit in vengeance or mercy. When Abraham prayed, He was leveraging on the altar of intercession raised by the righteous men in Sodom for God to pardon the iniquity of the city. God would not cease destroying the city because of the righteousness of Abraham, but the righteous men in that city. If the Lord will visit your family in mercy, He must find men in that family who will raise an altar of intercession. If the Lord will visit your assembly, He must find men among that assembly. If the Lord will visit our nation, and any nation, He must find men “among them”.

The man that will make up the hedge and stand in the gap is one that will stand before the Lord. “And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.” (Genesis 18:22). What’s your stand before God? One requirement for a man to stand before God is having clean hands and a pure heart (Psalm 24:3 – 4). It’s a priesthood office and it cannot be carried out having filthy garments. Joshua, the high priest, had filthy garments on and His ministration before God was hindered.

Do we realise how much God has laid upon us? He has set us as gatekeepers to determine the dimension of Him that finds expression upon the earth. These realities are settled in heaven but there is a need for men who will pray the kingdom of God and the establishment of His will on earth.

We find in the scriptures certain men who stood in the gap for their people and experienced the visitation of God. Daniel is one. “In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by the books the number of years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face to seek the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes” Daniel was a man to make a resolution and take a decision. He would not wait or linger but took a decision to seek the Lord. Realizing the promises and provisions of God, and understanding the time, there was no better time than to pray and seek the Lord for His visitation.

Leonard Ravenhill said, “I’ll tell you the secret of getting revival in the church. Find half-a-dozen people that know how to groan in prayer.” Every revival that happened in the past was birthed by men of bended knees. We know it was Mary that gave birth to Jesus, the Saviour, but some men prayed it into existence – Simeon and Anna, the prophetess. Remember that the coming of the Messiah had been prophesied many years before. The promise will only have been delayed further if there is a lack of intercessors.

Daniel came to the understanding that Israel was to spend forty years in captivity. Had he not laid it upon himself to seek God, they would have spent many more years until there was a sufficient intercessory sacrifice to move heaven for their deliverance. It is not enough to receive promises and prophesies from God, there is a need to pray them into performance, or else they’ll remain as just points to note in our journal without getting to see the reality of them.

We need to raise a cry for mercy to God. That’s the secret of getting revival and God’s kind visitation upon our land. What is due is actually a visitation in judgement, but by intercession, mercy can be obtained from God. Let us come boldly before the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy…. The plea for mercy is one that always finds its way into the heart of God procuring favour and grace from God.

Intercession is a priestly engagement as God as required in Joel 2:17 “Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?” It’s a time to plead with God passionately.

Dear Lord, we come and take our place as priests weeping before you between the porch and the altar. We are deserving of your wrath, but we plead for your mercy. Show us your mercy. We confess our sins and the sins of our people to you and ask that have mercy, forgive our sins and heal our land. Grant us your presence and favour again. We pray you to strengthen our knees to seek you until we see your face radiantly shining upon us and your glory revealed through us in Jesus’ name. Amen!