fear-of-the-lord

A Call to Honest Humble Prayer for the Church in America

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What If the Covenant People of God Prayed Isaiah 1 for Ourselves?

Today (Wednesday, January 14, 2026) Franklin Graham is calling our nation to a day of humility and prayer. And while I am glad for any call for the Church to pray, most of us won’t. It’s not been our way. Ardent, corporate prayer not our priority. Most of us will not gather. (Most of us won’t really pray by ourselves either.) What we might do is think about prayer – or be glad that one of our kind is giving a nod to something that sounds like stuff in the Bible. We might even do a podcast about prayer… But we won’t really cry out – not us, ourselves. We like the rhetoric of Joel. But the reality of Joel remains distasteful to us.

It has been my observation that when we have national rallies like this, we rarely humble ourselves about our own stuff. We’ll confess, and make moral pronouncements about other people’s stuff – the pagans; and the liberals. And we’ll tell each other that we need to hate the stuff that “they’re” doing, more. We’ll confess that the godless in our nation have turned their backs on God. We’ll encourage each other to be more intolerant of the evil in others. And then we’ll go home, consoling ourselves that we’re good. We’re on God’s side. And He is pleased with us.

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And it’ll never occur to us that God wanted to talk to us about our idolatry. We’ll ignore the fact that He’s purging His Bride of our perverted definition of “greatness”. We won’t abase ourselves to repent of our lust for power. We won’t listen deeply enough to hear how he wants to cleanse us of our pride; our racial animosity; our political carnality and compromise; our hypocrisy; our winking at sin in our camp, and straining at a gnat in our adversaries’ camp. It’ll escape our notice that the Lord is grieved over the way we’re misrepresenting His Kingdom. We’ll not let the Spirit of the Lord trouble us about our malicious conspiracies, or our pro-militaristic narratives, our lack of compassion for the alien, or our deceitful and redacted nationalism, or the viral spiritual and sexual abuse that’s rampaging our own household. We don’t need to seek the Lord for any of those issues. Those are settled. Red ink. In the book.

But what if we DARED to really pray today?

What if we dared to cry out to the Lord for the full weight of our evil, pretentious and unrighteous ways? What if we agreed to the worst of what could be true about us, instead of fighting to prove the best about ourselves? What if we went deeper than the devil wants us to go? What if we made ourselves nothing on His threshing floor?

What if we opened our Bibles to Isaiah 1, shredded our religious spirit, looked into the mirror of the perfect law of liberty, and confessed everything that we see in this picture? How would the Lord view such sackcloth?

What if we prayed from this prophetic scripture with penetrating honesty and no thought of saving self:

O Lord, we humble ourselves before Your glory.

You have nourished us in every conceivable way – and yet we have rebelled against You. (v.2)

The ox and the donkey knows its honor, but we don’t know, and we haven’t even considered how we have spurned You. (v.3)

We are indeed, a sinful people. A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! We have forsaken the Lord. We have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. We have turned away backward. (v.4)

We are filled with revolution. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. (v.5)

From the sole of our foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment. (v.6)

On account of our faithlessness, our nation is desolate, devoured and burned with fire. (v.7)

We are a besieged culture; we’ve neglected the weeds within ourselves; and the vines of the enemy have grown up around us, and ensnared us. (v.8)

Unless You, the Lord of Hosts had been kind to us, our household would have become like the neighbors of Lot, and our country would have become like Gomorrah. (v.9)

Indeed, we have embraced the rulers of Sodom. And we ourselves are a “deeply rebellious people”. (v.10)

Forgive us for bringing You trite, religious platitudes, when You’ve wanted – Yes, “deserved” our very souls. (v.11)

We’ve come before You, time and again, with our assemblies, our conferences, our endeavors, and carelessly, thoughtlessly trampled around Your holy courts. Forgive us holy Father. (v.12)

We have refused to see Your displeasure. We’ve cared little for our great iniquity as we’ve come into Your sacred place. (v.13)

We’ve altogether blinded ourselves from what You hate; what You’re troubled by, and what You’re weary of bearing re: us, and our ways. (v.14)

When we spread out our hands before You, we have pretended that they were not filled with blood. Nor have we considered how You continue to hide Yourself from us, even when we bring our many petitions before you. We’ve not “read the room” – Your courtroom. (v.15)

We have not washed ourselves, and made ourselves clean; We have not put away the evil of our doings from before Your eyes. We’ve not ceased to do evil. (v.16)

We’ve not learned to do good; We’ve not sought Your definition, or manifestation of justice, We’ve not rebuked the oppressor; We have not defended the poor, the historically oppressed, nor have we cried out for the alien when they are unfairly treated. (v.17)

We have not even come to You, to hear the ways of Your heart. We have not reasoned with You. We’ve not let You show us the intense stain of our sins. We’ve not let You cleanse us. We’ve instead covered ourselves in fig-leaves. (v.18)

We have neither been willing, nor obedient to counsel with You. (v.19)

We’ve not considered that You are a God who ultimately brings the sword, and wrath upon those who continue to refuse and rebel. (v.20)

We have not considered how our faith has turned to harlotry. We’ve not acknowledged that our own righteousness, now embraces the ways of murder. (v.21)

We have allowed ourselves to become polluted, and our the power of Your Kingdom we have altogether watered down. (v.22)

We’ve championed thieves, insurrectionists, and extortionists. They do not care a lick for the “have-nots”, nor those broken by the curse in our midst. (v.23)

We’ve not affirmed that You are the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of America; a God Who ultimately takes vengeance upon His enemies. (v.24)

We’ve lived in blithe disconnect that Your fierce wrath may ever be aimed at us, or that Your hand could be turned against us, to remove our own dross. (v.25)

We’ve not wanted Your way of redemption and restoration. We’ve allowed ourselves to be distracted from Your vision of what a righteous, and faithful city looks like. (v.26)

We’ve cut deals with the way in which You establish redemption and justice within a people; How You build all righteousness upon radical penitence and thorough repentance. (v.27)

We have not promoted the fact that You are a God Who destroys transgressors and sinners. We have winked at the reality that You consume all those who forsake the Lord and His ways. (v.28)

We have not been ashamed of our many sins. (v.29)

We have incorrectly plodded along in our convention, believing we didn’t need the water of Your Word; (v.30) the piercing truth about our ways.

We have mocked the Words of Your own prophets who have looked at our adulterous ways and decreed, “The Word of the Lord will come like a spark and shall burn the work of the strong like tinder, and no one shall quench the fire of the Lord.” (v.31)

Father. Let our cry come before You. Humble us. Break us. Have mercy on us. Forgive us. Purge us. Establish us with Your steadfast lovingkindness. And fill us with a contrite spirit of truth, and peace, and holiness. For the glory of Your Son, alone, Father.

And what if some of us, so burdened by the depth of our rebellion, impatience and betrayal of God, stayed before the Lord through the night – trembling before His holiness – shaken by the true image of the wrath we deserve – “undone” like Isaiah. And what if a thousand – one hundred – or even two dozen preachers climbed back into the pulpit next Sunday – disheveled, messed up, tumbled, but touched by the Commander of the Lord’s armies. What would the Lord do with the fear of the Lord that burned in their words? What would He ignite in our family? What if that became the fire that were cast across our nation in this hour?

“Jesus! We’re here by Your mercy; wholly abandoned for Your increase, alone”.

____________________
JSB • January 14, 2026

Download the PDF Copy of the ISAIAH 1 PRAYER here.

Understanding Psalm 2 for Today

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The Drama of This Ancient Psalm/Prophecy Is Being Played Out Before Our Eyes. Are We Aligning Our Lives to Its 5 – Fold Exhortations?

Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the  rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us break Their bonds  in pieces and cast away their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them  in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure: “Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.”

“I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of  Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You  shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ ”

Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and  rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled  but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. 

INTRODUCTION:
Psalm 2 is a 4-part prophetic drama about the Father establishing Jesus’ leadership over the earth. God intends for this narrative to help us cultivate an appropriate, prayerful response today so that we have the grace to stand with Him in the hour when these events are being fulfilled.

Most Christians live largely unsettled and a little apathetic about the major features surrounding God’s end-times’ storyline.

Without a clear understanding of these realities we live unsure of the purpose of our lives, foggy about our  calling, uncertain of our priorities, unconvinced of God’s loving presence, prone to distraction, with little  appreciation for what’s “at-risk”, and little perspective on just how prayer contributes to our vitality.

Gaining “living understanding” about these “plot-points” is like erecting a strong framework within which we can cultivate passion, exhilaration, wisdom, power, and strength to persevere in our daily relationship with Jesus.

Psalm 2 provides us with a 50,000 foot overview of the essential elements contained in God’s end-times’ narrative.

(Act I) The Rage of the Nations (Psalm 2:1-3)

Psalm 2:1-3 prophesies that the nations will rage in anger against Jesus’ leadership. His standards of morality, righteousness, and His right to hold every heart accountable to His order of love and justice will be deeply opposed by a world steeped in the curse of sin. It will also be a stumbling block to many within the Church.

People from every political stripe, on every level of society will plot strategies, and use their influence to mobilize the masses to rebel against God’s righteousness, and resist God’s loving leadership.

The rulers speak of the leaders of the “culture”: socio/political,  economic, spiritual, educational, military, entertainment, media, arts, athletics, etc. They will use social unrest, hardship, conspiracy and injustice to exert pressure on each other to make lawlessness the cultural norm.

The kings of the nations will set their hearts to fully influence the faithless ways of the people under them. The term kings includes the heads of state,  e.g., presidents, prime ministers, and legislators. The term also refers to believers; those who have been called to be kings and priests to God (Revelation 5:10), but who have fallen under the sway of false teaching, and strong delusions.

The kings, rulers, and people will conspire together against the values and plans of the Lord which will be portrayed as foolish, “unenlightened”, and even “dangerous” to the  well-being of society, and in some cases, the Church within a society.

They will also lodge hostile arguments against the Father and His anointed One (Jesus); protesting, and compromising with the idea that Jesus is uniquely the Jewish Son of the Father, and the only One worthy to rule every nation.

The plan against God will be focused on casting away the authority of His Word (v. 3) (either through rejection of the Word itself, or through perversion of the application of the Word) throughout all aspects of society. These people will see a literal understanding of God’s Word as if it were “bonds” that enslave them and “cords” that bind them from being “authentically human”, or “unrealistic to the human situation”.

(Act II) The Father’s Response to the Rebellious Nations (Psalm 2:4-6)

God laughs because He is confident in His ability to fully accomplish His plan in spite of humanity’s resistance. We are small creatures who live for a mere eighty years. God’s whole Person fills 300 billion galaxies, and He has no beginning and no end. His laughter denotes just how small our power is to overthrow the intent of His heart.

One of the chief ways that the Lord will express His intent is through end-time, friends of the Bridegroom, who will primarily speak of the earth’s need to be prepared for the coming of the Bridegroom in His anointed glory.

The Lord will also use these ones to express His “deep displeasure” over the nations’ fierce opposition to the preeminent plan to have Jesus, and His unique manner of leadership reign over humanity.

Beloved, it’s vital that we let the Holy Spirit develop a theology of the fear of the Lord in us today, so that we possess a holy respect for His judgments, His wisdom, His redemptive love, and His sovereign ability to rule the heart, in the hours in which the Lord is, in fact, expressing His displeasure in our world.

(Act III) (Scene 1) Jesus Recalling the Inheritance He’s Received from the Father (Psalm 2:7-8)

In these 3 verses we hear Jesus recalling the divine decree that the Father has declared over Him. Jesus’ inheritance from the Father is a redeemed Bride and a throne in Jerusalem, from which He will rule the whole earth.

As He recalls the eternal dialogue that He and His Father have had, He is also giving us revelation of the desire that burns in His own heart. Understanding the Father’s decree, and the Son’s desire are vital if we want to faithfully partner with Jesus in praying for God’s purposes on the earth. 

The apostles drew on these realities when they prayed about the hostile leaders in Jerusalem. They asked the Father to manifest His power on the basis that the world was opposing the reign of His Son, the One He had anointed to rule the earth.
“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,  with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together…Lord, look on their threats and  grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your  hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done…” (Acts 4:27-29)

If we are to grow up in our prayer-lives, (indeed, if we are to grow up in our relationship with God) we must move from a “Jesus fix our lives” mindset, to a “Jesus, reign in my world” mindset.

One example of this mature intercession is found in (Acts 15:13-17) where God answers Cornelius’ prayer, and releases salvation to the Gentiles. This was God fulfilling one key dimension of His plan to have His Son rule the nations. In order to accomplish this, He actually looked for a human heart that was aligned with what He (the Father) had purposed to do on earth.

In (Acts 10:3-5) we hear about the Father responding to Cornelius’ prayers:
“About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!” And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, “What is it, lord?” So he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter.”

When Peter arrives at Cornelius’ house, he is also in prayer and receives revelation of God’s intent to bring “the nations” (the Gentiles) under the covenant reign of His Son.

The point is:“Who is Cornelius? Who is Peter? On earth they were simple men uttering weak prayers based what they saw in the heart of God. In heaven God saw them as a vital allies, through whom He would fulfill one major component of the promise that He had made to His Son.

The story of Peter and Cornelius’ prayers are profound encouragements to our own prayers.

(ACT III) (Scene 2) Jesus Judges the Rebellious Nations (Psalm 2:9)

In verse 5  David tells us that the Lord will judge the nations with “WRATH” and “HIS DEEP DISPLEASURE“. What does “deep displeasure” look like in a trillion galaxy God???

Verse 9 tells us:
“You (the Son) shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.“

MOST of us western, Bible-believing Christians don’t have a theology of God’s WRATH that’s stable enough to keep our hearts secure in love through the “time of trouble” that’s erupting around us… What I mean by this is, when the judgments of God fully come upon the earth, they will stir up so much emotional hostility and accusation against others, and ultimately against God Himself. The essence of this hostility and accusation will sound like this in the human heart, “God isn’t fully just. His Word is too radical. His way needs to be more reasonable. All by itself, His plan is not good. It needs the help of human wisdom. His judgments are out-of-line with true love. etc.”

There will be SO MUCH HUMAN-CULTURAL PRESSURE to agree with these accusations against God’s character. If we don’t prepare our minds and hearts today for the social pressures we will face tomorrow, our “love” and “faith” in God will be severely crushed.

How do we prepare ourselves to face these social pressures?
David gives us four ways to prepare ourselves in Act IV of Psalm 2, but in a nut-shell, we need to pray-read the Word of God today with a spirit of humility and wonder.

(Act IV) David Prophetically Warns the Leaders of the Nations (Psalm 2:10-12)

In the final scene, King David issues a solemn, five-fold exhortation to the leaders, and all people of the earth. It’s wise for us to heed these divine admonitions as we prepare ourselves for the Day of the Lord. No one can say that they have not been warned, or don’t know how to respond to His purposes.

1. Be wise O Kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth
This is an exhortation to those believers, and unbelievers who think they already have enough information and “soul-resolve” to make sound judgments about God during the end-time pressures. We are wise to learn from our brother Peter, who believed he had enough inner fortitude to withstand the temptations to deny Jesus. We are wise to heed the Spirit’s warning now and cultivate humility, teachability; and seek the Lord (Psalm 27:5) for wisdom (James 1:5), divine might in the inner man (Ephesians 3:16) and grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

2. Serve the Lord with fear
This is a call to obedience. But it is based on the revelation that God is the eternal God and we are HIs creation made of dust (Psalm 103:14). It’s wise to cultivate the fear of the Lord regarding One Who is so holy, and greater than us, so that we can serve Him in the way that He has determined.
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by  which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a  consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29) (For a more complete picture of the fear of the Lord  read Hebrews 12:18-29)

3. Rejoice with trembling
This is an command to mix our fear and awe with the joy and exhilaration that comes from beholding Him in His beauty (Psalm 27:4) and being made joyful as He engages us in His house of prayer. (Isaiah 56:7)

4. Kiss the Son, let He be angry and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled (in His judgment against evil) but a little.
a. One prominent greek word for worship is “pros-ku-ne-ow”. It literally means “to kiss toward”. To “kiss the Son” is an exhortation to live a life of adoration, worship and first commandment love.

Jesus is worthy (Revelation 5:12) to be loved, adored and worshipped. But He’s also gloriously beautiful. Our hearts were fashioned to (kiss) “adore” the wonders of Who He is. (Psalm 27:4; Psalm 45:2; Psalm 50:1-2; Isaiah 28:5; Zechariah 9:17)

5. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
It is supremely prudent to do the hard work of cultivating great trust in God today, rather than to allow the subtle, mounting deception of the world to gain increasing sway over our minds and hearts.
“And because wickedness will abound, the love of most will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12)
“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart.” (Psalm 119:1-2)

The Lord is gloriously orchestrating a prophetic voice in His Church that will amplify and give understanding to these 5 exhortations of verses 10-12. However, these voices will only be cultivated and strengthened through lifestyles that are plumb-lined to the priority of corporate prayer.

May God’s grace be upon us as we seek Him in the place of prayer, beloved.

____________________

JSB • November, 2019

What Would a Joel Assembly ACTUALLY Look Like?

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‘Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand… Now, therefore’, says the Lord, ‘Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God.’” (Joel 2:1, 12-13)

I don’t believe there’s a more important Kingdom concern for the body of Christ right now than to be responding to the Lord’s judgments over His praying church. The Lord is passionately bidding His priests, His intercessors and His prophetic messengers to be purified so He can retrofit us with His zeal, vision and strength for His end-times purposes. This is the primary lesson for us to learn from the last 6 months, as the Lord brought His swift judgment upon the largest, most far-reaching, and longest corporate prayer community in the history of our nation. Through all the contention, real, human abuse, sin, deceit, pretense and accusation the Lord is calling His house; (Isaiah 56:7) His house of prayer, to lose our pride, let go of our self-preservation, and meet Him on His threshing floor, where the abundance of “God-only” resurrection power is to be found.

“The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.” (Joel 2:24)

This is where the prophet JOEL is inviting us to go. In three chapters, the Lord gives us the most complete set of instructions on how to humble ourselves before Him that we find anywhere in the Bible. I believe these three chapters also constitute some of the most oft-neglected and needed, but unapplied scriptures in the history of the people of God.

THE JOEL ASSEMBLY PARADIGM
I’ve studied, prayed through, and taught the book of Joel intensely for nearly 20 years. The Joel assembly is not a call to a weekend festival. It would have taken Judah months to fully prepare and respond to this exhortation. This is most likely the chief reason the Lord’s summons was never heeded by the nation. It would have been too costly; too unsettling to their status quo lifestyles. Actually doing the Joel assembly would require a wholesale adjustment of every aspect of their lives. It would have disrupted the order of the temple, the administration of the government, the pattern of families and parenting, the schedules and details of commerce and the arrangements for festivals, marriages and funerals.

Any ministry, church or fellowship who wants to take the Joel assembly seriously in our day will need to face this thoroughness of application head on. Doing Joel demands a lot of time, prayerful consensus-building and detailed preparation.

Let me be REALLY clear here. There are many who are washing their hands of the #IHOPKC implosion, and moving on with their lives – crippled, stunned, PTSD, burned, disillusioned, betrayed – many in delusional denial… (I get it… I live w the same gravitational pull every day.) Because of the way IHOPKC leadership has disastrously dealt w this judgment of the Lord, MOST of us will never get the full healing we need, or deserve. This is a bonafide carnage of souls, relationships, and trust. With this in mind, let me also say to all of us: NONE OF US will come through these months walking with full hearts, in vibrant righteousness with Jesus, without doing what the Lord prescribes and provides for in the book of Joel.* This isn’t just a crisis. It’s first and foremost, a judgment of the Lord upon His people. We CANNOT circumvent what the Lord is after in this hour. We either get to the threshing floor or we will be winnowed like chaff through a thousand different personal, and interpersonal tensions attendant to this horrific episode. No matter how unjustly we’ve been treated; no matter how much pretense we’ve lathered on our ministries; no matter how much sin we’re still hiding in the dark; no matter how passionately we want to get back to our assignments, our families, and our lives… …our God is still a consuming fire preparing a bride for His Son. Large or small, no matter how we manage to engage its dynamics, Joel 2 is THE unavoidable way to participate in that preparation.

The brilliance of Joel 2 is that it marvelously empowers community to enable the weak, the young and the broken to do and receive what they need as the whole body engages the Lord. When a people choose to do Joel 2, the wounded and the traumatized are embraced, strengthened and provided for.

In chapters 1 and 2 of Joel, the Lord issues 16 specific instructions that will help Judah corporately yield their ways to HIs purging and redemptive work. In these few verses the eternal God is literally giving His people the blueprint for how to see their condition clearly, come before Him in humility, be cleansed, ask for forgiveness, receive His mercy, and be realigned to His righteous purposes.

16 ELEMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH DEPLOYING THE JOEL ASSEMBLY

“Hear and listen to the Word of the Lord.” (Joel 1:2) The call to listen and hear the Word of the Lord is at the forefront of Joel’s instructions. The God of Mount Sinai is speaking to His children. By nature of what it is, His Word demands that the people stop what they’re doing, give the Lord strict attention, ardently study, understand and meticulously obey the prophetic Words that are being spoken. The God of Genesis 1 is releasing His Words of power. This is a call for the people to wholly yield themselves to every diagnosis; every truth; every exhortation; every word of conviction; and every word of hope and promise that the prophet is declaring. “Hearing” and “listening” is a matter of life or death.

The context of (v.2) makes it clear that the Lord is also issuing a two-fold admonition to the elders (v.14) As the Word comes through the prophet, it would have first been submitted to the priests, teachers and other prophets. As it is announced to them, they would have understood that the Lord is saying:
A.) Be certain that you (elders) hear, digest and internalize these Words yourselves; correcting the deficient norms, values and ways of your leadership and systems that have become cross-purposes to My heart.
B.) Make sure that the people comprehend what I Am saying. The lives of My sons and daughters are on the line. I Am making you responsible for the sufficient dissemination of My Word. Teach. Answer questions. Cultivate applied understanding. I Am putting this obligation on you. Work toward corporate consensus and thorough obedience to My Word. I Am holding you accountable for My people adequately understanding, humbling and adjusting themselves to My Words of life.

HERE ARE THE REST OF THE EXHORTATIONS GIVEN TO US BY THE PROPHET JOEL…

“Be awakened.” (Joel 1:5) Let the light of the Holy Spirit illuminate your heart.

“Blow the trumpet.” (Joel 2:1) Declare the need to gather together corporately.

“Gather the elders.” (Joel 1:14) Share and dialogue what the Lord is saying with the leaders.

“Call a sacred assembly.” (Joel 1:14) Do the preparatory work to assemble the people into a holy convocation.

“Sanctify the congregation.” (Joel 2:16) Establish the purpose and intent of your gathering as holy and focused on the intentions of the Lord.

“Consecrate a fast.” (Joel 2:12) Focus the hearts and appetites to be fully attentive to the Lord.

“Rend your heart.” (Joel 2:13) Make your self, your ways, your history, your heritage, and your hopes exposed and vulnerable before the Lord.

“Tremble.” (Joel 2:1) Be aware of your unrighteous nakedness before the uncreated God of perfect holiness and power.

“Lament.” (Joel 1:13) Meditate upon how hopeless and barren you are apart from the Lord. Consider how you have lived so short of His glorious realities.

“Weep and wail.” (Joel 1:5 and Joel 2:17) Let your bankrupt condition bring you to tears and touch your emotions.

“Be ashamed.” (Joel 1:11) Let yourself feel the shame of your wretched state before the Holy One and all the holy ones in heaven.

“Lie in sackcloth.” (Joel 1:13 and Joel 1:12) Let your whole being be brought to nothing – to death – the grave – despair and ashes. Lie in that reality. Let it be your clothing.

“Cry out to the Lord.” (Joel 1:14) Repent out loud. Pour out your heart, your sins, your barrenness, your inability, your need, your hope, your falseness and your despair before the Lord. Keep on crying out.

“Prioritize the Lord’s paradigm.” (Joel 2:16) As you continue to listen to His Word, let Him reveal His righteousness and His righteous ways to your heart. Dialogue these righteous ways among the company of the repentant ones until they become agreed upon values and priorities.

“Gather and tell your children.” (Joel 1:3) Establish an agreed upon paradigm for teaching yourselves, and your children the right order of the Lord. This is where your repentance becomes your new cultural narrative that emphasizes the mercy and the right order of the Lord.

Each of these elements points to a relational reality that is important for us to follow in the repentance process. They are like lights in the cabin of an airliner that’s filled with smoke and plummeting into the ocean. They help us know how to navigate to safety and security in a “time of trouble” (Psalm 27:5). It’s vital that we know how to come to Him “without one plea” in wholehearted truth, and not in a superficial, religious, or self-saving spirit.

Each of the 16 elements are important, but we can’t make each element happen. Nor should we attempt to. What’s most important is that we make room for, and create corporate experiences where when these elements happen under the power of the Holy Spirit they are appreciated, encouraged and facilitated well, and not resisted and/or left unsupported.

Here are SEVEN PRACTICAL STEPS for IHOPKC, and HOUSES of PRAYER to implement the Joel Assembly:

1. STOP ALL BUSINESS AS USUAL. This includes pushing pause on all ministries, outreaches, group meetings, and administrative affairs. The world will understand something sober is happening when web-sites, and phone systems announce the Missions Base is closed for three months of “seeking the Lord.”

2. ELT, IHOPKC pastors, former leaders (AG), national House of Prayer leaders and/or even Mike himself: BLOW THE TRUMPET and call other Houses of Prayer to solidarity with a 3-month season of mourning, confession, and crying out to the Lord.

3. Dedicate 1 month to RAW TEARS, expressions of GRIEF, and stories of BROKENNESS – without judgment or correction. Agree to let the Prayer Room become a threshing-floor where there are no human fixes. Sanctify the GPR so that it becomes free space to weep, share and listen to pain in prayer. Require all pastors and leaders to be “all present”. Hire a team of counselors for the grieving and wounded who dare come, and want compassionate help re any kind of religious abuse; and/or trauma. This is seeing the value of becoming an ash-heap before the Lord. (See Ezekiel 20:37)

4. Dedicate one month to nothing but utter, 24/7, basement-level, public and private CONFESSION and REPENTANCE before the Lord. Confession needs to be specific. Repentance needs to lead to the purging of sins, and sinful ways.

5. Dedicate one month to CRYING OUT TO THE LORD, in a spirit of poverty, humility and unction, for the Presence of His Holy Spirit, and the joy of the Lord’s intervention, salvation and leadership within His sanctuary. Again. There are no fixes here. This is Matthew 5:3 posturing before the Lord.

6. Deploy a truly INDEPENDENT THIRD-PARTY INVESTIGATIVE TEAM to thoroughly analyze and scrutinize all aspects of the House of Prayer with regards to sexual, spiritual and manipulative abuse of the precious ones the Lord has sent to IHOPKC over the last 25 years.
Agree to PUBLISH THE FINDINGS as “memorial stones” of where the Lord buried our great sin, and brought us into His light in righteousness solely by the blood of His own Son.

7. RESTART 24/7 INTERCESSION with those who remain. SANCTIFY these ones to live with awareness of our great sin, but with dependence upon the greater mercy of God. CONSECRATE them into an atmosphere of reverence, humility, and contrition before the Lord.

THE DANGER IN NOT DOING JOEL
To NOT deploy Joel is
a.) to fail to give the family what it needs to authentically survive, heal and be restored to the Lord through this crisis.
b.) to call God a liar; and not employ the thorough measure that His Word says we need…
c.) to idolize the way of self; believing we have the power to “save ourselves” and do something better than what the Lord has prescribed.

In THIS MOMENT, we have an opportunity to redress months, years and decades of scandal, and the calamitous, sinful response we’ve given Him through our “hiding, redaction, shaming, image-management, and stone-throwing.”

O, the dishonor we’ve brought to His Name.

We also have a real-time opportunity to give the church, and the next generation a relevant paradigm on how to respond to the judgments of the Lord.

They’re coming.

____________________
JSB • February 2024

Jonathan Boegl has been a pastor for more than 40 years. He was trained at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA • M.Div. in Christian Formation and Discipleship • He’s been associated with the International House of Prayer in Kansas City since 2001. He served as a District Pastor on staff at IHOPKC, primarily responsible for the development of Friendship Groups and Evangelism from 2010 to 2018. He and his wife, Kathy now serve as directors of the All Nations House of Prayer Southwest in the mountains of Arizona.