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Let the wicked forsake his ways
and the unrighteous man his thoughts…
for your thoughts are not My thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts.
~ Isaiah 55:7-9

The key verse for the coming National Prayer Assembly (2 Chronicles 7:14) exhorts us to ‘turn from our wicked ways’. What are our wicked ways?

On the 26th and 27th of this month, we will come together as a mixed bunch, with a great variety of ideas about how we humans should relate to God. This cannot be right. Jesus was clear about this:

“I am the way, the truth and the light.”
~ John 14:6

None of us can claim to have the whole council of God, so in a sense all of us are to some degree “unrighteous”, that is, not thinking completely how God would have us think.

That means that, to some extent, all of us continue to practice “wicked ways”, our minds not being wholly in sync with the way that God thinks.

For thinking precedes action. “As a man thinks, so he is.” (Proverbs 23:7)
If our thoughts are not right, our ways (actions) are bound to be wrong (= wicked).

Moses sought to know God’s ways (Exodus 33:13). God showed Israel His ways in great detail — the Law. In the long run it did not benefit them, because their minds were not in order.

Some Christians say: “Tell me what to do (give me a law), and I will do it.”
In the New Covenant, God is saying learn about Me and the way I think, and your actions will come into My order.

REPENTANCE

John the Baptist and Jesus both began their ministry with the word “repent”.

“Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
~ Matthew 3:2, 4:17

This was a call to a mind-change (Greek: metanoeo). What they were saying was:
“Get your mind around this, God is re-taking what belongs to Him, so get on board!”

After Pentecost, Peter gave us a little more instruction how we could come under the Kingdom of Heaven.

“Repent (that word again!), be baptised…
for the remission of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
~ Acts 2:38

Receiving the Holy Spirit opens the way to the New Covenant operation in which the Holy Spirit sets up an intimate relationship with us on an ongoing basis — God writing His laws on our hearts and minds. (Hebrews 8:10-12)

This is not a one-time injection of “all truth”. The breakthrough of the Holy Spirit, from our spirit (koilia) to our soul life (heart and mind) brings the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the mind (Titus 3:5). And the mind renewing bit takes a while, the Logos calling us on.

[At least that what I have found, and I see that Paul (I Cor. 13:12) and St Augustine agree with me — see D’Arcy (1957): ‘The Philosophy of St Augustine’, in St Augustine: His Age, Life and Thought, Meridian, Cleveland.]

How good is that!!! Jesus in the midst of us is an individual affair! God has set up a deal whereby none of us has to teach his neighbour to know the Lord. We all know Him, from the least to the greatest!!

THE PROPHETIC WORD IN THE ASSEMBLY

We know God corporately, by individuals sharing what God is saying to them. We call this prophecy. Prophecy we can all do, (not just Bible School Graduates and ordained men and women), once we learn to fan up the flame! (Acts 2:17-18, 1 Corinthians 14:31, 2 Timothy 1:6)

This is confirmed in Jesus’ own statement about the New Covenant in Matthew 16:18-20 —

“Upon the rock of personal revelation, I will build My assembly, and the devil’s attacks will not prevail against it.

“And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom… and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound, having already been bound in Heaven (read the Greek — it is not the way you find it in your Bible translation), and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosened.“

How incredible is that!! When we come together as a nation to pray, we can expect that the Holy Spirit will:

• Tell us how God sees the world around us — bringing us into a state of righteousness and unity, as we all take hold of what God is saying to us!
• Give us keys (specific strategies) to bind demonic activity in our land and release the captives through Holy Spirit-led actions, including High Praise (Psalm 149:6-9).

I would not miss it for all the world!!! (Matthew 4:8-10)
Hope to see you there and hear what the Holy Spirit will say through you.

INTERPRETATION

Of course, the words that come through will require interpretation. Our feeble minds do not always catch on when God speaks to us sovereignly.

Since April 1972, when the Holy Ghost exploded into my conscious thought — the place where I am present with myself — I have received daily encouragements from the Lord in the form of songs and scriptures, but only a handful of sovereign words.

In 1985, at 9 a.m. South Australian time, on the 18th of February (3rd Day of Adar), I received the instruction: “Lay Healing Hands on the Nations of Africa.” It took me forty years of patiently walking with the Lord to unravel the richness of what that word meant!

In 1986, a sister in the Lord received the following word: “I want John and Judy to return to South Africa to stand against the persuasive voices over the land.” We followed the Lord’s advice, got beaten up several times by church leaders, but broke through to an open heaven in May 1997 on the stage of the Great Hall of the University of the Witwatersrand, while watching my Education Management students graduate. (The persuasive voice demons largely control our education systems – you can find them in Joshua 10:5).

In 1997, my wife was praying about funding some schools we were building in rural areas in South Africa. The Lord spoke to her as she was driving: “I will give you the treasures of darkness.” Later that evening, the Lord dropped a scripture into her mind: Isaiah 44:3. We are still looking for those treasures!

So, life goes on, walking with the Accomplice who directs our paths.

IN THE ASSEMBLY

Australia is at a crossroads. The demonic forces must be eliminated from the land and the persuasive voices silenced.

Jesus is ready to meet us as we assemble in His ecclesia.

At the Praise Corroboree in Canberra in 2001, He announced that had set up His government over Australia.

Since then, a new wave of the Holy Spirit has moved across the world. The pathway is open for us to bring in the restoration of the Kingdom in Australia in our time, if we listen to His voice and act on His instructions.

It is crucial that we come together in sensible humility, put aside our own ideas (unrighteousness) and own plans (wickedness), bring our thoughts under God’s government and leave the prayer room with clear instructions for the battle!

[The people who planned the Assembly were led to order it on the Day of Atonement. This brings hope that each of us will receive specific personal orders for our specific situations from the throne room during the Feast of Tabernacles.]

Forward!

[Photos by Jon Tyson & Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash]