As you dwell intentionally before God, and consecrate yourself to His will and His way, my prayer is that He will remind you that He knows every hair on your head. He knows every person that you will see today. He knows the challenges you face and the struggles you have come through. A byproduct of ongoing consecration is a deepening sense of connection that God gives us; rather like the byproduct of a healthy heart being more energy. A great danger that we must avoid is that we want connection without consecration, and without intentionality. I am not sure that this is possible. To abide in Jesus, in the words of John 15, is to be deliberately rooted in His word, by His Spirit for His purposes, and to commit to obedience and dependence. As we do this, our lives reflect His vision and values, and we hear His voice more clearly. As we remain connected to Him in consecration our ministries are strengthened, but more importantly, our souls are nourished.

Whats’ happened here is that King Josiah used the Temple offerings, the tithe, or collection, to fund repairs to the neglected building, and in the course of these repairs the high priest found the book of the Law. We’re not told precisely which book, but it might have been Deuteronomy, because in it they read Gods Word, of what will happen if His people do not follow the Law. The Exodus generation had excluded themselves from the promised land, died and been replaced, so even though Moses would never enter the promised land, as they stood at its’ borders, Moses literally laid down the law for this new generation.

This is where the greatest Jewish daily prayer is found .

The “Shema”. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”. The Lord is One. One People, One Temple, one God.

Moses ends his speech in Deuteronomy by telling this Promised Land generation that if they listen to and obey Gods Holy laws they will be blessed, but if they don’t they will face devastation and exile. This is the book that was lost for many decades but King Josiah is now horrified by.

This book has been neglected, forgotten about, since Hezekiah died. More than 57 years, during which time the kings had led the people off the beaten track. As we have read, Josiah was horrified, grief stricken, tearing his clothes. He said “Great is the Lords anger because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book.” And he then acted immediately, gathering everyone to the Temple, reading them the book of Gods First Covenant, and rededicating the people, and the Temple.

He destroyed the shrines, the idols, the furnaces used to sacrifice children, tore down these places, and covered them with a metre deep of soil on top. He killed the sex- -and religion priests, burned their remains, and he did all of this to fulfil the requirements of the book of the Law that had been neglected for so long. And then he commanded the people to celebrate Passover, as instructed in the book of Gods law.

So, for 57 years or more, the people have been led astray, they drifted, and the people of God fitted in with those around them, worshipping Canaanite Gods. To all intents and purposes they blended in, they were no longer distinctively Gods’ people.

This is a revival message!! The King, the courts, the elders, the rulers and the common people alike, everyone felt its power sweeping the land.  It began in the House of God, the place where they came together to seek His face. It is where we expect and pray for the fire to fall. To fall in power and force in human hearts.

It is in the house that we come together and pray for him to refill us, to strengthen us, to deepen our faith.

In this revival in 2 Kings, men came back to the Word of God. The young king was quick to see its’ importance, value and worth. He had it read to the people. It was heeded, its’ promises believed. There can be no revival without the Word of God being front and centre of all church activity. There can be no revival without the Word of God. It was by His Word that all things were made and without it nothing was made. John chapter one.

This people had been drifting for decades, not reading Gods Word, not staying centred in Gods will; Instead of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they were worshipping the gods the locals followed. Do we do that? Do we worship gods of consumerism, fashion, or pride in our possessions, or our appearance? They were still being pretty religious but in a worldly, secular way, worshipping the idols that society worshipped, fitting in. Are we guilty of that, maybe? Or are we using our Bible as a spiritual compass to keep our direction in stormy seas?

If we are not in the fire then our heat within will gradually get cooler. We don’t come to this place once a week on a Sunday to get our weekly fix of the Bible and then go away for another week content in the knowledge that we have carried out our Christian duty, if we are to get back in the fire and feel afresh the heat of the Holy Spirit, then we must pick up our Bible every single day.

If you haven’t got one, let us know, we have plenty. Yes, pick it up and open it. If you have it as an app on your phone, open and study the app. If you really don’t know how to get started with reading the Bible, again, get in touch and we can suggest some helpful ways that you can start digging into it so that you can benefit from the amazing treasure it contains, and the wonderful promises God makes to each of us.

05.01.25 798,000 Youversion Bibles downloaded in one day!!

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