40 Days of Prayer and Fasting – Day 37 – Hearing the Voice of the Lord Part 3

The Peace of Wisdom

I am writing this 3rd part in the series of hearing from the voice of the Lord on September 19th, day 2 of the Feast of Trumpets. There are fires in CA, Washington State and Oregon, a tropical depression coming up on the Gulf Coast, following a Cat 2 hurricane, which followed a double hurricane land fall 2 weeks ago. There is rioting in the streets over racial injustice, political unrest and extreme divisiveness, and warnings of a second wave of a world-wide pandemic. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsberg passed away on the first day of the feast of trumpets, adding more political fuel to the fire. The people in the church who I know are walking through trial after fiery trial.

So, in the middle of all of this, there are prophets giving a clarion call concerning the judgements of God coming on America. People are calling for repentance, while others say that all of this is a cause of global warming, not the hand of God.

How do we know?

How do we know when God is speaking to us? How do we know what to do?

First of all, do not be afraid. The Lord is with those who love him and who trust in his Son Jesus Christ.

Let’s open with this stunning passage from Psalm 46. This passage gave me great comfort when my grandmother died suddenly and unexpectedly, when I was a teenager.

Psalm 46

For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth. A song.

¹ God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.^[c]

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

⁷ The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

⁸ Come and see what the Lord has done,
    the desolations he has brought on the earth.
⁹ He makes wars cease
    to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the shields^[d] with fire.
¹⁰ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”

¹¹ The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

As I write this, I am reminded that when I was 16, I felt a very strong urge to visit my grandmother to talk to her about the Lord. I loved my grandmother very much. She always had a smile for me and loved to sit at the table and talk with a cup of coffee for hours. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to visit her and to take a friend.

I did go. I marked the calendar and made my first cross country road trip. However, I didn’t spend as much time with her as I wished – or as much as God told me to spend with her. I remember when we left she asked me to stay longer. I said that we had to go.

The next day she suddenly died. I never got to share with her everything I wanted to share. I never got to say goodbye- and her last request for me to stay longer, I pushed off as a rushed teenager who was ready to move on to the next fun thing. It was clear to me that God was speaking to me. Hindsight is 20/20.

I was so shook by that moment in time when I disobeyed the Lord and missed his calling for such an important event that I thought I would never be the same again. I didn’t think I would recover. This Psalm gave me hope and a reminder that no matter how terrible life is- even if the mountains fall into the sea- God will be with me.

Through my life I have heard the voice of the Lord- not audibly, but a heart tug or a knowledge that filled me suddenly. Another example was when I met my husband for the first time. God told me I was going to have his children. Weird. I know. (I wasn’t even crushing on him at the time, honest!)

However, here I am, at 44. I know how to be led by the Holy Spirit. I am very used to being led by him. But, there is a whole new level of ball game going on now. So much is at stake. Our world is in crisis and God warned me over the past year leading up to this year that terrible times were coming. He told me that he was bringing his judgement on America for closing her ears to his voice and for the sin of abortion.

At first, I thought I was focusing on the negative. After a while, the things he was dropping into my heart during my prayer time began to come to pass. I was shook. I couldn’t believe it. Did he really tell me that fire was coming to America and now it is here? Did he really tell me that the streets of America would be empty and then there was covid, with eerie pictures of Times Square completely empty? Yes.

And now he has told me to prepare. There is more coming. Yet, I find myself hesitating. Prepare? Prepare what?

Prepare with prayer and fasting. What is coming requires extreme fasting.

Okay, Lord. What do you want that to look like?

So, he led me to start this challenge and to get as many people involved as I can.

And the Lord told me to tell others to prepare. I asked for confirmation- 3 times- and he gave it to me. So, here is your call to prepare. Prepare your homes. Prepare your hearts. Prepare with repentance. Prepare with physical preparations. Do not prepare with fear. Do not allow fear to creep in. If you are afraid, cast your cares upon him, for he cares for you.

We need to be so established on the rock of Christ Jesus during this time. We need to sink into him- to rest in him- to allow him to fill us and to make him the center of everything. It should have always been this way. But, now, Jesus is sanding off the rough edges and bringing the refiners fire to our hearts.

And now, my friend, I tell you that you need to pray and hear from the Lord on how you should prepare your household. What is coming will change life as we know it. I am praying about how and what the Lord wants me to release of all that he has revealed to me since May. But, right now he wants me to tell you this-

You know what James says about asking for wisdom? Hearing from the Lord and being led by him is not that much different than what we are taught in this scripture. Should you prepare? What should you do? How much should you prepare? What should you get? How do you get ready?

All of these questions can make us anxious. But, God doesn’t reveal anything to make us anxious or for us to have a mystical experience. God reveals things to prepare his people. He loves us. He wants us to follow him and trust him. He wants us to open up his word and to absorb all he has for us. What good is a mountain of emergency supplies, if we don’t have faith? They are literally no good to you at all.

Let’s look at 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,¹⁷ so that the servant of God^[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

God, first of all, speaks to us through his scriptures. He will train us thoroughly for every good work. So, when he calls us to prepare physically, it will not proceed or overshadow preparing spiritually. So, back to James. I hope this blesses you the way it blessed me.

I was hashing out some things with the Lord- very anxiously. I was telling him how nervous I was. “Am I doing what I need to do, Oh Lord? I am so confused.” I felt an overwhelming confusion. Now, that confusion was not from God. It was like clutter in my head. The thoughts felt like piles of unpaid bills laying around on a table. This is when the Lord broke through my fear and taught me the truth.

“Briana, why are you fretting about what you should do?”

“Because, I need to know what to do about this specific situation, but I don’t know exactly what the future holds.”

“Well, it’s just like it says in James.” Ah. Things began to clear.

“You ask for wisdom and then you act on what you are led to act on. Remember what it says in James about this?”

“Yes. Yes I understand. Lord, please help me.”

Let’s look at this powerful passage in James about walking through trials and asking for wisdom.:

James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,^[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ⁶ But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

So, the Lord reminded me that a huge part of following God is asking for wisdom, then trusting that God is giving it! If you need to know how to prepare your household, then ask for wisdom and begin preparing your household, as you are led. 

Asking for leading and wisdom is a faith issue. We ask, then we step out in faith doing what God has led us to do. In this way, we will not be faithless. I can do that. 

I can believe that God will protect us and cover us. I can believe God that I am being built up, as I ask for wisdom. I can believe that God has established a way to speak to me and that I will need to trust him. I can do this! 

Pray and ask for wisdom. Believe and you will receive. Act as though you have received it. Live by faith.

Let’s pray!

Father, in Jesus’ name, I ask that you teach me to trust you. Forgive me for all the times I have fretted, worried and tried to control my surroundings, instead of looking to you to take care of me.

Father God, I trust that you are bringing your kingdom. May your kingdom, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Lord, speak to me. Give me direction. Give me peace. Give me guidance and give me wisdom. I will trust you. Forgive me for the times I have asked for wisdom then doubted. I declare right now that I trust you and I can count on you.

Lord, I thank you for alerting me. I thank you for showing me what to prepare for, but I pray that you will also give great direction in how to go about it and what to do.

I pray that you will divinely fill me with your Spirit and power. I want to walk in your peace and in your power. I want to walk by faith and not by sight, in Jesus’ name.

I want to be so filled with a knowledge of your will that I can trust you in faith. Fill me with your faith. Fill me with your love, In Jesus’ name.

Protect me and my family and friends from the coming delusion, in Jesus’ name. Do not let us wander off the beaten path of truth. Your truth is holy. You are holy. Lord, in the same way I plead the blood of the lamb, over my family. When you send the delusion on the earth, please pass over my home. We love your truth. We love your word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Teach me to hear your voice, Good Shepherd. I need to hear what you want me to hear. Lord, thank you for your goodness and grace. I repent of all my sin. I forgive those who have sinned against me. I pray that you will fill me with your Spirit and power, in Jesus’ name, Amen.