Jun 26, 2022 – Prayer Focus
Sunday, June 26, 2022 – The 24/7 National Strategic Prayer Call
“A CALL TO THE WALL…ONE NATION UNDER GOD”
1-712-770-4340 Code: 543555 # (Ongoing call…24 hours a day!)
We begin our hour by praising and giving thanks to God!
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
John 12:32
We sing: You’re All I Want!
Draw me close to You, never let me go.
I’ll lay it all down again to hear You say that I’m Your friend.
You are my desire, no one else will do
‘cause nothing else can take Your place, to feel the warmth of Your embrace.
Help me find my way, lead me back to You!
You’re all I want! You’re all I ever needed! You’re all I want! Help me know You are near.
You’re all I want! You’re all I ever needed! You’re all I want! Help me know You are near.
(repeat)
~~~
The key assignment for the 24/7 National Strategic Prayer Call is to intercede hourly
for the safety and security of our duly elected President, Donald John Trump,
and to pray for that which pertains to our nation!
We pray for his protection, for our First Lady, Melania, and their marriage
and for all the members of their family. We cover them all with the Blood of Jesus.
In every situation and decision, let our President be led by the Holy Spirit, so that he learns the truth and acts accordingly, for the good of the nation.
Pray.
For the removal of Joe Biden and restoration of Donald Trump to his rightful office.
Pray.
That as the REDEMPTION of the AMERICAN REPUBLIC takes place, those leaders that God anoints and appoints will take their places in the governments of each state and in our nation’s Capitol!
Pray.
For protection, provision, and peace
for all working to expose the fraud and corruption of the 2020 election!
Pray.
Strategic Focus for Sunday
WELCOME THE KING OF GLORY INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!
THE BATTLE TO SAVE AMERICA! – Part 47
Standing in the GAP – Part 15
We may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6
The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates,
A PROPER RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY AND A REPUDIATION OF UNLIMITED OBEDIENCE TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
JOHN KNOX, HOLY SCRIPTURE, AND THE LESSER MAGISTRATES – CHAPTER 8
John Knox, the champion of the Reformation in Scotland, who was known “to fear no man” and who hazarding his life by declaring the truth of God’s Word, demonstrated in his Appellation that the doctrine of the lesser magistrates is thoroughly biblical. He built upon what the Magdeburg pastors had produced in their Confession. Knox’s Appellation (Appeal) which was written in December of 1558 to Scotland’s nobles, is the best treatise ever written on the doctrine of the lesser magistrates. The nobles were the lesser magistrates of that day, and Knox wrote to them in their capacity as such.
Knox wrote his Appellation because the Roman Catholic Church had condemned him and burned him in effigy. He wrote to declare to the nobles, as lesser magistrates, their responsibility to protect the innocent and oppose those who made unjust decrees.
Knox had written to them 14 months earlier, wherein he told them that their chief duty “is to vindicate and deliver your subjects and brethren from all violence and oppression, to the uttermost of your power.” Two months later, he wrote them again, stating they had an obligation to “defend your brethren from persecution and tyranny, be it against princes or emperors, to the utmost of your power.” He repeats in his Appellation that those under their care are “to be defended from all oppression and tyranny.” Knox saw the lesser magistrate had not only the function, but the duty to interpose against oppression and tyranny, and act as a buffer between unjust law and the people. Pray.
Knox insisted that lesser magistrates have a duty to resist the tyranny of superior magistrates when the superior magistrate exceeds his God-given authority or actually makes declarations which are in rebellion to the law of God.
He exhorts the nobles in his Appellation: “You are bound to correct and repress whatsoever you know him (the higher magistrate) to attempt expressly repugning to God’s word, honor, glory, or what you shall espy him to do against his subjects great or small.” Pray.
The first text of Scripture that Knox cites is Jeremiah 26:10-16. In this passage, the false priests and prophets have condemned Jeremiah to death. The princes of Judah (the lesser magistrates) hear of this and come to the house of the Lord so they can hear what the priests and prophets have to say. Jeremiah is then allowed to speak in his defense, wherein he tells the lesser magistrates the same things for which the false priests and prophets had condemned him to death. The lesser magistrates then interpose on behalf of Jeremiah by adjudicating that “this man does not deserve to die.” Knox chose this passage because the Protestant faith was under attack by church officials from Rome. They were using the arm of the State to persecute him and others. So this was a perfect text for Knox to employ in order to encourage the nobles to exercise their authority as lesser magistrates, both in his defense, and the defense of others. Often one does not notice things in Scripture until a real-life situation brings it to the foreground out of necessity. Such was obviously the case with Knox. Pray.
He goes on to build his doctrine in which he cites more than seventy passages of Scripture. Knox appeals to Daniel 3. King Nebuchadnezzar made an unjust law commanding all people to worship an image he had built. Three of Daniel’s friends, men who feared God, refused to worship the idol. As punishment, they were then thrown into a flaming furnace to be burned alive, but God delivered them. What is important to note is that, though they acted in fealty to God as individuals, they also acted in the capacity of lesser magistrates. Verse 12 makes clear that these three men had positions of authority in the Babylonian kingdom. They not only stood against this unjust law as individuals because of their faithfulness to the Lord, but they interposed on behalf of the people as lesser magistrates. Pray.
Notice their defiance to this unjust law. It was theologically-driven. They respond to Nebuchadnezzar’s threats of the furnace by saying: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case [him throwing them into the fiery furnace], our God is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
Notice their stand was theocentric. What made them understand that this was an unjust law was that it stood in opposition to God’s law, and as followers of the Lord, and as lesser magistrates, they had a duty to disregard it, and stand in defiance of it. Pray.
Knox also brings up Daniel 6, wherein Daniel and all King Darius’ subjects were ordered by “royal statute” not to pray. Daniel opened his windows and prayed anyway, again, not only out of concern that he would honor and remain obedient to the Lord as an individual, but also in the capacity of a lesser magistrate. He too acted as a buffer between unjust law and the people. In another case, Knox cites 2 Kings 11, and points out that Jehoiada, the churchman of the time, calls upon and acts in conjunction with the captains of the guard, who are lesser magistrates, to restore order in the kingdom and depose the wicked tyrant, Queen Athaliah. Pray.
In a lengthy passage, Knox cites Jeremiah 36:9-31 to impress upon the nobles of Scotland just how grave and important their duty as lesser magistrates is to secure just law and peace in the land. In this passage, Jeremiah has written a prophecy regarding the doom of Jerusalem by Babylon. He has his assistant, Baruch, read the prophecy in the house of the Lord.
The princes (lesser magistrates) hear of its reading and have Baruch come and read it to them, as well. Upon hearing the prophecy, the Scripture says of the princes “they looked in fear one to another.” They feared not only because of the impending judgment but also because they knew that King Jehoiakim would be outraged by such a pronouncement, as he was bent on fighting against Babylon. They told Baruch that he and Jeremiah should go hide and let no one know where they are, while they would go to reveal the prophecy to the king. Sure enough, the king responded negatively to the prophecy. He cut it with a knife and burned it in the fire of his hearth. Pray.
Knox points out to the nobles of Scotland that the response of the princes of Judah as lesser magistrates was that they did not interpose. The Scripture says that upon seeing the king cut and burn the scroll with the prophecy that the lesser magistrates “were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments.” They thought only of their own self-preservation, rather than to do what was right and necessary. They failed to “stand in the gap.” The king then orders the arrest of Baruch and Jeremiah. Pray.
Knox rightly castigates the princes of Judah and points out to the nobles of Scotland the results, namely, increased judgment not only upon the king’s family, but upon the whole nation: “I will punish him, his family, and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the doom that I have pronounced against them, but they did not heed.” Knox not only wanted the nobles (lesser magistrates) of Scotland to see that they had a duty before God to act against unjust laws or edicts in their nation, but that their failure to act would affect the whole nation. And so it is with any lesser magistrate in any nation down through history – and in the future. Pray.
In his Appellation, Knox takes to task those lesser magistrates who use the higher magistrate as an excuse for their inaction.
He says to the nobles of Scotland as lesser magistrates: “Shall you be excused, if with silence you pass over his iniquity? Be not deceived my lords. You are placed in authority for another purpose than to flatter your king in his folly and blind rage.” He later exhorts them saying: “Only at this time I thought it expedient to admonish you, that before God it shall not excuse you to allege, “We are no kings, and therefore neither can we reform religion, nor yet defend the persecuted.” Finally, Knox states disdainfully, “For now the common song of all men is, ‘We must obey our kings, be they good or be they bad; for God has so commanded.’” Pray.
And so it is no different in our own day. Lesser magistrates have little to no appreciation for their own authority as magistrates, nor do they understand their grave duty in the sight of God to interpose against bad law made by higher magistrates. They often hide behind the excuse – “it is the law of the land.” Pray.
Recently, I was at a school board meeting where many had gathered to oppose bad policy that the elected school board was implementing in the schools. The board was imposing the acceptance of homosexuality upon the students. They played the “common song”, telling us all that their hands were tied – they were just following state law (which was just following Federal law) and were powerless to do other than what they were commanded and expected to do. This is false. They actually had a duty to stand against the bad law and refuse to implement it; to interpose on behalf of the students and the parents whose children would be corrupted by this bad policy. But they showed no fear of God; no concern for those parents or their children; rather, they hid behind the common song of “We are not kings – we must simply obey whether it be good or bad. Take it up with those who made the law.” They should have interposed. They had a God-given duty and right to interpose. Pray.
Scripture illustrates repeatedly that God is pleased with the lesser magistrate who acts against unjust or immoral law, who refuses to sing the common song. As an example of this, Knox cites the account of Ebed-Melech in Jeremiah 38:7-13. Jeremiah was in the dungeon being held prisoner on a false charge of treason. Ebed-Melech was a lesser magistrate in King Zedekiah’s house. He informs the king of Jeremiah’s mistreatment and interposes on Jeremiah’s behalf by saying: “My lord the king, these men [who put Jeremiah in the dungeon] have done evil in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon, and he is likely to die of hunger in the place where he is. For there is no more bread in the city.” King Zedekiah upon hearing Ebed-Melech’s interposition, orders this lesser magistrate to take thirty men and remove Jeremiah from the dungeon. Ebed-Melech acted righteously even though all other lesser magistrates either wanted Jeremiah dead or stood by in silence, concerned only for their own well-being. Pray.
The Lord tells Jeremiah that after Jerusalem falls and he is released from prison, he is to go and speak to Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, saying: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for adversity and not for good, and they shall be performed in that day before you. But I will deliver you in that day, says the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me, says the Lord.” Yes, God rewards lesser magistrates who will stand in the gap in defiance of oppression and tyranny – who will interpose even to their own hurt for the sake of others, and for the sake of truth. Pray.
We pray:
- Lord, we thank You for those who understand their DUTY to interpose and act as a buffer between unjust law and the people. Help them as they “stand in the gap”, as Lesser Magistrates in the Battle to SAVE America! Pray.
- Protect and grant each one of Your people who steps up to this assignment. Give them great favor as they address this matter in their own areas of influence! Pray.
- Let County Commissioners in states across this land see the light of TRUTH and enter into the process of exposing and rectifying fraud in the election process! Pray.
- Guard and protect our 24/7 family with the Blood of Jesus, as we engage with and undergird patriots across this land who will “stand in the gap”, in this BATTLE TO SAVE AMERICA! Pray.
- Call Donald Trump forth quickly, and guide him in his preparations to return to the White House. Pray.
- Now that Roe is overturned, protect our Supreme Court Justices and their families, and honor them for their stand for LIFE! We speak PEACE to the streets of our nation…foil any plans for backlash! Pray.
- Protect the sovereignty of the United States of America and do not let it be compromised in any way! Remove Biden and all those who have betrayed our Constitution and sold us out! Pray.
- Let our homes get in order so that they might be places for Your HABITATION and sanctuaries for others! Pray.
- That we will joyfully release the LOVE of GOD from our hearts over this, our beloved nation. Pray.
~~~
Listen to the song ahead of time, then either sing or pray it!
~~~
HINENI, ADONAI! HERE I AM, LORD!
ENGAGING IN A WARFARE OF LOVE! THE BATTLE OF THE BRIDE!
KADIMA! ONWARD…FORWARD!
“LAYNA!” LIGHT AND TRUTH!
BE STRONG…COURAGEOUS…BRAVE!
UNASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST!
GOD’S CHAMPIONS FOR LIFE!
MARANATHA! COME, LORD JESUS!
BE READY! REVIVAL IS COMING!
ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!
ONE NEW MAN!
VICTORY!
STANDING IN THE GAP!
To print, use the attached PDF file
https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:7afb3b87-d07c-4a3c-9fe7-5f09080bdc45