Tag Archives: Jehoshaphat

God is Doing a New Thing!

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Greetings from Austria!

Actually I am on the train from Bratislava to Vienna, and we just crossed the river.  There are lovely yellow fields of flowers.  It is a beautiful, sunny day, and my mood is equally sunny.  I just feel very hopeful after having such powerful and successful prayer in 2 capitals: Budapest and Bratislava.  It’s funny, I don’t know what to expect in Vienna because I’ve only passed through on the train.  But I feel a kind of breathless expectation.  This trip is pregnant with possibilities.  More later!

—Several hours later—

The mood swung dramatically when we entered the church.  Our hosts started right into a slide show about the history of Vienna, with emphasis on the spiritual realities here.  For me, the most impacting was the final slide: a map of Vienna 1913-1914, showing that Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky, Tito, and  Freud were all living in Vienna within a few miles of each other.  It occurred to me that Vienna is a spiritual womb (see my comment above, written on the train: pregnant with possibilities!).  At that time she birthed some pretty horrible things, but through prayer and worship, Vienna can birth great things for the Kingdom of God.

However, before receiving that revelation, we tried to worship, and it was a disaster at first.  The worship was weak, and only the English-speakers were worshiping.  One of our teammates pointed out that our hosts were not singing.  An Austrian host told us that what they need is not worship, but prayer, and prayer warriors for Vienna who will seek God’s face and pray these things through.

We tried to explain that prayer and spiritual warfare is exactly what we had come to do, but that we enter into prayer first with worship, like the priests of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20).  At that, a missionary who has lived here for 26 years put on a worship song in German, and we all worshiped together—some in English, and some in German.  That was an important turning point.  After that prayer began to breakout among our hosts, and that depressive atmosphere lifted.

Afterward, we enjoyed a lovely meal prepared for us by our hosts.  Friendship and fellowship developed, and there was lots of laughter and love.  God is good!

Put on Your Royal Robes

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Day Twenty

Tomorrow is the last day of my fast.  My answer is coming!  While praying this morning the Lord said to me: “Put on your royal robes.”  He didn’t tell me what that meant, so I looked up the words “royal robes” in the Bible to see if the term had some kind of significance.

One thing I noticed is the contrast between the first and last mention of royal robes:

1 Samuel 19:24 (Amp) – He took off his royal robes and prophesied before Samuel and lay down stripped thus all that day and night. So they say, Is Saul also among the prophets? (emphasis mine).

Acts 12:20-22 – On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man,” (emphasis mine).

Saul took off his royal robes to prophesy, and Herod put his royal robes on.  Herod didn’t stop the people from worshiping him, and pride made God strike him down.  Saul humbled himself and that allowed him to be used of the Holy Spirit, flawed as he was.  Now, I’m pretty sure that God wasn’t telling me to put on my royal robes and get all prideful.

In the next 2 instances of royal robes (both are accounts of the same story), wicked King Ahab tells Jehoshaphat that he is going into battle in disguise, but instructs Jehoshaphat to wear his royal robes in battle (1 Kings 22:30 & 2 Chronicles 18:29).  Ahab was thinking that the enemy would surely target the man in the royal robes.  But instead of being safe in disguise, a random arrow fatally wounded Ahab, while Jehoshaphat was left untouched.  So Ahab had thought to hide his royalty and be safe.  Earlier in those same chapters, the 2 kings were dressed in their royal robes listening to false prophets prophesy about the upcoming battle against the king of Aram, and even the true prophet had been instructed by the Lord to prophesy falsely, and so entice Ahab to his death in battle.  This was probably what motived Ahab to go into battle disguised.

But what does this story say to me about putting on my royal robes?  I think it says to be true to who I am.

In the next 2 passages, Ezekiel 26:16 (The Message) and Jonah 3:6, the kings take off their royal robes at bad news or in repentance.  Again this is a theme of humbling oneself by removing the royal robes.

But here’s the passage that speaks to me:  Esther 5:1: “On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance,” (emphasis mine).  Esther put on her royal robes to go and intercede on behalf of the Jews—at a very real risk of death.  I believe that what God is telling me is to put on my royal robes (be aware of my position and authority) and intercede for my people.  And who are my people?  My people are the missionaries and pastors I serve here in Europe and the lost people of Europe.

So, there it is, put on your royal robes and intercede for your people—and I will.  God is good!