2 Kings 20:5 “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah prince of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; indeed, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.” Today's episode talks about the story of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was told by a prophet that he was going to die and yet he didn't just accept it, he asked God to remember him and all he had done and then he wept bitterly. God heard his prayers, saw his tears, and healed him. God added 15 years to his life, because Hezekiah asked for it. Don't just accept the bad news, ask God to change it! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Don’t Just Accept The Bad News
2 Kings 20:5 “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah prince of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; indeed, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.”
The story of Hezekiah was the story used in the sermon last Sunday on the Elevation Podcast with Steven Furtick. It was a really great sermon called “Challenge The Shadow.” In order to understand this you will need to know the whole story of what is happening to Hezekiah. I chose only verse 5 as the verse for today because I know several people that are really hoping for a miracle. They are hoping themselves or their loved ones get healed and they need to hear the Lord say to them, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; indeed, I will heal you.”
The story of Hezekiah can be found in 2 Kings 20:1-7 "In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord: “Remember now, O Lord, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah prince of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; indeed, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.” Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of figs. Let them take it and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.”
There are two main things I love about this story. The first one is that Hezekiah got some really bad news. He had a personal relationship with a prophet, someone who has a direct connection with God. Basically he heard straight from God that he was going to die and yet he didn’t just accept it. He asked God to remember him and all he had done and then he wept bitterly. I love this because I think we all accept far more than we have to these days. I think we accept the word of the doctors when they say we can’t get better, there is nothing else they can do. We will never walk again, we will never talk again, we will never do the things we once did. Yet, there have been plenty of people that have fought those odds.
I have heard many people say that we have to accept God’s will and if it is meant to be it will be. I get it and yet, it seems like God’s will was for Hezekiah to not recover from His illness and yet he did. I think this verse shows us it is ok to not just accept what we are told. I think it is ok to ask and to pray for the things you really want. I think it is ok to beg and cry when something is important to you.
I have seen prayers like this answered. My niece was born way too early. The doctor said she is really sorry but my niece was not going to make it. We begged God to let her live. We prayed and prayed even though they said it was too late. I asked if our parents should come to this hospital or the one she would be transferred to and the nurse told me they were certain she would not be transferred because she was not going to live. We still prayed, we still asked God to let her live, and He did. There have been people who had stage four cancer, the doctors said there was nothing they could do and yet they asked God, they were prayed over for healing and the healing came.
There have been people who had a stroke and were told they would never walk again and yet they are walking. Doctors don’t know everything, especially if they don’t know God. God is more powerful than anything. Someone in my Encounter Ministries class prayed over a friend of hers that hadn’t walked in over 10 years and was in a wheel chair. When my classmate prayed over my friend Her calf muscles grew out and she was able to walk again. God can do creative miracles. He can give you a new heart, he can grow a limb that wasn’t there, He can create anything with just one word.
I understand that there is something called redemptive suffering. I understand that your suffering can benefit others. If you are in pain, if you have something that you would like healed and you are asking and God is not healing it, then offering your suffering up for others is a great way to help others. I am not saying that good can’t come out of suffering. I am saying that if you want to be healed, don’t give up the hope that you will be healed. Don’t feel like you have asked enough and if God wanted it to happen it would happen. I don’t know why God heals when He heals. I do believe that what we do matters. I do think He likes it when we ask over and over again. I do believe he loves it when we look at an impossible situation and ask Him to come in and fix it. I think He likes that because when it is impossible for us to fix it then there is no way we can take credit for it. All the Glory is His!
The second thing I love about this verse is that after Hezekiah prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly the Lord changed His mind. The Lord added 15 years to Hezekiah’s life. This shows the love God has for His people. I love that the Lord wanted Isaiah to tell him, “I have heard your prayers and I have seen your tears.” It is the same for you. He has heard your prayers and has seen your tears. He knows you are hurting. I don’t know why you haven’t been healed yet. I definitely don’t understand the Lord’s ways. However, I do know, even when the doctor says it is too late, there is nothing we can do, there is always something God can do. There is never a point when it is too late for God. Lazarus had been dead and in a tomb for days and it was not too late.
I have been telling several people over these last few weeks to have faith in situations that looked hopeless. I have been praying some pretty big, bold prayers. Prayers like, God I know the doctors are saying this man is on hospice and will not get better. We know there is no worldly way for this man to get better and yet there is always a way with you. We know that Jesus said whatever we ask in his name will be granted to us since He is going to be with His Father. Lord we are calling on that promise and asking in Jesus’ name for you to heal this man in this world. There are so many suffering right now and I am praying for so many of them in this way. I think we need to pray these bold prayers. I think God loves it when we ask Him for the impossible and I think there is lots of evidence in the Bible.
We tend to take the word of the doctor’s and accept what they say because they are doctors, and I get that. What they are saying is not a lie, they are saying there is nothing they can do. They are saying there is no earthly solution to the problem. It is ok to accept that and yet that doesn’t mean there is no way. God is a way-maker and a miracle worker. He could heal you or your loved one in an instance. It is ok to keep asking. It is ok to ask even when it seems impossible. It is ok to not accept that you will lose your loved one, you will lose your house, your car, your ability to walk. It is ok to challenge your circumstances. Hezekiah heard straight from God that he was going to die and yet he challenged it.
The Bible is a manual of how we should live. The stories in it are lessons to us to guide us. This lesson shows us we don’t just have to accept our situation, even if we think it is from God. We can question it. God can change his mind, if He did it for Hezekiah, He can do it for you. We don’t know what God is thinking. We don’t know if it was God’s will for my niece to die and then we changed His mind. We don’t know if the doctors were just wrong. We don’t know and we don’t care because she lived. You don’t know if the situation you are in is from God. You don’t know if he just wants you to stay sick and offer your suffering up for others. So, if you don’t know, why not ask for things to change? Why not cry out to Him and ask for what you want.
I think the enemy had planted the idea that we just have to quietly accept our circumstance in our head. He has made accepting them seem like we are doing a holy thing. He has put in our minds that if we ask for more we are ungrateful for what we have. The enemy has got us believing that if we don’t just accept our suffering then we are ungrateful. This is because he knows how powerful God is and how much conversion of hearts can take place when God works in the impossible situations. The ripple effect of a miracle and reach thousands of people. When God does a miracle the people who witness that miracle, or even hear about it later, are never the same again. The enemy knows this is doing all he can to convince us it is selfish to even ask. He tried to convince us that there is no hope. He whispers in our ear, “If God wanted you healed you would be.” The devil is a liar! Don’t listen to that crap. God can heal anyone, even when the world says it is too late.
Don’t give up on Him. I know it is hard to keep asking. Hezekiah only had to cry out once and he was healed. I know many of you have been crying out for years. I know it is hard to keep having the faith. It is so worth it when it does happen though. When you are healed. When your loved one is healed. I understand if acceptance of your circumstance is the only way you can survive in that circumstance. If this is the case, reach out to me. I will continue to pray for you when you can’t. I will have others pray for you when you can’t. We will have hope for you when it hurts to much to have hope for yourself. Let’s do this together!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you and we need to come into our lives and do the impossible. So many listening are either hurting or have loved ones that are hurting. We need your help Lord. We need you to come and heal ourselves and our loved ones. We need you to give us hope again. We need you to show us that we can continue to ask for your intervention even when the world says it is too late. We need you to show us it is ok to keep asking. We need you to heal our hearts and minds Lord. WE NEED YOU! We need you in every area of our lives Lord. Give us the strength, the persistence and the hope we need to keep asking until we see the answers to our prayers. We love you so much and we ask all of this in accordance with our will and in Jesus’ holy will, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I went to check out the retreat house yesterday and it was great. They are completely redoing all the rooms with new paint, new beds, & new mattresses. They just redid the bathrooms. It is going to be a great retreat full of the Holy Spirit and God’s love. I hope you can join me. The dates will be October 7-9th and it is in North Easton, MA. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!