OUR FATHER WHO DELIVERS HIS PEOPLE FROM THE ONSLAUGHT OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS

Psalm 9 verse 6 says this;

Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies, you have uprooted their cities; even the memory of them has perished.

This verse captures the complete devastation that the powers of darkness suffer under the judgement of God.

This judgement came is response to the concerted effort of the kingdoms of darkness to persecute God's people and the attempt to erradicate them from the face of the earth.

As Psalm 9 verse 13 says;

Lord, see how my enemies persecute me! Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death,

From the throne of judgement, the rebuke from the Lord caused them to turn and scramble to get away as they fell over each other in their panic as they perished.

 Psalm 9 verse 3 says it this way;

My enemies turn back; they stumble and perish before you.

Let us rejoice in the Lord's salvation.

Amen.

From Psalm 3;

You Lord are my defence when so many rise against

You are the One who lifts my head

I called out to You The One who is strong and true

You answered me and calmed my dread

You Lord delivered me 

When I laid down to sleep

I rose again for You sustained me.

I will not fear the foe

For in You I truly know

That Your deliverance is sure

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OUR FATHER WHOSE SPIRIT RESTORES THE LAND

The book of Isaiah chapter 32 verse 9 says this;

You women who are so complacent,  rise up and listen to me; you daughters who feel secure, hear what I have to say!

This verse exhorts the women of the land to stop being carefree but rather to be alert and watch and pray.

For it is they who will need to discern the changing seasonings that in a little more than a year, will bring about the failure of the harvest of the vineyard and the presence of the Spirit of God will be scarce.

The righteous people of God will be bypassed and only the stubborn and rebellious men will take rulership over the land.

In this time, hardship and oppression will dominate and will only end when the Spirit of God is poured upon His people and finally,  peace and prosperity will take hold in the land.

As verse 18 says,

Then my people will live in a peaceful surrounding,

And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO REDEEMS HIS PEOPLE EVEN WHEN THEY REBEL AND TURN AWAY FROM HIM

The book of Isaiah chapter 59 verses 4 - 5 says this;

No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.

They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken, an adder is hatched.

This passage, referring to the Lord's people who had fallen away from Him, lists the perversion of justice that permeated their lives. 

They left injustices to stand because they did not argue the cases with integrity.

They used fallacies and deceptions to prop up unfair and unjust conditions for people to live under.

They imagined harm and distressful burdens to place on their societies and thus birthed evil in their midst.

They broke open spiritual packages through abominable acts that released demonic entities among the people.

They spun up spider webs to ensnare innocent people in oppression and spiritual bondage.

Anyone who partook of their demonic offerings invoked the protocols of death. 

From out of this chaos and moral degradation,  the Lord sent a redeemer to save those who were led to see the evil of their deeds and renounce them. As Isaiah chapter 59 verse 20 says;

“The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the Lord.

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OUR FATHER WHO PROVIDES HIS PEOPLE WITH GARMENTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Psalm chapter 5 verses 1 - 2 says this;

Listen to my words, Lord, consider my lament.

Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.

This passage records the psalmist calling on God to listen to his words and to consider his lament.

The psalmist then describes the ones who the Lord does not allow to bring prayers and requests  before Him; Those who are wicked, evil, arrogant, liars, bloodthirsty and duplicitous.

The ones who are welcomed by the Lord are the ones who are righteous, humble, truthful, peaceful and without guile.

Even as the psalmist calls for the Lord to consider His lament, the Lord Jesus, in Matthew chapter 6 verse 28 - 30, calls on His people to consider how the Lord arrays even the short-lived lilies of the field in splendor. 

If He does this for the lilies, how much more will the Lord clothe His people in righteousness.

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

For those who put their trust in God, to meet the standard of righteousness required so that they can bring their requests before Him, they need not worry about where their garments of righteousness will come from.

The Lord will provide His people with the righteousness needed to approach God with laments and requests.

God, through the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, made it possible for us to be clothed in righteousness through faith and we need not worry about how to be righteous but rather we can be assured that the Lord will provide us with the righteousness we need.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO TENDS THE VINEYARD OF JACOB TO YEILD FRUIT FOR THE WHOLE EARTH

The book of Isaiah chapter 27 verse 3 says this;

I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.

Here, we read that the Lord personally oversees the fruitful vineyard of Israel. He tends to this garden night and day as he waters it and protects if from harm.

The fruit that comes out of the vineyard are that Israel's guilt will be atoned for and his sin removed.

This verse points to the careful nurturing that the Lord undertook to keep Israel safe so that in the correct time, the Messiah could be brought to save not only Israel but the whole world.

As verse 6 says;

In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.

The work the Lord does in His vineyard causes Israel to blossom and yield fruit that goes to the ends of the earth.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO GLORIFIES ZION

The book of Isaiah chapter 60 verse 13 says this;

“The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the juniper, the fir and the cypress together, to adorn my sanctuary; and I will glorify the place for my feet.

The city of Jerusalem had been made desolate in judgement but grace and favour of the Lord had been restored to her and now she has been exalted by the Lord and her light shines brightly at her rising as her walls are restored and the nations of the earth serve her.

In this verse, Jerusalem, as part of her rehabilitation, has the sanctuary of the Lord beautified and adorned with the majestic trees of Lebanon which is known for cypress trees and other conifers.

The place where the Lord sets as His staging area, is glorified by Him.

The city, referred to as Zion, will have the glory of God shining from it and God's people within it will be amplified in God's strength. As verse 22 says;

The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.”

Amen

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 OUR FATHER WHO DEFENDS HIS PEOPLE

The book of Amos chapter 1 verse 7 says this;

I will send fire on the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses.

This verse, part of a prophecy concerning Gaza, is topical is surprising ways. 

In the prophecy, Gaza had taken whole communities captive and sold them off and for these sins, their judgement was sure.

This prophecy mirrors the recent events where people out of Gaza captured communities of people at the behest of the spiritual powers contending for the land.

In the prophecy, the sponsors of the attack who operated out of Askelon, Ashdod and Ekron ( near Tel Aviv ) were rooted out and eliminated in response to their their attack.

Likewise, Gaza itself faced physical destruction and the land was purged of the infrastructure that protected the enemies of Israel.  That prophecy reads almost like a current news headline.

Have mercy on us oh Lord.

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OUR FATHER WHO REVEALED THE MYSTERY OF THE UNITY OF THE JEWS AND GENTILES IN CHRIST

Ephesians chapter 3 verse 4 says this;

 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 

The Apostle Paul, writing to the Ephesians, was explaining to them the nature of his mission as a Jew who was sent to them as gentiles.

He said that from the ancient past, the salvation of the gentiles was a mystery that was locked away so that no one could decipher the encoded plan of salvation for the Jews and the gentiles.

Paul reveals that he gained the understanding of this great mystery of God's grace being extending to the gentiles, through direct revelation by the Spirit of God and this revelation was the basis for his ministry.

The mystery, locked up as an enigma for eons, was that the Gentiles would become heirs in the same way that the Jews were and that the two groups would become one body and would share in the promises of Christ. 

This is the great mystery, is hinted at in Isaiah chapter 49 verse 5 - 6 that, written in the words of the coming Messaih, says;

And now the Lord says—he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength—he says:

 “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant  to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Amen.

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