Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the Lord your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.”  So, the man of God interceded with the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.  I Kings 13:6

King Jeroboam was worshiping idols when an unnamed prophet came right up to the altar where two golden calves were and prophesied over it that a new king was going to arise from Judah who would come and destroy the altar.

“Seize him!” Jeroboam cried in anger, pointing at the prophet.  But when Jeroboam stretched out his arm toward the man, his arm immediately withered.  He pleaded with the prophet, “Pray for me that God will restore my arm.” The prophet prayed, and Jeroboam’s arm was restored.

When God began anointing kings, He set up the kingdom with prophets to minister to the kings, He set up the kingdom with prophets to minister to the kings, and sometimes that meant performing miraculous signs.  Who else do we know who came with miraculous signs to convince sinners and idolaters to return to the living God?  Jesus!

Now let me say this to you, a lot of times we ski over the prophets and kings in the Old Testament (1 and 2 Kings; 1 and 2 Chronicles) because they can be confusing.  But when we do, we miss seeing Jesus in the prophets and we become profitless in the process.  Ask God for seeing eyes and hearing ears when you read about the kings and prophets and you will see Jesus in a greater way than ever before!

Dear Heavenly Father, I believe that You want me to see Jesus in every book of the Bible.  Give me seeing eyes and I hearing ears, knowing that studying the prophets will make me profitable!  Amen.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  – (2 Corinthians 12:9)

During one of our trips to Pakistan, we were faced with so many difficulties.  Threats, government sanctions, you name it.  When I stood up on that platform to preach the first night, over 100,000 people were there to hear the Word, but I remember I felt so weak.  I cried out, “Lord, we’ve been battling all these things!  What if someone shoots me?  What if there aren’t any miracles?” The Lord said to me, “It’s not your name that does it.  It’s My name!” And we had the best meetings we’d ever had in Pakistan in those three days in Karachi, the most dangerous city in the world, because we went in the power of His name.

In 1 Kings 19, we read about a time when the prophet Elijah cries out to God, “I’ve had enough!  Take my life!” He’s exhausted, and I have found that when you get really, really tired, you can get depressed, because you tend to look at your circumstances instead of God.

So, God comes to him through an angel and cooks for him.  Why?  Because when you’re depressed, God doesn’t forget you, but He does want you to come out of it.  He doesn’t want you to stay in the depression.  He sees your weakness and uses those moments to show His power.  So, Elijah eats and sleeps and is able to get up and go.  Just like we did in Pakistan—strengthened by the provision of the Lord.

Jesus, I declare that Your grace is sufficient, and Your power is made perfect in my weakness.  Where I am weak, I declare that in You I am strong!

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. – (James 5:17 NKJV)

Have you ever made a mistake and God just came on the scene and helped you anyway?  I know I have!

Was Elijah a perfect man?  Did he make any mistakes?  The Bible says he had a nature like ours and passions as we do, and when you read 1 Kings, you see he made some really stupid mistakes.  But God doesn’t just answer the prayers of the seemingly perfect.  He answers the prayers of the earnest.

When I would fight with my husband, Wally, I always tried to win.  One time we had a big argument and it lasted for a long time…about 12 years!  When I started in the ministry, with radio and then television, I didn’t take a salary.  All the money that came in, we would put back out into the ministry.  But Wally would say to me, “You know, you need to take a salary.” And I would say, “No, we have your salary!  I don’t need to take a salary.” Then he would say, “Marilyn, a workman is worthy of his hire.” And I would say, “You’re being selfish.  I just want to give it all away!”

One night after we’d been having this argument yet again, I turned it over to the Lord, convinced that He would back me up.  I told God, “He’s wrong!  I’m right.” But the Lord said to me, “You don’t have enough faith to have a salary and a ministry.  That’s what really going on here.”

As hard as it was to admit that I was wrong, I learned a valuable lesson:  God doesn’t take sides.  What does He do?  He takes over!

Lord, I declare that I am on Your side.  I want You to come on the scene and take over!

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.  Psalm 119:105

Did you know that the Psalms are organized like the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible?

The first 41 Psalms are called the “Genesis Psalms,” because Genesis is the foundation book of the Bible, and these Psalms have to do with God’s sovereignty—His authority and dominion overall.

The next grouping of Psalms, Psalms 42-72, are called—you guessed it! —the “Exodus Psalms.” This is where you would go to find a Psalm about how Jesus can set us free.

What if you just want to worship and know Him as your great High Priest?  You would go to the “Leviticus Psalms,” because they have to do with the priesthood of Jesus.  These are Psalms 73-89.  The priesthood of Jesus is very important to us.  It shows us that we can have the mind of Christ and receive His gifts of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

Then come the “Numbers Psalms,” Psalms 90-106.  Numbers was Moses’ history.  Just like the Israelites, we can often turn to grumbling and complaining.  When that happens, we need to show gratitude by remembering all that God has done and how He has answered our prayers.

Finally, there are the “Deuteronomy Psalms.” They are Psalms 107-150.  They are very interesting Psalms, because they have to do with the power of the Word in your life.  Remember Psalm 119 is in here, which includes 179 verses about the Word of God!

I encourage you to think about which Psalm would help you today and read one from that grouping before you go to bed tonight.  Remember, there is power in the Word and a song for every occasion!

Jesus, thank You for providing a Psalm for every occasion.  I declare my spirit will be lifted in the same way as the Psalm must have lifted the one who first received it from God!

The blueness of a wound cleanse away evil:  so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.  – (Proverbs 20:30 KJV)

Some people worry about the black and blue marks of a bruise, but these marks are actually symptomatic of the healing process.  The blue is the rich oxygen of the arterial blood that brings in new supplies and healing materials of the body’s “first aid” kit.  Then red venal blood carries out the damaged cells and waste products.

Have you ever realized that Jesus’ blood also has a twofold healing purpose?  It cleanses us of sin and waste, and it also brings the freshness of His love into our lives.

Christ’s blood is one of the most powerful cleansing agents known to mankind!  His blood does more than whitewash our hearts — it purifies them from the inside out.  Christ’s precious blood purifies our hearts so completely that we become temples of God.

When Jesus was confronted with the wrong-doings of the Pharisees, He warned them, “You are clean on the outside, but your hearts are like the insides of tombs — filled with death.” What do you want to be — a tomb of death, or a temple of God?

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You today for the life of Jesus that flows through us.  We thank You for the dealings of Your Spirit to remove the garbage from our lives; and we thank You for Jesus’ love that brings us freshness.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield. – (Psalm 5:12)

Every one of you reading this wants to have favor.  We want to have favor with our spouses, our children, our grandchildren, we want to have favor on the job, with friends and even our neighbors.  We just need favor!  So, what can get us into the favor of God, favor with people, favor with relatives, and favor with our neighbors?

When I looked at Jesus’ life and how He grew in wisdom and favor with God and man, I noticed it came after he submitted to his parents.  Had you ever seen it that way?  I hadn’t either!  But you know how you read the Bible and you think, “Where did that come from?  I never saw that in this light.” That’s because the Bible is Spirit and Life.  It’s not just a book; it has life to it.  It is the Living Word!

Luke 2:51-52 says, Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.  But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.  And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.  Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man, but it came after they returned home, and Jesus submitted to His parents and was obedient to them.

You want favor?  Submission brings favor!  It did in Jesus’ life.  So, what makes us think we can do our own thing and still have favor?  No.  It’s submission that can give you favor with God and with man.

Jesus, I declare that I can have favor with God and with man.  But it’s not by being lawless and going my own way; it is submission that brings favor.

Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.  I said “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!  I would fly away and be at rest.” – (Psalm 55:5-6)

Countless people today do not seem to believe that God is in control of all things, let alone of all situations in their personal lives.  Just as importantly, they do not believe that God can help them gain control over their own thoughts and feelings.  Many people are content to live with their fears and doubts.  It never dawns on them to confront their fear—many of which manifest in worry and anxiety.  It never dawns on them to seek God for answers that will erase their doubts.  Instead, like the psalmist, they feel trapped, seeing no way out and wishing to flee.

Some people don’t believe that Christians can or should be oppressed if they are walking with God.  Christians, however, can get discouraged just like non-Christians.  Christians can become depressed.  They can have anxiety.  But the key is this:  we don’t have to settle for a life filled with fear and doubt!

When you find yourself feeling discouraged, go immediately to God in prayer.  Get serious about seeking God to discover the reasons for your fears and doubts, and be open to what God speaks to your heart about what you are to believe and do.  Then, ask God to fill you with courage to move beyond fears and doubts, including anxiety.

Jesus, I believe that You want me to be free from the fears and doubts that hold me back from being a witness for You.  Give me the courage to confront my anxiety.  I declare that with God, I will be victorious!

Indeed, we count them blessed who endure.  You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. – (James 5:11 NKJV)

St. Patrick was taken as a slave by the Irish when he was a young man, around 16 years old.  They chained him to a stake, and for six years, he fed pigs with no one to talk to but the Lord.   One night, after six years, the Holy Spirit spoke to him and gave him and gave him a way to get back to England.  But once back in England, he had a dream that two of the tribal leaders in Ireland invited him to come and tell them about Jesus.

He immediately went to the church in England and volunteered to go to Ireland as a missionary.  When Patrick got off the boat, the Irishmen were waiting to kill him.  He said, “Before you kill me, you have to hear my dream.” He told them the dream he had, that he was to come and tell them about Jesus.  They listened to the Gospel, the story of Jesus dying and rising from the dead and how He saved them and could come into their hearts.  These tribal leaders asked if they could bring other tribal leaders to listen, and within 70 years, all of Ireland was saved.

During those six years in slavery, St. Patrick had the patience and perseverance of Job.  He learned to listen in his spirit, and the Holy Spirit connected with him, and he ended up transforming an entire nation.

Jesus, I want Your presence to so fill me that when people see me, they see You; when people hear me, they hear You; when I speak, it is Your Word that fills my mouth.  Christ in me, the hope of glory!

He sent out his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. – (Psalm 107:20)

I remember when a couple in our church took a transient into their home because he had no place to go.  When the young man became ill, the couple sent him to the doctor.  To their dismay, tests revealed that the young man had AIDS.  Anger boiled in the heart of the man who had so graciously given a home to an individual who now threatened the health and even the lives of his family.  This man’s first thought was to order his “guest” out of the house.

Before the man could say anything, however, the Holy Spirit spoke in his heart, telling him to spend his anger on the disease and not on the young man who was so ill.  Forcefully, and with authority, the man commanded AIDS to leave the house and never return.  Many months and several tests later, there was no sign of AIDS in the young man’s body.  Why?  Because Jesus paid the price for his healing, and one man exercised his authority in Christ!

Psalm 107:20 says that God sent His Word and healed you.  Isn’t Jesus the Word made flesh?  Jesus assuredly paid for your physical body with His own physical body in the work of redemption.  Not only did He carry away your sin but He also carried away your sickness.  Therefore, I know it is the will of God to heal our bodies.  Otherwise, Jesus would not have taken those stripes for our healing.

Jesus, I believe that You paid the full price for my healing.  Therefore, I declare that it is my right to be healed!  I command sickness and disease out of my body and receive Your healing today.

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. – (Psalm 51:6 NKJV)

I was raised in Texas, and in the summertime, my mother would can peaches.  My brother and I had to help by peeling the peaches and sterilizing the jars.  We griped and complained.  (If you have ever been to Texas in the summer, you know how hot and uncomfortable it can be!) But you better believe we never griped in the winter when my mother opened a jar of home-canned peaches.  They were so wonderful.

God revealed to me that reading the Bible is like canning peaches.  He said, “When you read through the Bible, sometimes it’s tedious.  You feel like you’re not getting anything.  But you’re canning truth!  And in the wintertime of your life, I’ll take the truth you put in your heart and make it wisdom in your mind.”

As you read the Bible, you are putting truth inside you, and God can take that truth and make wisdom out of it.

You might be thinking, “Marilyn, are you saying no truth in my heart, no wisdom in my mind?” Well, you said it!  The more truth you put in your heart; the more wisdom can come from the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

Dear Heavenly Father, You see the end from the beginning and You know that the more we study Your Word, the more it will help us tomorrow.  Put the desire in our hearts to want the truth inside of us today.

But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the you men who had grown up with him and were serving him. – (2 Chronicles 10:8)

After Rehoboam became king, he called for his elders to advise him.  First Rehoboam calls in the older, experienced counselors who had served his father, Solomon, during his kingship.  They said to him, “Don’t be cruel to the people.  Establish a relationship with them, because rules without relationship bring rebellion.  Build a relationship and they will always serve you.”

But immature Rehoboam doesn’t like this advice.  So he called in his friends who he’d grown up with and who were equally as inexperienced as Rehoboam himself, and they said, “You need to tax the people.  You need to let them know who is king.  If they think Solomon was hard on them, you’re going to be to times harder!”

Rehoboam chooses the “wisdom” of the younger men.  I say wisdom lightly because these you men clearly were not following men.  They didn’t have what they needed in the way of wisdom—spiritual wisdom—to share with Rehoboam.  So, Rehoboam takes the young men’s counsel, and when he does, the kingdom splits.

Jesus provides us with a better example.  In Luke 2:46, His parents find Him in the temple, listening to and asking questions of the teachers there.  When you want to hear from God and feel led to seek the advice of others, make sure you are listening to people who are experienced in their walk with God, who know the Word, and who will counsel you with spiritual wisdom.

Jesus, there are things I want to hear from You and lessons from others’ lives that I want to learn.  Help me to discern who I should look to for good, Godly advice!

So, he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.  – (2 Kings 5:14)

One of the most unique healings in the Old Testament is that of Naaman, the captain of the Syrian army.  Second Kings chapter 5 describes Naaman as “a mighty man of valor, but a leper” (see v. 1 NKJV).

Through his young Israelite slave girl, Naaman learned of the prophet Elisha who could heal Naaman’s leprous body.  The captain lost no time in getting to Israel and the prophet Elisha, who sent word to Naaman to dip in the Jordan River seven times.  After struggling with his pride, Naaman obeyed and was healed on the seventh dip.

Naaman was a cruel enemy of Israel.  He was an idolater.  Yet God desired to bring Naaman to repentance through His marvelous grace.  Because of his healing, Naaman repented and accepted the God of Israel.

Through the compassion of one little slave girl, Naaman was no longer a leper, and neither was he an idolater.  Naaman went home with healing on the inside as well as healing on the outside.  What a life-changing experience!

Can you imagine the joy of Naaman’s little maid when she saw her master again?  Her compassion and love for this man touches my heart.  She had probably been captured and taken from her home to be this man’s slave, and yet she cared for him.

Many times, in the New Testament we read that Jesus looked upon the people with compassion before He healed them.  Compassion mixed with faith is a powerful combination!

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for showing Your grace to each and every one of us.  Help us to have compassion on others like Jesus did, for compassion mixed with faith is how we bring people into Your Kingdom!