2 Chronicles 7:14 “ If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Today's episode explains a bit about the gift of tongues. What it is and where this idea came from. I have included a scripture reference to support it. The rest of the episode talks about what we need to do in order to heal our lands. Our lands could mean our families, our cities, our states and our nation. How badly do our lands need saving? Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Heal Our Lands
2 Chronicles 7:14 “ If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
I was at an Encounter Alumni event last night, and my friend Theresa was sharing with the group about her new book that she just published on Amazon. His book is called Weapons of Our Warfare. In this book, she identifies thirteen spiritual weapons and how to use them, as well as some amazing results she has seen when these spiritual weapons are employed in the present-day spiritual battle we face. I am excited to read her book and I hope you will get a copy and check it out as well.
When Theresa was giving a talk last night, she mentioned 2 Chronicles 7:14, and when she did, I felt the Spirit prompt me to write it down and check it out for today’s episode. She received this verse while she was driving around Boston after the Boston Marathon Bombing had taken place. She felt like the Lord told her that if we prayed for 1 hour a day in the Spirit, then the Lord would protect our land from attacks. I know that everyone listening to this podcast does not have the gift of tongues and some may not even want this gift.
First, let me just say that I was right there with you at one point. I wanted nothing to do with the gift of tongues. I had heard people in my dad’s prayer group who had that gift, and it just sounded weird, and I didn’t want to be weird. Then I heard a speaker, Anne Trufant, talking one time, and she said how she felt the same way. She would pray for the Lord to give her all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but not that one because that was weird. Then she said she was counseling troubled teens, and one of them backed her up against the wall one day with his hand on her throat. She said after he left the room, she prayed to the Lord to give her all He had for her, even the gift of tongues.
I would also like just to take a minute to talk about the gift of tongues. When you are speaking in tongues, you are just praying in another language, a language that only God can understand. So, God and God alone will hear and understand whatever you are saying. Unless you are speaking in tongues with a group and someone asks for God to interpret what was said. What I love about praying in tongues is that it is I don’t have to know what to pray for. When you are speaking in tongues, the Holy Spirit is praying straight from your heart to God the Father. How many times have you been in a situation where you didn’t even know what to pray for or what to say? When you speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit prays a perfect prayer for you.
In case you were wondering where this idea of tongues came from and if it is backed by scripture, it is. There are several references to speaking in tongues in the Bible. Romans 8:26-27 says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” This explains that we don’t know how to pray as we should. However, the Spirit can intercede on our behalf, and the Holy Spirit will intercede for us according to the will of God. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just know what we want, it knows what God wants as well and can intercede for us according to that will. How amazing is that?
Now that I have explained a bit about the gift of tongues let's get back to the verse. “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” this verse is saying that if we humble ourselves, pray, seek the Lord’s face and turn from our wicked ways, then He will hear us and will forgive our sin and heal our land. How badly do our sins and our lands need healing right now? When I think of our lands, I think of our houses, our cities, our states, and our country. Our country especially needs healing. It is so divided and so angry. That is the United States of America, at least. I know not everyone listening is from the United States. What about your country? Does it need healing? What about our cities and states, do they need healing?
What about our families, do they need healing? I know mine does. I think the whole world needs more Jesus. We need more love in the world. I am sure you can agree with that. The verse says, “If we humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways.” Can we do that? Can we turn from our wicked ways? Can we say sorry to the Lord for all we have done? What about humbling ourselves? Can we admit we don't know everything? Can we admit we can't do everything on our own? Only you can answer these questions. I am just pointing them out so that we can stop and answer them. I know a lot of us complain about how bad our country is right now and how we need someone to come in and change it. That is a good thought, and maybe the right president can make a lot of changes. However, whoever the president is, he is still human. This means we are putting a lot of our hope in the right person coming in to fix everything when we could be putting our hope in the Lord to fix everything. The Lord is not limited like humans are. He can do things that we can’t even imagine.
I often say, “I would do anything…” regarding things I have been praying about for a long time. For instance, I used to say I would do anything to have peace in my house. I would do anything to eliminate all the anger in my home. I would do anything for my kids to feel better. How about you? Have you ever said this? When we look around the United States, we see high grocery prices. College tuition is ridiculously high, along with the interest rates on homes. When we look around, we might be tempted to say, I would do anything to change all this in the U. S. We also had another school shooting yesterday. We probably think we must do all we can to prevent this. This is a normal response. Anyone would want to change this situation. We turn to legislation, we turn to the president, we turn to the states, and who we should be turning to is God.
God is telling us in this verse how we can heal our lands. We can pray for all that worries us and all that needs to be changed. We can seek Him. Is He the one we are seeking, or are we seeking answers from the world? It makes a difference. We can be humble and we can turn from our wicked ways. God will forgive not only our sins but he will heal our lands as well.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today. Lord, please help us to hear your words and abide by them. Help us to turn to you for answers instead of turning to the world. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Tuesday: Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Each of you needs a different measuring stick. I know what to do with each of you. I will dig deep into the parts of you that you cannot find. I know each of you intimately.”