When your King acts, no one can stop Him!

   

 

Please click this link for the video version of today's blog :

https://youtu.be/a9JQ_1B86rA?si=Xg7NdVHMG_9xY9c7

Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

      2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace and feel His presence. Exhale your worries.

     Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile. 

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.          **Sing a song to praise the Lord

      

     Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method) 

      https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to shine on you that you are able to discover your sins and be willing to repent:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God and having Jesus as my Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sins to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

3.  John Stott's daily prayer of Christlikeness (Christopher J.H. Wright, Cultivating the fruit of the Spirit. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017, 13)

**Please click this link to read how God used John Stott to change my life:https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/

           "Heavenly Father, I pray that this day I may live in your presence and please you more and more.

             Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.

             Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

Today's Time with Abba:  Psalm 143:1-6; 2 Kings 18:13-19:37; Acts 21:1-16; Proverbs 18:8

Please click this link for today's Time with Abba one year Bible: http://twa.pastoralcareschool.org/

Key passages: 

Hezekiah trusted in the Lord the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook.           2 Kings 18: 5-8

"And if you say to me, 'We are depending on the Lord our God' - isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, 'You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem'?                                 2 Kings 18: 22

The night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning - there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. One day , while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.      2 Kings 19: 35 - 37

       Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passages we have just read. Offer this time to Jesus as you listen to Him.    

The topic I received today from Jesus is:  When your King acts, no one can stop Him! 

Hezekiah was a good king, but in 2 Kings 18 he tried everything he could but still he and Jerusalem was facing a total destruction from the army of Assyria. Why? 

Lots of time Christians said, "I have really tried all my best to do what God wants me to do but he does not show up, why?"

I think we ask the wrong question! 

If you hold fast to the Lord and do not cease to follow Jesus, then it is not why but when! And, how!

You don't need to ask when, don't need to know when but you need to ask how. 

Do you know how to ask how?

God will make a way. Do you believe?

Now, in 2 Kings 19 God showed up in one of the most miraculous ways in the history of mankind! 

I was in the City of David in Jerusalem in 2013 and I saw a big model of five feet by four feet about how the Assyria soldiers encamped outside Jerusalem,  telling about this miraculous story to all people after 2,500 years later!

Did Hezekiah really did everything he could? No! When he was facing with a crisis, he acted in his human way trying to please King Sennacherib. He even stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the temple of the Lord and gave it to the king of Assyria Sennacherib. What a shame! 

God did not act until king Hezekiah repent and sent his officials to see Isaiah the prophet. Then he went to the temple to pray to God and asked for help. 

Oh, why could he not do that in the first beginning? 

God just sent one angel and 185,000 Assyria soldiers perished that very night! 

Do you know how great our God is? 

Jesus says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." When you really repent, God will send His servant(s) to lead you back to His Kingdom. And when you have your King, and when your King acts, no one can stop Him! 

Dear Lord Jesus,

You are our King! Help us to know that when you act, no one can stop you. In Jesus name we pray . Amen.

Reflect on these questions:    

1. What inspiration have you received from today's catch and what have you heard from Jesus now?

     2.  What is your next step to be more closer to Jesus, to be holy - that is to do what Jesus wants you to do and not to do what Jesus wants you not to do?

    

    Family Corner:

   Find an opportunity to share with your family the importance of today's message. 

    Please click this link for today's Time with Abba one year Bible four passages: http://twa.pastoralcareschool.org/

     Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage we have just read. Offer this time to Jesus as you listen to Him.    

   For the Chinese version of this daily blog and video, please click this link (中文版請按此連結):

    https://timewithabbaprayinglisteningchinese.blogspot.com

     

     To know, learn and practice the method of Time with Abba, please click this link:http://twa.pastoralcareschool.org/

     If you would like to follow my "Subject shifting Devotion Method" from the "Time with Abba, Praising Singing", you are welcome to follow the direction below and then go back to the top of this blog to read today's key passage and my listening and sharing:

        Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

      2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace and feel His presence. Exhale your worries.

     Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.   Sing a song to praise the Lord

      

Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method) 

https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to shine on you that you are able to discover your sins and be willing to repent:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God and having Jesus as my Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sins to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

3.  John Stott's daily prayer of Christlikeness (Christopher J.H. Wright, Cultivating the fruit of the Spirit. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017, 13)

(Please click this link to see how God used John Stott to change my life:https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/

           "Heavenly Father, I pray that this day I may live in your presence and please you more and more.

             Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.

             Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

 My first blog "Devotion on Fire"  was written in English only  (July 17, 2009年7月17日至November 22, 2012年11月22日). Each day one chapter of Bible, from New Testament and then Old Testament. Completed in four months and three years:

http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/blessings-from-rev-dr-john-stott.html

My second blog "Discipler 123"  was written in both Chinese and English (March 6,2011to December 31, 2016 ):

https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2011/02/day-1-choose-light-away-from-darkness.html

and "Time with Abba" blog and video (January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2024): 

https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2017/01/1-2017.html