From crisis to blessing

Chapter 20, Second Chronicles, a very, very significant event in the history of Israel. And it's one of those events that is like a model for the Christian life. What do we do when we are in crisis? I might call this meditation From Crisis to Blessing, From Crisis to Blessing. And it teaches us how to traverse that path, how to go from the depths of crisis to the heights of blessing. And that is what we want to keep this year in our hearts and always in our lives when facing difficult situations.

I am going to recount part of it, so as not to read it all, but look in verse 12 of chapter 20 King Jehoshaphat, in the midst of a terrible national crisis surrounded by enemies, the enemy approaches , and King Jehoshaphat, who is a just king, says to him, “O, our God. Won't you judge them? Because in us there is no strength against such a great multitude that comes against us. We do not know what to do. And to You we turn our eyes.”

King Jehoshaphat was a name, as we say, as we have said, a just man, a man who loved the Lord. He made his mistakes and everything, but he was a man who loved God, and he feared the Lord. And that's good, because when the moment of crisis came in his land, he knew what to do in a spiritual sense of the word. The word says that some men came, there as it was in verse 20, to King Jehoshaphat, and they said to him, "A great multitude comes against you, and behold, they are in Asesonta Mar, which is in Gadi." You look at a map, you'll see that… Well, today, by car, in Gadi, or in Geddi, to Jerusalem is about an hour and a half away. I imagine that that time will have been more, a day's journey perhaps or something like that, or a little more. But a large army was coming from the south going north toward Judah. It says, “Then he was afraid, and Jehoshaphat humbled his face to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.”

You see what happens. Many times when we have problems in life, when there are big crises, of course, it is natural to feel fear. We are not made of rubber. We feel fear, we feel fear when there are difficult situations in our lives. The gas bill comes around, and we don't have it, the check didn't arrive on time, and we know we have to pay because otherwise it's going to be cold, and we don't know where the money is going to come from, right? And there is fear in our hearts. We ran out of collection, and the work still hasn't appeared, and we already have about a week or two left, and we don't know what will happen, and there is fear in our hearts. Many times what we do in these cases is simply, we continue fearing, we continue sewing ourselves in the juice of fear and anguish, and we turn around and lose sleep. But the Lord has said, already in His words, through the Apostle Paul, He says, "Do not be anxious for anything if your requests are not known in all prayer and supplication." That is what with the action of grace, that is what we have to do. Go? When there is a crisis, when there is a need in our lives, what we have to do is seek the face of the Lord.

The Apostle James also says like this, “Why don't you receive,” he says. "Because you don't ask." The word is always inviting us, brothers, calling us to pray. If we spent more time on our knees, and less time doing more things, our lives would be different. We have to learn to pray in season and out of season. We have to learn to pray night and day, while we are in bed, while we are taking a bath, while we are in the car, while we are walking to work, while we are operating the machine at work, while we are washing the dishes, we have to cultivate … The Apostle Paul says, “Pray how?” Non stop. What he is implying there is that in every situation in life, we have to make prayer like breathing. We continually have to be bringing our needs to the Lord. Every time you hear a need, have a need in your life, instead of simply leaving it like this in the realm of time, and space, of the human, bless it and sacralize it, consecrate it, and raise it up to the Lord. Say, "Father, here is my need."

They asked someone, a great man of God, a great prophet of God who performed many miracles—I don't remember his name now—but they asked him how long he prayed, because they thought, this guy has to be praying hours and hours there all day. He would say, “Well, I'm going to tell you the truth. I don't pray a lot, but I don't go a long time without praying either.” He meant that he was always praying. His life was punctuated by prayer. And we have to cultivate that art of always bringing our needs to the Lord. If you wake up at three in the morning, look, instead of tossing and turning in bed, start praying, and you will see that within fifteen minutes you are sleeping like a baby. Yes or no? And it's not that prayer is boring. It's better than counting sheep, pray. And it's the best sleeping pill in the world. Because what about you? When her spirit comes into contact with the Lord, that brings rest to her soul, and that is like a massage to her mind, and her spirit begins to feel, not me, I am in the arms of my Dad. And when you come to see, ah, he's sleeping there. And those snores reach the corner beyond the neighborhood, because it's like that, it's like that.

We have to learn to pray. We have to learn to seek the Lord. God wants a people of prayer, a people that is always crying out to the Lord, that God be so real to us. That for us to get in touch with God is as easy as changing the channel, boom. In a moment we are in time and space. At another time we are in eternity before the throne of God, quickly, because we have practice at it. We are always bringing our needs to the Lord. God wants a people who pray. Cultivate prayer. Prayer does not come easily. Prayer is not something that comes naturally to us. It is something that is cultivated. It's an art. It is a discipline that is cultivated, but when we learn it it brings an incredible blessing.

He was afraid, and Jehoshaphat humbled his face to inquire of Jehovah. He humbled his face. He understood... This strong king, warrior, with so much authority, humbled his face, and went to consult the Lord. When we have problems, we go to consult God. If someone lacks wisdom, ask God for it. When you are in a difficult season in your life, a problem, a difficulty, humble your face, and consult the Lord. Admit that you don't have the answer. And tell him, “Father, my hands are empty, and they are asking me for something very big, but I have nothing to give, so Lord, I am going to entrust myself to you. Help me. provide me. Give me the way out, give me wisdom, give me the answer, give me understanding." Humiliate your face. Confess your ineptitude, and consult. I like that to consult Jehovah. You don't consult someone you don't believe in. You don't consult someone who isn't real to you.

And he proclaimed a fast to all Judah. There is something beautiful in fasting. Every year we take our fasting time, and sometimes I think, and I'm afraid that it can become a routine. And we have to renew again in some way, because people kind of take it for granted, okay, yes, at the beginning of the year, well, we're going to throw a little fast there. And the same people forget that they get more fed up than I think every other week of the year. But fasting has power, and collective fasting has power, brothers. Fasting has power. There is anointing in fasting. And we also have to learn the discipline of fasting, even if it is for a while, one noon, one day. You have to search, you have to practice.

What is fasting? Fasting is underlining your request. Fasting is putting a microphone on your request. Fasting is giving volume to your prayer. Fasting gives gasoline to your request. Fasting also helps you to become more aware of what you are asking for, and gives you more passion, and more intensity to cry out to God. Or yes, God knows what you need, but we also need to reach that point of conviction in what we are asking for, because many times we ask, but we ask like that from a distance and vaguely. But fasting focuses, and forces you to concentrate on what you are asking for. And sometimes God likes us to cry like that.

I like Bartimaeus, the blind man, who cried out to the Lord, “Lord, son of David! Jesus son of David! Have mercy on me." People told him, “Shut up, boy, He's too busy for you. He said he cried out louder, "Lord, son of David, have mercy on me!" Because sometimes you have to cry out, and you have to stress to the Lord the intensity of our need. You have to claim him. The Lord likes every once in a while for us to throw a dog away, and say, “Lord, I'm asking you! When are you going to reply?" Fasting helps us get to that level of intensity in our prayer. Sometimes fasting is not so much for God as it is for us. Knows? It is to purify and focus what we are asking the Lord for.

And there is power when a congregation, when a community of Christians, when a group of friends... Note that he did not throw that fight alone. He looked up his people, and he said, “Hey, I'm not the only one filling in here. We are going to fill the whole world, even the cat too. Everyone is going to fill, because I need…” This is a big and strong battle, and we need everyone. There is power in unity. The Lord said that where two or three are, there He is. If two agree on anything, it will be done for them. There is power in unity. There is power in crying out. Because I have a problem, find three or four men or women warriors, and tell them, “Sister, I have a need. I need you to support me in prayer and fasting." There are spirits that only come out with fasting and prayer. There are needs, there are answers that will only come through an underlined cry. And that is fasting.

Here was a terrible situation. A great army was coming, a very powerful crowd, and they were walking there. The problem was getting closer. He was progressing mile by mile. And he did not see it because there was no television at that time. There was no satellite to see that army, but he knew it was coming. It was even worse than if he had seen it, because at some point they were going to arrive, and they didn't know when, but they were coming. And that army, he could almost imagine. But he decided, "I don't know what to do." And he sought the face of the Lord, and those of Judah gathered together to ask the Lord for help. And also from all the cities of Judah, they came to ask the Lord for help. Then after that—after read the chapter—he meets with all the people in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of Jehovah, before the new court. He went to the house of God.

Brothers, never lose love with the house of God. May coming to church not become a routine. Come to church to seek answers, to seek strength, to seek renewal, even if it is crawling, but arrive at church. There is power in the house of God. You have to love the courts of the Lord. There are answers there. For our needs he approached the courtyard and called there an assembly of the whole nation, and addressed the Lord, “Are you not God in heaven, and have dominion over all the kingdoms of the nations? Is not such strength and power in your hand that there is no one to resist you?

Brother, when you are in trial and need, go to the word to remember the things that God has done throughout history. But you can also go into your own life and remember situations in which everything seemed black and without the possibility of an answer, and God somehow responded to you, and pulled you through. How many of us cannot say that there is something in our lives that has happened, that we have seen the hand of God at work when there seemed to be no answer, and God did. Yes or no?

I believe that all of us who are here can, we know that there has been a time in our lives when God says, as the psalmist says, “I patiently cried out to the Lord, and He leaned down to me, and he heard my cry, and he brought me out of the pit of despair from the miry mud, and set my feet on the rock, and straightened my steps." We can all say that at some point in our lives. Well, don't forget that, and when the next test comes, go to those moments, and remember what God did, and take strength and encouragement from that. That was what Jehoshaphat did. He remembered. "Did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend forever, and they have lived in it, and have built you a sanctuary in it for your name?" Remind the Lord of his word when you are praying, and you tell him… Remind him of His word. He knows it, but the word is like when the lawyer comes before the judge, and uses the laws of the nation to appeal in favor of his client, or in favor of his client's cause if it is a civil case. And he uses the law as a lever to get what he wants, and the judge consults the law, and says, “Hm, what he is saying is legitimate, in light of the law of the land, it is fair, and is appropriate, and the judge says, "Yes, what he says is according to the law of the land." And he gives his ruling to the lawyer, because he is flowing into the statement of legal principles of the land. And that is why we have to know the word, because it is according to the word that we can leverage and remember that we have the right to ask the Lord. And it is so nice when we pray in light of what God has told us what we can aspire to, what God has promised us, what God has told us is true, the principles of the word. That is why we have to learn that principle.

There are many, we could adduce many examples of this. But remember the word. When you are in need, ask the Lord according to what He has done, what He has said, what He has promised. In the verse it says, "Now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab." They were tribes that hated Israel, very powerful tribes. “And those of Mount Seir, into whose land you did not want Israel to cross, etc. behold. They give us the payment, coming to throw us out of the inheritance that you gave us in possession.

The Lord has said, “I give you all the land that the soles of your feet will tread on.” The Lord has said, "I have come that you may have life, and that you may have it to the full." The Lord has said, "I have blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies." The Lord has said that yours is the land. The Lord has said that I have seated you in the heavenlies next to Jesus Christ. That means you can use those principles. The Lord has given you the right. You have the right to live a good life, to live a positive life. You have the right to ask for health. You have the right to request material financial provision. You have the right to ask for healing from your illnesses. You have the right to ask for healing from your emotional wounds and your traumas. You have the right to ask for defense and justice in your situations of need. He has told you that those things are yours. What Jehoshaphat was saying about the Lord. You gave us this land. You defeated the nations, and gave us this land as a possession, and now they are coming to take it from us. That is a contradiction. You can't allow that. So we are appealing to You. "O our God, will You not judge them?" In other words, you are not going to use your word, your promises, your laws to say, “You have no right to be on this earth. This land belongs to…” What happens when two neighbors have a dispute over who owns a piece of land. Do they go to the city records, and look there for a survey, an exploration of the land and that exploration says, look at the boundaries, they go this way? That this belongs to so-and-so, and that's how we have to do it. When the devil wants to steal part of our land, we go to Dad and say, "Dad, you gave me that land, and look at this manganzón, this abuser here wants to get me off it, so sic 'em." Throw yourself on him

We have to use the principles of God's word. No? You gave us the land. Won't you judge them? Because in us there is no strength against such a great multitude that comes against us. I love that. We don't know what to do, and we turn our eyes to You. I believe that rarely in writing is there a more tender and humble expression of request than that. Sir, we don't know what to do.

I believe that brothers, the best position where one can be in life is when one does not know what to do. That you're just down the road going seventy miles an hour on the highway, and you take your hands off the wheel, because God just says, "You can't." And you have to entrust yourself to the grace and mercy of God so as not to crash against the wall. There are moments like this in life when one has looked for every possible way out and every possible solution, and no way is offered. And how nice when you just throw your hands to your sides, and say, “Lord, now. I have tried everything. I have no answer. To You I turn my eyes.” The psalmist said, “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from Jehovah. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth." To You, Lord, we turn our eyes. I imagine that those people were there crying, thinking of that great army, even while we were praying. Why didn't they sharpen the machetes and prepare the bats they had, take them out of the bedroom, or the pots to hit us even on the heads, the women sometimes... No. They went to the temple to cry out to God, to pray, to seek the Lord's solution. And all Judah stood before the LORD with their little ones, and their wives, and their children. And look from there... Look where God got the answer to need. There was a prophet there, a man of God, filled with the Holy Spirit.

How important are people of prayer, people filled with the Spirit, people who know the ways of the Lord, people who are on their knees, and who can hear from God. Jaciel was there. If you are going to have a son, why don't you name him Jaciel? There are so many silly names. Jaciel is a good name. Jaciel, you take away the H and the A. Just Jaciel. The son of Zacharias, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeyel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Jesab, upon whom came the spirit of the LORD in the midst of the assembly. That man... maybe that was the only great thing he did in his life, but with that he justified his entire existence. The spirit of the Lord descended on him. Brethren, I believe that the spirit of God still descends upon the children of the Lord. Still. When we cry out to the Lord, we pray, we fast, we seek the face of the Lord, the spirit of the Lord can come upon your life, and you can prophesy, and you can receive revelation from God, you can receive an answer from God, you can receive a choice, a solution that you did not have before. God can enlighten you and get you through. God has done it, and can continue to do it. God came upon Jaciel, and Jaciel raised her voice in the midst of the gathering, and said, “O Judah, all and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you King Jehoshaphat. Jehovah tells us thus, 'Do not fear, nor be intimidated before this great multitude, for the war is not yours, but God's. Hallelujah.

Brothers, the war is not ultimately yours. The war belongs to your Dad who loves you more than you love yourself. Remember that always. You are not alone. You have your Dad who loves you fiercely. And He says, "I'm going to fight for you, my son." In this case, God told them, “I am going to fight for you. I am going to put myself in front of that abuser, and I am going to show them that you cannot play with my children.” In this case, the war is not… And in all cases, ultimately, brothers, the war is not ours. Sometimes God will make us fight. And in some cases, God put the Hebrews to fight, but in this case, He wanted to show off His pure, pure, pure glory. He wanted to show his protective heart completely, and he said, “My children, this one was thrown at me. I am going to fight for you. I will defend them."

Brothers, there will be moments like this in your life when you will not have strength, you will not have wisdom, the enemy will be too big for you. Everything will be against you. And in those cases, simply take your hands off the wheel and say, “Lord, I totally abandon myself to your mercy, to your grace. You fight for me. Get out on the road." Brothers, I believe... What's more, if we had enough faith to do that... What happens is that many times we do things like that, but there isn't enough faith for such a feat. But when there is enough faith, we can say, “Dad, you throw yourself on top of the enemy. Defend me. I trust that you will do it." And verse 17, “There will be none for you to fight. In this case…” Do you see?

There are times when one has to fight, even if it's to make an amaraco there, but this time not even that. There will be no fighting in this case. Phew. Unemployed. Be still, and see the salvation of Jehovah with you. Glory to the Lord. Three things. Unemployed. What's going on? Sometimes you're stopped, but you're biting your nails. If you are not standing still, be still, and see, see the salvation of the Lord. Many times, when we stop, and we are still, brothers, it is a stillness, but I don't know, it is the stillness of the eye of the hurricane. It is a stillness that is like all content. It's like power. It is like the black hole of space that is simply matter so powerfully concentrated that it swallows itself. And swallow even the light that can't even get out. That's why they call it a black hole. There is such condensation of matter, the attraction of gravity is so strong, that not even light can escape. And so there are many times that, there is a stillness that I ask of him, "Lord, help me to reach that stillness in my life, to cultivate the art of being still." But it is a terrible stillness. It is a stillness of power. It is a stillness that is more powerful than an atomic bomb. When the human being learns to rest in the Lord, and to concentrate on the Lord, and to say, "I am not going to do anything."

Brothers, there are many people, there are many eager Christians. There are many Christians who are always getting in the way of God, and God says, “Let me work. Let me do things. Let me do it. You're always getting in the way." He says, “Calm down boy. You are interrupting my work." Sometimes we have to learn to be quiet, spend more time in prayer, spend more time in prayer, spend more time in praise, spend more time waiting on the Lord, spend more time cultivating that power within us that attracts the blessing. By concentrating so much, all our matter is concentrated, and we acquire a power that attracts, a force of gravity that attracts God's blessing. Unemployed. Be still, and see the salvation of Jehovah. O Judah and Jerusalem, do not fear or dismay. Go out tomorrow against them, for the Lord will be with you. Glory to the Lord.

And the last scene is here, which says in verse 20, “When they got up in the morning, they went out into the desert of Tecoa, and as they were going out…” But look, the verse rather says, “And the Levites of the sons of Coad and of the sons of Korah arose to praise the LORD out of Israel with a loud and loud voice.” Praise plays a very important role in this war. This is one of the great, great passages of scripture where praise shows all the power it can have. the praise. That was what made the difference. And we have to learn that great lesson tonight, brethren. The power of praise. Brother, cultivate the heart of a worshiper. Learn to worship the Lord. Learn to lubricate your prayers with praise. Go in and out of praise. When you are praying, and praise comes to your mind, release it, and use it to give wings to your prayer, and to renew your courage and strength. The heart of a worshiper is so important, falling in love with the Lord, loving the presence of the Lord, declaring the Lord. The Lord loves to be cooed, the Lord loves to be kissed, the Lord loves that we lay our heads on His chest, the Lord loves that we say nice words to Him. He's not so big that he doesn't care about that. The Lord loves the children of Alameros like the woman with the alabaster vase, who broke her vase, and poured out the perfume on the Lord, and washed the Lord with her hair, and with her tears, and dried his feet. and her hands with her hair. The Lord loves an adoring soul, a soul that pours its love on Him, praise.

In verse 20 at the end it says, “Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be secure. Believe his prophets, and you will prosper." And there was… with the people, he put some to sing and praise Jehovah. I am going to read this because it is a beautiful scene, "Dressed in sacred ornaments while armed people came out, and they said, 'Glorify Jehovah for his mercy is forever." And look how beautiful, “He says, and when they began to sing songs of praise, when they began to sing songs of praise, he set against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, their ambushes that were coming against Judah , and they killed each other.”

Brother, do you know that praise creates confusion in the kingdom of darkness? Praise, demons can't stand praise. Praise creates static in demon communications. Praise bothers the ears, because they contradict everything they represent, which is rebellion against the Lord. Praise is worship and recognition of the Lordship of God, the attributes of God, the glory and holiness of God. When people are praising the Lord, their prayers ascend faster, and God's blessing descends more smoothly into our lives. Praise is powerful. Let's cultivate praise. Let's learn to praise. Praise is not a matter of a good voice or a good ear. It is a matter of the heart. To the contrite and humiliated heart you will not despise You or God. God seeks worshipers created in spirit and in truth. And when our praise comes from the heart, it doesn't matter if it comes out out of tune. God fixes it when he gets there to his throne. Let us learn to adore, to adore, to praise, because praise is war. When one says, "Strong tower is the name of the Lord." Look, that's a spear, a dagger that goes into the devil's heart. The taste will run to Him. There are other words that say, "Sword strikes is praise." Another says that the Lord moves in the praise of his people. He inhabits the praise of his people. There is power in praise. There is power in joy. There is power in declaring the truths and the virtues and the attributes of the Lord.

And the ending is wonderful. Then Jehoshaphat came from his town to strip them, and they found many riches among the corpses. Thus dressed in precious jewels that they took for themselves. So many that they could not carry them. They spent three days collecting the booty, because it was a lot. From crisis to blessing. From crisis to blessing.

I was in Mexico a little while ago—with that I'll finish—and I saw one, it was a Christian business called Beraca. It wasn't a name… In Spanish it doesn't sound very nice. Beraca. I was wondering... Beraca. What's that? I knew I had heard it in the Bible, but I didn't know… Beraca comes from here. It says that they called that place Beraca, which means blessing. Blessing. Beraca. in hebrew. That is, they went from crisis and powerlessness to blessing and abundance. Brother, that same trajectory can be yours. In any situation in your life that you face this year. Any situation. It doesn't matter. The bigger the enemy, the more… The higher, the rounder he falls, says the Lord. The bigger and more powerful the obstacle, the more God will glorify himself in giving you victory. Amen. The weaker you are, the more powerful God will be within you. In weakness the power of God is perfected. Stand up. Hallelujah. We're going to make that last statement tonight. Let's move. Read that chapter several times this year. Read it, and receive all the anointing and all the blessing that comes out of that chapter.