How to get victory through the prayer of King Hezekiah

Series 5 Prayer 2 ( Biblical Prayers for Today)I indirectly addressed this prayer several times, the most notable was in my post  Defending the Great Name of God through Prayer. In that post the purpose was to show how we have a responsibility to defend the Name of God. That particular post more than any other was met with a lot of resistance, I think because it asks the lay Christian to come out of his comfort zone and actively engage the devices of Satan in battle, through prayer. I am  not sure why Christians, who are supposed to be praying people refuse to pray the will of God with such dogged resistance. However that was that post.

The Victory Prayer of King HezeKiah

Today we turn our attention more to the details of this  prayer and how to apply it life today. However before we can do this we must get some base information about the circumstance.

Who is Sennacerib?  King Sennacherib (suh-na-kruh-rib) was an Assyria King from around 704 to 681 B.C. During the beginning of his reign his massive army for around 200,000 men invaded Judah. 

In an effort to convince the King Assyria for destroying Judah. King Hezekiah sent all te silver found in the house of the Lord, and everything of value in his own treasury (2 Kings 18:15) to Sennacherib. But Once the Assyrians had advanced to the walls of Judah, Rabshakeh an official of Sennacherib, delivered a speech in which he warned the delegation of King Hezekiah to surrender without a fight. On the advice of the prophet Isaiah King Hezekiah refused to surrender. A second message was sent to King Hezekiah demanding him to surrender without a fight. Again the prophet Isaiah advises the King not to submit to Sennecherib's demand (2 Kings 19:32)

So we pickup with the prayer of King Hezekiah starting with verse17 where king Hezekiah prays " It's true the King of Assyria has destroyed and laid waste to every land that has stood against them"  Here we see two very powerful points;

1. The fear that was in the heart of King Hezekiah, which was perpetuated by a believed lie. 
2.  And the lie, which was the foundation of King Hezekiah fear which was, the the King of Assaryia had laid waste to every land that has stood against him.
   
   ...And Hezekian prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubim, thou art God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear; Open Lord, thine eyes and see, and hear the words of Sennachherib, which has sent him to reproach the living God.  Of a truth, LORD the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nation and the lands, and have case their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them. Now therefore, o LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only (2 Kings 19:15-19)

The fear was real, there was an advancing army at the walls of Judah. However in verse 11-13 we find a lie told by the Assyrian King which Hezekiah accepted as the truth. Sennacherib gives a laundry list of the nations he destroyed and the inability of their God to protect them against his army. The lie was inferred, that because the false gods could not protect the nations against King  Sennacherib's army that the God of Judah was likewise impotent against the army of the Assyrians.  We see because King Hezekiah tried to bribe the Assyrian that for a moment he believed that lie.  We can only imagine that the prophet Isaiah had to persuade King Hezekiah of the truth of the gods of the nations that the Assyrian army had destroyed. The truth which was that they were not gods at all, but creations of their own hands and were unable to protect them. 

However, Hezekiah was not praying to some moon god, or sun god, King Hezekiah was praying to the God that created the moon, and the sun and the stars, and the earth. His prayers were directed to a living God, not a god made by the hands of man, but a God whose hands made man. so the situation and the circumstance wasn't the same for King Hezekiah and Judah as it was for the other nations.

 

Consider this meditation,

Meditations on Jehovah Nissi

At first I feared when all was against me, when the adversary came in like the waves of an evening tide against my peace;  pounding at the foundation of my heritage, saying I’m not a son of the almighty God. All that was wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, as armies circumscribe me from all sides, there no place for me to run. So I looked to the hills from winch cometh my strength.

Evil came to discomfit my life, while those I thought were my friends, like ravenous wolves bit at my hind side.  They revile me, for Your Sake, and by my past and called me as evil as they are. The chaos of the Accuser tried to confound me with doubt and enticed me with past wickedness. The Devil as tasked his minions to choke the salvation out of me, and chase my soul, to Sheol.

But I will run  only as far as Golgotha and no further, would I run. Because at the cross there is my confidence; I have rested my head under the blood stained banner of Jesus Christ. Victory is mine.  My strength is renewed, like an eagle I am mounted up on new wings, I will run but not grow weary, I will walk and  not grow faint. Because I am a new creature in Christ!

O Death, where is your sting? O Sheol, where is your victory? Do you not know that Jehovah Nissi  gives me the victory through my Lord Jesus Christ?

Tc Pearsall © 2011

Please do not copy the above meditation  without the expressed written  approval of the author

Soli Deo Gloria
Your Brother in Christ


Other prayers in this series
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Prayer of Agur   

Prayer of Agur

New Series  (Biblical Prayers for Today!)

It has been a few weeks since I wrote anything. But while I was stumbling on the internet, I can across a prayer that rang so deeply in my mind. Because this prayer was so fascinating  I wanted to share it with everyone and make this prayer the first in my Series of Biblical Prayers.

Additionally since this is  my first installment of the new year, and the first installment of my series on prayer  I wanted to challenge us with a prayer that would bring us to new levels. I therefore challenge you to pray this prayer until you mean it.

Series 5 Prayer 1

The Prayer of Agur

( I dare you to pray this prayer)

I would say 95% of all Christians have heard of the prayer of Jabez, but only about 5% of the those Christians would tell you where it's located in the Bible. This is just the opposite with The Prayer of Agur,  of the very few Christians that have heard I would guest that nearly 100 % of those Christians knows where it can be located in the Bible. Why this is so, we will address later, right now lets look at the prayer. That's right there is a prayer in Proverbs written by some guy name Agur. 

Proverbs 30:7-9
Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die:   Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:   Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.(KJV)

In this prayer a man named Agur ( identified in proverbs 30:1) ask God for two things,

1.      That God’s sustaining Grace will keep him from falling into sin because of his vanity and lies 

2.      And that God would meet his needs; 

a.      …but not so abundant, that he will forget that God is the source of all good things in his life.  

b.       ….and not so sparingly that he has to steal to meet his own needs. 

This is a difficult prayer to pray it deals with our vanity and pride, the lies that we tell, and that others may tell us, and our lust for money and fear of poverty. However Agur does not ask God to help him stop lying, but to keep him out of the situations and circumstance that may tempt him to lie,  or that may cause him to act in vanity or pride; to keep him out of circumstances where others are likely to have him as a subject of their lies.

We are cursed with the false belief that we can handle riches in our life , but this is far from the truth. When the options for large amount of money becomes a subject of our interest we almost universally see it as an opportunity to to get more things. I heard Christians who would never play the lottery, say things like “if I won the lottery I would buy…” you fill in the blank. The fact is, the natural man desires the gifts, and blessing of God greater than he desire God. It is for this very reason that God will not answer a prayer that would take us from his presence.

James 4:3 (Amp) says “ [Or] you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is [when you get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures.”

Agur was a man of wisdom, he knew his own fear of want, and the temptation that being impoverished has on mankind. So he prayed God don’t hold your substance from me so much that I, out of my lack will steal and defile your name.

The question we must ask ourselves are we willing to admit that we are unable to subdue our vanities, and pride ? Are we willing strip ourselves bare of the curse of plenty, so that we may live upright in the presence of Christ?  Or will be continue to lie to ourselves believing that in our abundance we will more abundantly seek God?

Soli Deo Gloria

Your Brother in Christ 

Victory Prayer of King Hezekiah