A good example of this was when many years ago a man called
Joshua, who was in charge of the Israelites, was told by God to capture the
walled city of Jericho. As he approached it he met a man with drawn sword who
said he was the Captain of the Lord’s Armies (Joshua 5:14). Now those armies
were invisible to Joshua however after Joshua had obeyed instructions to march
around the city for 7 days the walls just collapsed. Who was it pushed those
walls down? Joshua’s people didn’t even touch them! Unseen assistance.
There was also a man named Elisha, a real man of God, but the
king of Syria hated him and sent a great force of soldiers to surround the city
of Dothan where Elisha was staying. Elisha’s servant was dismayed by the size
of the Syrian army however Elisha said “Fear
not for they that be for us are greater than those that be against us” and
he then prayed to God to “open the servant’s eyes so he could see” and then the
servant saw that the hills were “filled
with horses and chariots of fire.” Consequently there was an excellent
outcome and no one was even hurt. (2 Kings 6:15) Unseen assistance!
Then there was a young man named Gideon (Judges 6) who was
told by an angel (who apparently just looked like an ordinary man), that he was
chosen to remove the hordes of marauding Mideonites with just 300 men to help
him as God wanted to show that in the finality He was the one in charge. When
Gideon’s men blew their trumpets in the night God caused the Mideonites to panic
and they attacked each other. In short, 120,000 of them died, the rest ran away
and Gideon didn’t lose one soldier. The
bible documents many occasions when God intervened like this to assist His
followers. In Acts 16:26 Paul and Silas were imprisoned, the church prayed
for their release and there was a great earthquake which opened the prison
doors and miraculously their bands were loosed so they were able to escape.
However they chose to delay leaving so that they could first help the jailor
become a Christian.
In Acts 5:19 the Apostles were released by an angel for whom
the doors of the jail opened by themselves and the apostle’s chains fell off
and he guided them out into the street. We are talking here of helpers from the
Heavenly realm who may or may not be visible but assist those who love the Lord
to achieve outcomes that would normally be impossible. Thankfully “God is the same yesterday, to-day and
forever” (Hebrews 13:8). However Faith
and Prayer are the “keys” needed to unlock these resources. Mark 6:5 states
that Jesus could do no mighty works in His “hometown” of Nazareth because of
the people’s lack of faith. In recent times I have been looking at
Australia and thinking, and (worse still) saying, that I believed that within
20 or 30 years this will be a sorry place for my Grandchildren and Great
Grandchildren and others agreed with me. I now want to apologise for my part in
that fatalistic attitude and believe we should ask God to intervene as he did for
the people mentioned above. Jesus taught us to affirm with God (in the Lord’s
Prayer) that “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” which is what we
want. Some people may think that quote refers to the earth after Jesus returns (because
that certainly will be the case then) but that is a pre-planned “done deal” and
will eventually happen whether we pray or not, so I think that prayer is a request to change things for us now. We
should always be ready for Jesus return of course; however it may be a long
time before that eventuates (2 Peter 3:8). During the last 2000 years there
have been many occasions when people thought the end was close, meanwhile it
would be nice to have God’s “will done on
earth as it is in heaven”
wouldn’t it?. Jesus also said in Matthew 21:22 “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask
in prayer, believing, ye shall
receive”. I believe we are to use
the “Lord’s Prayer” like that so God will instruct His angels to intervene and
make some needed changes for us. Best
wishes, Tom.
)
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