Hey, Taste and See Freedom.
Happy Mother's Day.
I brought you to the beach today on day eight, but here's my day seven post.
I'm still getting caught up.
Listen, this morning I was really contemplating Deborah in the book of Judges, the book of
revivals I once heard it called, where the people turn from God, their hearts grow cold,
they suffer great abuse and oppression and scattering and unspeakable evil, just as we've
seen throughout the history of Israel, the history of really the world, and sort of like
we're seeing in our own country.
But what I want to point out is that when Deborah, I love Psalm 63 verses 11 and 12,
it says God sends forth his word and the women who publish his word, the women who speak
his word are a mighty army.
The kings of the enemy's armies flee, the kings flee, and she who stays at home divides
the spoiled.
Deborah was at home, Deborah cultivated a heart for God, and God brought the people
of Israel to her, she sat under her palm tree and would bring the issues of Israel and would
cry out for Israel, would cry out for revival, would cry out for God, for God's wisdom, for
God's life, and people honored that and they would come and they would do what she said.
And one day God spoke to her about a man named Barak and she had Barak brought to him and
she said, the Lord said, gather yourself, collect 10,000 men from, I think it was Zebulun
and Aftali, and go out after King Jabin and his commander, Cezara, oh my gosh, anyway,
the commander, and overtake them or God will give you the victory, God's going to deliver
them into your hand.
So he was giving Barak territory and Barak returned to the Lord, he was called by God
to do this great thing, God had promised him the victory, but he hadn't developed and cultivated
that intimacy with God, and so he said to Deborah, if you go, I'll go, if you do not
go, I will not go, I won't obey if you don't go with me.
So it's kind of like when the Israelites were brought out of Egypt, out from under slavery
and oppression, and they were all called to come and draw near to God.
And they said, no, you, you Moses, you listen to God, you tell us what to do, and then we'll
obey you, but we don't want to come to God, we're too afraid of him.
So Deborah said to Barak, okay, I'll go with you, but the glory for the victory will not
be yours, it will become, the glory will go to a woman.
So I just want to say like, you know, it is, faith is a scary, risky thing, but the reward
is glory.
The reward of taking a territory totally full of faith and trusting God is glory.
So anyway, we know the story, he obeys, she's with him, the 10,000 are gathered, I'm sorry
if I'm saying his name wrong, gathers his like, almost like 900 or almost 1000 ironclad
chariots with his thousands of men, 40,000 men or something, and comes out, but God already
goes ahead of Barak, sends confusion on the people.
And by the time Barak's army gets there, they overtake them and kill everyone by the sword.
But Sihar pleads, she finds Jaden's tent, and she welcomes him.
She has the fruit of hospitality.
She has developed herself as a woman to, even in the face of an enemy,
to not be catty or selfish, but to have the presence of mind,
to invite him in, to comfort him.
He asks for water. She makes him warm.
She makes him buttermilk, which, you know, helps him go to sleep.
She hides him under a blanket.
And when he has crashed, because of course he's exhausted,
she takes up in her hands a spike, a tent spike, and a hammer,
and she drives that thing through his head.
He was a wicked man of a wicked people who terribly, for 20 years, oppressed the Israelites.
And so her name we speak of today.
We talk of there are like millions and millions throughout time who have spoken her name
because she didn't say, no, not me.
She didn't say, I can't. She didn't hide.
She wasn't afraid. She didn't even kowtow to the enemy.
She got near enough, fearlessly, to drive a stake through his head.
That's putting our natural with God's supernatural, and we're able to overcome the enemy.
So my prayer, our prayer today, if you'll join me, is that as the gospel is being released,
as the Messiah is being released, revealed, as the truth is being revealed to the Israelites,
that their hearts are being prepared.
People are being made ready with God, before God, to take courage in their heart,
to not cower, to not go back to what is, to not hide,
but to step across the threshold of faith into salvation.
So Father, we thank you so much for Jerusalem, for the peace of Jerusalem.
Peace contends for righteousness.
There is no peace with compromise.
There is no peace with corruption.
There is no peace in the absence of righteousness.
And Jesus is made unto us righteousness from God.
Wisdom, salvation, sanctification, redemption.
You are our Redeemer.
Lord, as you are the Messiah that has come through the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
we pray for the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The people through whom you made yourself a body, prepared yourself a body to bring us salvation.
And we pray that right now you're stirring up people to be hungry for God,
to really go down into the roots, to go down into the secret place,
and hunger and thirst for God.
We pray that people would stir one another up.
We pray for mothers like Deborah, that would cry out for the nation,
cry out for young men, cry out for victory, cry out for the end of oppression,
cry out for protection and deliverance from enemies.
We cry out for men to be able to hear their call and not be afraid,
to not surrender the victory that you would place in their hands,
but that men would take courage, and men would rise up, and men would say,
yes, Lord, and they would also be prepared.
They would also be prepared, wanting the voice of the Lord, developing the voice of the Lord,
spending time in the word of the Lord.
We thank you, Lord, for those who will not be afraid to work, not be afraid to recognize an enemy,
and to remain close to the opportunity of a deliverance, of a slaying of the enemy,
to not be afraid that they're going to be corrupted near an enemy.
Don't be afraid what's going to happen to their life, but to sacrifice.
We pray for heroes to rise up in Jerusalem, in Israel, across the nations,
in here, in my own heart, Lord, that we would see an opportunity for you and stand up
and take courage to stand for the light so that people can draw into the light
and out from under the dominion of darkness, out from under oppression,
out from under compromise and corruption.
And we ask, Lord, that this be the greatest revival that the earth has ever seen.
We ask, Lord, that this Pentecost, that these be the days, the days where the Spirit of
God is seen across the earth being poured out over sons and daughters.
And we thank you, Lord, that even our prayers, stirring up a most holy faith in us, is doing
something to release what you've placed in us into this nation in the Middle East, your
nation, your miracle nation, a miracle you brought forth, Lord, and into all the nations,
that all the nations should be blessed in the seed of Abraham.
And we thank you, Jesus, for what you're going to do, how you're going to change humanity,
how you're going to change things, how you're going to overcome the destruction of humanity
that we see, and you're going to rescue people, miraculously rescue people, families, men,
women, children, generations, nations, industries.
Bring us together, one body, one mind, one heart, one gospel, one Lord, one God and Father
of us all, as you're going back to support me in Christ Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
Okay, love you guys, thank you for praying with me, and I'll catch you later, love you,
bye.