HOW TO PERSUADE GOD By Kim Clement 2 KINGS 13:15-19 15 AND ELISHA SAID TO HIM, “TAKE A BOW AND SOME ARROWS.” SO HE TOOK HIMSELF A BOW AND SOME ARROWS. 16 THEN HE SAID TO THE KING OF ISRAEL, “PUT YOUR HAND ON THE BOW.” SO HE PUT HIS HAND ON IT, AND ELISHA PUT HIS HANDS ON THE KING’S HANDS. 17 AND HE SAID, “OPEN THE EAST WINDOW”; AND HE OPENED IT. THEN ELISHA SAID, “SHOOT”; AND HE SHOT. AND HE SAID, “THE ARROW OF THE LORD’S DELIVERANCE AND THE ARROW OF DELIVERANCE FROM SYRIA; FOR YOU MUST STRIKE THE SYRIANS AT APHEK TILL YOU HAVE DESTROYED THEM.” 18 THEN HE SAID, “TAKE THE ARROWS”; SO HE TOOK THEM. AND HE SAID TO THE KING OF ISRAEL, “STRIKE THE GROUND”; SO HE STRUCK THREE TIMES, AND STOPPED. 19 AND THE MAN OF GOD WAS ANGRY WITH HIM, AND SAID, “YOU SHOULD HAVE STRUCK FIVE OR SIX TIMES; THEN YOU WOULD HAVE STRUCK SYRIA TILL YOU HAD DESTROYED IT! BUT NOW YOU WILL STRIKE SYRIA ONLY THREE TIMES.” There was that moment when the prophet Elisha challenged the monarch to beat the arrows of war on the ground just before the territory of the east was to be delivered to him. Striking the floor with arrows, he only struck three times and stopped. The old prophet was angry, and said he had stopped too soon; if he had struck double the times, he would have completely beaten the occupying (Syrian) forces. Now he would only enjoy three victories. God gives a revelation to Elisha and tells the monarch that he should strike the ground with his arrows. However, the revelation does not dictate how many times or how hard he should strike the ground. So the king strikes three times and apparently this is not the way God wants it. He wants the king to dictate the outcome of the revelation. How you respond to the Word of the Lord dictates the outcome. ONCE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN A REVELATION FROM GOD YOUR RESPONSE MUST BE ALIGNED WITH THE ULTIMATE GOAL FOR YOUR LIFE. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO RECEIVE OUT OF YOUR ACTION? God reveals to you what you must do in order to bring about a victory. He gives you the strategy and the formula. You decide the outcome by the volume or BY HOW MUCH YOU PUT INTO IT. CONDITIONS An amazing story to me is about Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah 38:1-5, Isaiah, under the guidance of God, informs the king that he doesn’t have long to live. This is pronounced to Hezekiah and he instructs him to “put his house in order because you are GOING TO DIE; you will not recover.” Hezekiah ignores the instruction given by the prophet and instead of accepting the verdict, he finds a wall and begins to weep and pray. You will notice that he doesn’t beg God to spare his life; he doesn’t repent of any sin, but instead does something that you and I need to put into practice. He REMINDS GOD of the many GOOD things that he (Hezekiah) has done over the years. “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have DONE WHAT IS GOOD IN YOUR EYES!” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Well, you may say, “What about the bad things he’s done?” Hezekiah has no leverage with God by reminding God of his sins and failures. I feel that there is too much emphasis on repentance and very little on the prayer of BOLDNESS, reminding God of the good that you have performed. Have you done any good lately? Well this is certainly one of the most powerful ways of persuading God. Odd that we speak of reaping what you sow in regard to our sin but we seldom use that same scripture as a positive force. Are there wages for good works? OF COURSE, YES. Why would there only be wages for sin? Surely God rewards good works, obedience, and sacrifice! Constant sin consciousness is displeasing to God. Did he not say that we are the “righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”? Why then are we constantly walking with God with the awareness of our failures and weaknesses? Suck it up, Warriors! We are NEVER going to be perfect and though I am strongly opposed to PRACTICING sins, I am as opposed to constantly “seeing” my nakedness and therefore running from God’s presence. Adam was uncovered and naked and saw himself naked and therefore ran from God. We are not naked, but according to the Bible we are clothed with Christ and with righteousness. Repentance is necessary, but a prayer life filled with repentance is an abomination to God. We are taught that God HATES the soul that withdraws and holds back. (Hebrews 10:38) The ten spies that returned with a bad report persuaded the people by using weak speech. “There are giants in the land. We saw ourselves as grasshoppers and therefore they did too!” Apparently their lack of boldness - even after God had made a promise - persuaded God that they were not ready to possess that fruitful land and off they went wandering for another generation. Hezekiah does however have leverage with God with his BOLDNESS OF SPEECH. It is evident to me that without vision we perish. We perish in prayer, praise, spiritual authority, relationships, and in persuasion. You have to learn to PERSUADE GOD! Hezekiah would’ve died had he accepted the verdict. Are you going to accept the verdict spoken by the physician? Are you going to accept the prognosis boldly declared by the news media? ARE YOU? How can you be persuasive in your prayer life? By being BOLD. The apostle Paul requests prayer from his followers by requesting that they pray he has “confidence and boldness of speech.” (Ephesians 6:19) Paul understands that the lack of boldness shows the LACK OF VISION. Let me show you something very interesting. Hebrews 6:17-19 “In the same way God, desiring even more to show the HEIRS OF THE PROMISE (US) the UNCHANGEABLENESS OF HIS PURPOSE, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to TAKE HOLD OF THE HOPE SET BEFORE US. This hope we have as an ANCHOR OF THE SOUL, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where JESUS HAS ENTERED AS A FORERUNNER…” Lose your hope and you lose your boldness; lose your boldness there is no anchor for the soul. Your soul needs an anchor otherwise it gets lost, wanders off, and becomes double-minded and that causes instability. Do you wonder at times if God has changed His purpose for you? Don’t forget the “unchangeableness of His purpose.” Some interesting scriptures are 2 Corinthians 3:12 & 17: “12 Therefore having such HOPE, we use great BOLDNESS OF SPEECH…17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” One thing that we lack in our service, our walk, our prayers, praise, and our speech, is boldness, and therefore we lack liberty. The Bible doesn’t say, “Where the people are gathered there is liberty!” No, it says, “Where the SPIRIT OF THE LORD is there is liberty!” Is the Spirit of the Lord present in your life? If so, you should have the liberty to be bold, pray, shout, confess, proclaim, and make known your desires to God. The monarch of Israel had no boldness when he struck the arrows and determined the outcome of his blessing. Hezekiah had boldness and told God to “REMEMBER” his faithfulness and good works. What happened when he did that? God said, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add 15 years to your life.” Isaiah 38:5 One thing that has brought me to a place of generosity and therefore enables us to perform good works is my boldness in giving offerings. I have often made bold commitments to the needy without one cent in the bank to do it. On the 31st of December 2013, I was praying about the New Year and I purposed to give $100,000 to Shalva, the organization in Israel that takes care of hundreds of special needs children – a noble work. I prayed and asked God if this was His will and immediately I felt His presence and as a result of that I had liberty. The Spirit of the Lord was present and there was liberty. I contacted Rabbi Kalman Samuels and made the commitment. Please remember we (KCC) did not have the money, but I had the boldness required to persuade God. There was no fear. I knew that I knew that I knew God would provide. A few days later the Shalva facility in Jerusalem had a serious fire; children almost died and had it not been for some brave warriors, the facility would’ve burnt to the ground. You will never know the feeling of fulfillment I had knowing that I had made the commitment before the disaster. God knew and trusted me to find the money to help them during this disaster. In the month of January 2014, Kim Clement Center raised the money and gave Shalva $100,000. Today I want you to commit to an act of boldness. Pray and then determine an offering that you would like to sow to the prophetic ministry and then BOLDLY act and pray for the impossible. God LOVES boldness because He knows that when you act boldly you have HOPE that He will perform His promise to MULTIPLY you. Don’t do as the king of Israel did and strike a mere three times. Be extravagant and determine the outcome of your portion in the Kingdom.
Posted on: Thu, 01 May 2014 21:22:13 +0000
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