“I am the Lord who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself…who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers…” (Isa.44:24-26).

Most of us are familiar with the concept of prophetic words.  God puts his words on the lips of his prophets and as they declare those words they release the activities of God to bring about those prophetic declarations.  Jeremiah is the perfect example of that dynamic.  “Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘Now, I have put my words in your mouth.  See today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant’” (Jer.1:9-10). Jeremiah never led an army or launched a war through the power of politics.  He tore down and built up by declaring the words God had given him.  Like a starter firing the gun to release the runners in a race, the prophet releases the power of heaven we he/she declares the words of God.

God frequently works in partnership with his people.  He could do all things by himself but chooses to work with us and through us.  Prophetic words are really his words going forth from our lips and, like prayers, it is possible that some things are not released because we have not spoken what God has put on our hearts or lips.

Many prophetic words are also conditional. A prophet will say what God will do if we are willing to respond to the word or what he will do if we don’t respond. When Jonah preached to Nineveh that judgment would come in forty days, it was a word that also presented the option of repentance.  Nineveh did repent and God withheld judgment.  In the New Testament church, when a prophetic word declares that God will use a person mightily in a certain area, the condition is that the individual must be willing to prepare for that moment and be willing to serve in that arena for the prophecy to be fulfilled.  The prophecy is conditional – God will do this if you will do that. Again, God often works through partnership with his people and we determine by our choices how much of God’s will on the earth is released and becomes a reality.

There are also prophetic acts that release God’s activities on the earth.  One such moment is recorded between the prophet Elisha and the king of Israel. “He said, “Open the window toward the east,” and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot!” And he shot. And he said, “The Lord’s arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Aram; for you will defeat the Arameans at Aphek until you have destroyed them.” Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground,” and he struck it three times and stopped. So the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you would have destroyed it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times” (2 Kings 13:17-19).  In this case, the king of Israel performed his own prophetic act and his lack of zeal or faith drew less form heaven than God was willing to give.

Anointing someone with oil can also be a prophetic act.  “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power” (I Sa. 16:13). Pouring oil on a king, a prophet, or a priest that God has chosen is certainly a sign that God has selected that person for an office or mission but I believe it is also a prophetic act that releases the Holy Spirit into that person’s life. In each instance, the appointing required an anointing with the Spirit for them to successfully fulfill the role that God had given them.  Does God ever give his Spirit to someone without anointing him/her with oil?  Yes, of course, but at other times anointing releases the power of heaven (the Holy Spirit) over the one who is in need of the Spirit.  The laying on of hands can be a similar prophetic act that releases or imparts authority, spiritual gifts, or the Spirit himself into a person’s life.

I believe it is the same for healing.  Mark tells us that the apostles anointed many people with oil and healed them (see Mark 6:13).  James tells the church to call the elders whenever someone is sick so that the elders can anoint the sick with oil in the name of Jesus and offer a prayer of faith which will bring healing (see Ja. 5:14).  I believe the oil is a prophetic act releasing the power of the Spirit in that person’s body for healing.  We need to take note that that prophetic acts are not incantations but are done in faith that God will fulfill what is indicated by that act.

The church today often simply goes through the motions of “sacraments” without believing that God is doing anything as a result.  And yet the Bible is full of prophetic acts that release the activities of God over a nation or a person. In the New Testament we are instructed to anoint with oil, lay hands on people, baptize in water, and take bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper.  I believe that each of these are not just symbols of a truth but are also prophetic acts that combined with faith will release the power of heaven into a situation or a person’s life.

Churches often neglect or minimize these “acts” thinking that they are simply symbols rather than prophetic acts releasing the power of God into someone’s life.  Water baptism certainly symbolizes rebirth, resurrection, cleansing, etc. but what if it not only symbolizes those things but also releases the power of God for those things. As we take the communion bread we often say. “The body of Christ broken for you.” We are also told “by his stripes we have been healed.”  The broken body of Christ has purchased healing for believers.  Does the taking of bread in faith constitute a prophetic act that releases healing over God’s people?  If so, we might want to take communion more than once a quarter. Does the cup that represents the blood of Christ release other things over the children of God?  I will leave that for you to think about.  Again…it is all by faith in what Jesus had done but God has always waited on his people to declare, pray, or act before releasing miracles and the power of his Spirit into situations.  Maybe we should give more thought to that partnership.

Be blessed today and declare the words of God over those things that need his Spirit.

I was thinking today about our propensity to hide our sins and failures. It’s quite human to do so.  In a sense we come by it honestly.  Adam and Eve responded in the same way immediately following the first sin.  As soon as they had eaten fruit from the forbidden tree, their first response was to cover their shame with fig leaves, then to hide from God, and then to blame others for their actions.  It was a bit ambitious to think that they could hide from the God of creation who had made everything they saw and had fashioned them by hand. And it wasn’t like they could slip away in the crowd because there was no crowd – but shame and fear easily distort our judgment…even the best of us.

Take David, for instance, and his now famous transgression with Bathsheba.  I have no doubt that after their moment of passion they were both overcome with shame. I believe they were both godly people who fell in a moment of weakness.  Because of that, I believe shame overwhelmed them and they left when it was over vowing that it would never happened again.  But then Bathsheba discovered her pregnancy. Her husband Uriah had been in the field with David’s army for weeks or months. The palace servants knew they had been together – just chatting of course – but now her pregnancy would cement the case against them.  At first, overwhelmed with shame and remorse they are both now overcome by fear.

David and Bathsheba’s adultery carried the possibility of unthinkable consequences. The Law demanded death for all those who committed adultery.  In this case an unborn child would die as well.  Although it was unlikely that capital punishment would have been imposed in this case there would certainly be scandal. Uriah would, of course, divorce his beautiful wife. The army who laid their lives on the line for their king would all feel betrayed by a man who was stealing their wives while they camped in the fields at his command.  David was not just a political leader but a religious leader as well.  Now the man who wrote most of the worship hymnal for Israel and the man who danced before the Lord with all his might was an adulterer.  There was so much to lose if the adultery were discovered.

So fear leads to hiding and deception. David determined to bring Uriah home to report on the battle and David assumed that, while in Jerusalem, Uriah would spend the night with his wife. Later, everyone would assume the child was his. When he refused to be with his wife while his men were in the field, David set him up to be killed in battle.  A dead man could not disclose that he had not been with his wife on his short furlough to Jerusalem.  With Uriah dead, the secret sin was safe and life could go on with some serious regrets to deal with to be sure.  But … it was over.

However, it wasn’t over.  For those who serve God, unconfessed and unrepented sin does not stay hidden and does not go away.  There are two reasons for that. Either Satan will bring the sin into the light to destroy people, families, reputations, and ministries or God will bring the sin into the light so that it can be dealt with and so that reconciliation can occur between the sinner and a loving God.  Either way, the sin will be brought into the light.

In the meantime, a guilty conscience and fear of discovery will torment the one hiding the sin. Listen to David.  “When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity” (Ps.32:3-5).  David sat on the throne for nearly a year without acknowledging his sin.  When Nathan the prophet came to confront David, the child from the adulterous evening had already been born.

I’m sure because of all the imagined consequences if the sin were brought into the light, David had simply hoped it would all eventually just fade away. Undoubtedly Satan had already lit the fuse on rumors from palace servants and soldiers who had wondered about Uriah’s death.  David had tossed and turned for months and we can assume Bathsheba had done the same.  Then God sent Nathan to pry the confession out of David and in that moment David confessed and God forgave.  There were consequences for the sin in the natural realm but all was reconciled in the spiritual realm. Even after adultery and murder, God walked with David through the consequences of his son’s rebellion and the hard years to follow.

Sin separates us from God – not just in a legal sense but also in an emotional and relational sense. We hide from God in our own ways and seal ourselves off from others who might discover our sin or remind us of what we have done. Sin also separates us from ourselves as we either loathe ourselves for the sin or excuse the sin while constantly quenching the Holy Spirit who is bringing conviction.  If we stay in our chosen denial long enough our hearts may harden so that we can no longer feel the tug of God trying to draw us back.

Sin has its costs. The cost of unconfessed and unrepented sin, however, accumulates with interest. Although we hope it will all go away, it doesn’t and as I said before, our sin will be brought into the light either by Satan the destroyer or by God the redeemer. The wise course is to quickly acknowledge, confess, and repent of every sin.  God is our redeemer and deliverer and when we have “blown it big time” we need him more than ever.  Our attempts to hide our sin and deceive others will simply create distance between us and the one who can save.

In addition, my experience is that good people don’t expect us to be perfect but they do expect us to tell the truth when we have failed.  “Blowing it” reveals that I can be foolish but lying about my failure reveals that I can’t be trusted. Satan does his greatest work in the dark and our secrets give him power over us.  He is a tormentor and a blackmailer and out secret sins gives him a wide playing field.

We all sin and our usual first response is very human – cover up, hide, deny our responsibility.  We fear rejection and we fear unknown consequences. But as believers we should not give into the human response because that is the flesh.  We should respond as the Spirit directs – humbling ourselves, telling the truth, repenting, and trusting God with the consequences. The penalties and interest are much less when we keep short accounts with the Father and cut sin off at the legs by our confession. It’s in the secret places that Satan gets a foothold that may soon become a stronghold. Jesus said, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  I believe the biblical principle is also that if we tell the truth, the truth will set us free.  Be blessed today by truth and don’t give into fear because fear is not from the Lord.

In the early pages of the gospel of Luke, Jesus had just been questions by disciples of John the Baptist.  John had sent them to ask Jesus if he were, in fact, the Messiah or if another was to come.  That moment gives us some insight into the ministry of prophets.  John was, according to Jesus, the greatest of the prophets and yet he was unsure of whom Jesus was. Paul says of New Testament prophets that “we know in part and we prophesy in part” (Jn.13:9).  Apparently that was true of Old Testament prophets as well.  They spoke the things that God put on their hearts and in their minds but often those prophecies were just bits and pieces of God’s overall canvas rather than the whole picture.  John had been confident at one time that Jesus was the Messiah but even John seemed to be looking for a powerful, political, and military savior of Israel rather than a suffering savior who would die on a cross.

But John had come in the spirit of Elijah and was the last in line of the great Old Testament prophets.  He had been sent to prepare the hearts of the people for the coming Messiah who was already among them.  Many of the Jews sensed the call of God to return to him and his ways and so submitted to John’s baptism as a sign of repentance and a need for spiritual cleansing.  Luke said, “All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.” (Luke 7:28-30).

The last phrase really catches my attention.  “But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purposes for them…” The religious elite and those who knew scripture best rejected God’s purposes in their life.  The evidence of that was that they had refused to be baptized by John because to do so was a confession of spiritual need and sin that cried out to be cleansed. Here is what we discover.  I n our relationship with God, the heart is more important than the head.  These were men who spent their lives in prayer, fasting, and study of the Torah.  But their study had not prepared their hearts for God’s Messiah.  Undoubtedly, they did not have the benefit of the Holy Spirit but the common people responded to John’s preaching while the religious elite did not.

I can think of a couple of a couple of reasons. First of all, the religious system of the Jews did not meet the need of the people at all.  They had limited access to God because they were not priests.  The Law seemed like a burden the demanded much and delivered little for them. Their tithes supported a system that had little regard for the unschooled and the unwashed. Because they had little standing with the religious leaders they felt they had little standing with God.  They were in need of good news.

For the Pharisees, however, the Law and the religious system that supported the Law gave them status and a false sense of security about their salvation.  Doing all the right religious things and being schooled in Torah theology gave them the sense that God was pleased with them and honored them as much as they honored themselves.  They were wrong, of course, but that was their view of themselves and God.

Secondly, the Pharisees and experts in the Law were a self-righteous bunch.  Legalism, salvation based on our own merit, forces people to one of two positions. Either I give up all together because I’m overwhelmed with my personal sense of sin and failure or I convince myself that I am more righteous than most so my odds for getting into heaven are pretty good. The common people felt the wait and hopelessness of salvation based on personal merit.  Again they needed good news so when John began to hint that a new doorway to God was about to be opened, they were willing to listen.  The religious leaders, however, needed to protect their righteous persona so they could not submit to a baptism that was overtly for sinners.

The lesson is that self-righteousness and a commitment to the religious status quo will cause us to miss God’s purposes for our life.  God reveals his purposes to the desperate and the hungry. Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Scripture is clear that God has purposes for believers in general but specific and unique purpose for each believer.  “   For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph.2:10). “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers^” (Rom.8:29).

When we are living out God’s purposes for our life, our lives have eternal significance.  We experience the pleasure and the power of God flowing through us as we fulfill those purposes.  Life seems abundant and exciting rather than tedious and boring. The problem with legalism and religious systems are that they are a treadmill with each day seeming much like the one before it.  Depending on God and stepping into his purposes each day is an adventure.  Have you ever noticed that the most extreme believers seem to have the most fun?  It is because they have pushed into God’s purposes more that most of us.

I believe the abundant life Jesus promises is tied up with the purposes God has ordained for our lives. Religion will not get us there but instead will blind us to those purposes. Self-righteousness and a need to be in control will also cause us to miss God’s directions. A commitment to a static faith and a spiritual status quo will also cause us to miss his purposes that, like his mercies, are new every morning.  Let me invite you to humbly ask God to show you his purposes for your life today and for faith to pursue those purposes. Those who hungered for a fresh touch, a fresh revelation, and rekindled relationship with the Father discovered his purposes for them in the days of John the Baptist. That same hunger will open up his purposes for us today.  Be blessed by going after your destiny in Christ.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head.  Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’ “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. (Ezek.33:2-7)

In the days of the Bible, cities and farmers needed watchmen.  A watchman was simply the “lookout” or sentry who was posted to give warning if danger approached. On walled cities, towers were built and those towers were manned by watchmen who would sound an alarm if the enemy approached or who would alert the gatekeepers that a messenger was approaching or that a company of men were returning from a mission.  In essence, the watchman was to discern whether the approaching figure(s) were friends or foes and he was to alert the city to that arrival.

In several places, God compares Ezekiel to a watchman who has been placed over Israel to sound the alarm if he sees judgment on the horizon. Judgment would often come in the form of invading armies, natural disasters, plagues, etc.  It was the prophet’s job to alert the people of impending disasters so that they might repent and avoid the judgment of God.

There were also towers built in fields, orchards or vineyards for watchmen who would survey the borders of the property to see if any thieves were coming to steal the crops or if any animals were coming into the fields who might damage the crops. If so, they sounded the alert so that the Master’s men could arise and protect the crops.

Dutch Sheets has some great insights about these watchmen.  “In seasons of harvest, there is a more urgent need for the “watchman,” as “the thief” is going to do all he can to steal it, keeping the greater portion.  It is little wonder that God has preceded the greatest harvest of souls the world has ever known – which is now happening – with the greatest prayer awakening in history.

The Lord of the Harvest is wise. I can assure you He has 24-hour sentries watching over the harvest.” (Dutch Sheets, Intercessory Prayer, p. 255).

This is a day when the enemy is extremely active.  I believe that our nation’s leaders have released the demonic into our nation as never before by their attempts to drive God out of our schools, out of our military, out of courthouses, and out of our history.  They have passed laws against prayer and all kinds of expressions of Christianity in our culture while bowing to Islam, promoting abortion, and supporting the gay rights agenda.  In our conservative area of the country we have seen a spike in demonic activity of every kind and I have no doubt that there is more in other parts of our nation. This is a day when we need watchman who will protect the harvest and sound the alarm when an enemy approaches – not just for the nation but also for the church and for  individuals all around us.

There will be attacks from the inside and the outside that we must recognize and to which we must respond.  There will be individuals who work to destroy the nation, our families, and the church.  There will be those who wage a war on Christianity from the outside and those who wage a war from the inside by causing divisions and by teaching doctrines that do not line up with God’s truth. “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” (1 Tim.4:1-2).

Our American tradition has been to mind our own business and not to involve ourselves in the lives of others when we have not been invited.  We have carried that cultural mindset of individualism and self-sufficiency into the church we have labeled those who speak to others about their sin or who speak to others about questionable teachings as judgmental and intolerant.

However, God clearly tells us in Ezekiel that if we see a nation, a family or an individual rejecting God’s truth and God’s Son, then we must warn them or their blood will be on our hands. The church has set relatively quiet while millions of children have been aborted, while laws have been passed legalizing evil and restricting good, while God and prayer have been banned form our schools and then the nations wonders why children and teachers are being gunned down in those schools on a regular basis. If anyone suggests that natural disasters, a failing economy, flu epidemics, and terrorism are preliminary judgments from God on a nation once blessed by Him, they are labeled as religious quacks and extremists – even by other believers.  The truth is that if the church (and we as individuals who are the church) does not begin to sound the warning for the nation and for the people around us, God will hold us responsible in part for the destruction of both the nation and people.

Freedom, healing, and power come to those who align themselves with God and who are obedient even when it brings threats and criticisms.  In the book of Acts, every time the apostles were censured for preaching Jesus, they would go out and begin to preach him again and God wound do move supernaturally in awesome ways through those who were not only warning people but announcing the unconditional love of God.  I believe our warnings should be voiced out of love and concern but also tempered with truth. America was never in as much danger from Germany, Japan, or nuclear Russia as we are right now from a culture that is working hard to reject God and his righteousness at every turn. We really do need to steel ourselves and begin to speak out with wisdom, concern, love for our enemies, and with articulation.  We have been appointed to be watchmen for the church first but also for a nation God has blessed in generations past.

Today, think about your role as protector, defender, and lookout for those you love, for the family of God and also for a world of people Jesus died for.  Ask Jesus who you need to speak to or where you need to speak out.  To whom much has been given, much is required.  God has saved us and blessed us so richly, but with that comes great responsibility to be salt and light, fresh water, and watchmen on the wall.  Be blessed.

Elijah was the greatest prophet of the Old Testament.  I say that because, Jesus declared that John the Baptist had come in the spirit of Elijah and was the one given the honor to announce the coming of Messiah.  When Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John it was Moses and Elijah who met with Jesus on that mountain (see Matt. 17:3).

Elijah simply appears in the pages of scripture in 1 Kings 17.  We know nothing of his parents, his tribe or his upbringing.  He simply appears in the days of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel who promoted idol worship in Israel and who ruled as tyrants.  Elijah seems to be the forerunner of John the Baptist in many ways.  He confronted Ahab about his sins as John confronted Herod. He seemed to live mostly in the desert and wore a garment of hair with a leather belt around his waist (2 Kings 1:8) which sounds very much like John the Baptist.  Elijah differs, however, in that he performed miracles and was provided for miraculously while we have no record of John the Baptist ever performing a miracle.

It was Elijah who declared that there would be no dew or rain in Israel for three and a half years except at hos own word. It was also Elijah who confronted 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah on the top of Mount Carmel.  He stood against then and King Ahab until Jehovah was proven to be the true God and the prophets of Baal destroyed.  He was then instructed to go pray for rain and after doing so God sent rain after the three and a half year drought in Israel.  By the way, if Ahab had ever killed Elijah before he prayed for rain it is possible that it would have never rained again in Israel because the drought was to be broken only by Elijah’s words.

As you read the 17^th and 18^th chapters of 1 Kings, Elijah appears to be the fearless, unshakeable man of God that we all want to be.  But something out of character occurs in chapter 19.  After the confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, Ahab told Jezebel what had happened to her “pet priests.” After hearing about their destruction, Jezebel sent word to Elijah that she had taken a vow to kill him within the next 24 hours.

The text then reads,  “Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep” (1 Kings 19:3-5).

What we see in Elijah is a spiritual reality that we all need to be aware of.  Often, after great spiritual victories, we become susceptible to fatigue and fear.  Think about it.  Elijah had just completed an amazing day of spiritual victory – confronting Ahab, calling down fire from heaven, destroying the prophets of Baal, and then ran a marathon (see 1 Kings 18:45) to Jezreel.  He did all of this in the power of the Spirit.  However, when the infinite Spirit of God works through the finite body and soul of a man, spiritual and physical fatigue often sets in.  Even Jesus experienced that in his body so that at times he would separate himself from the crowds to seek a quiet place, rest, and time with the Father.

To put it bluntly, put a fork in Elijah because he is done. Elijah is drained at the end of the day and when the threat from Jezebel is delivered, he just doesn’t have the energy or faith to go another round. We like Elijah need to know that we are often vulnerable to the enemy after great spiritual victories or even spiritual highs.  We especially experience that desire to flee when we thought the battle was over and another assault from the enemy suddenly appears.

We have an event called Freedom Weekend where our team will minister in prayer and deliverance to 60 to 70 people over a period of 4 or 5 hours.  At the end of the day, there is always a sense of thankfulness for what God has done and a sense of victory over the enemy.  But there always comes a moment when our team is “done” and no one wants to hear that someone needs a little more deliverance. Our team goes home fulfilled, excited, and tired. All they want is a warm meal and a warm bed.  We have also noticed that for the next week or two there is often a since of spiritual fatigue and almost a spiritual apathy that sets in.  We call this the “Elijah syndrome.” This is a time that we need to rest but also to be very wary of the enemy who wants to exploit that spiritual vulnerability.

Elijah ran away from more battles at the time but God cared for him along the way and was waiting for him when he arrived at Horeb and hid in a cave. Ultimately, Elijah needed a break from the battle; he needed sleep, food, rest, and some time alone.  He needed to hear the small, still voice of God to renew him.  If we try to analyze Elijah’s thoughts we sense that after his great victory of faith, he thought that Ahab and the world around him would change for the better.  Jezebel’s threat left him feeling as if his efforts for God had made no difference.  The enemy was still bold and enthroned and now he was in the crosshairs of, perhaps, the most wicked woman of her time or any time. However, Elijah has set in motion a sequence that would soon take both Ahab and Jezebel off the throne and out of this world.  He discovered that he was not alone in his love for God and righteousness, and he had won the praise of God which is the ultimate prize indeed.

In my last blog I spoke about being aware of the devil’s schemes and so I wanted to make you aware or to remind you of this natural spiritual let down that often occurs right after a mountaintop experience with God. When you have labored hard for a victory and have won the battle, be prepared to experience what Elijah experienced.  Elijah was disappointed in himself for his spiritual letdown but God cared for him and encouraged him until his spiritual energy was restored.  The letdown doesn’t always occur but it occurs often, so find a way to get some rest, spend a little time alone but get some people around you to pray and talk about the victory and to celebrate the win. Ask them to pray for you to be rejuvenated and spend quiet time listening to God. The enemy would love for you to get down on yourself because you suddenly don’t feel like the great man or woman of faith that you seemed to be 24 hours earlier.  He would love to accuse and condemn but just know that it is a natural cycle that even the greatest of prophets experienced and know that your passion and faith will return soon.

Be blessed today in God’s care.