Conrad Lampan:
"GATHER YOUR BLESSINGS BEFORE YOU ASK FOR MORE"
I was having a chat with the Lord one day, and asked Him some questions about my troubles in a time of adjustment in my life which involved many changes. All the changes seemed to overwhelm me, and to top it all off, dire financial needs like storm clouds were glooming over my head. Have you been there? I am sure you have, and I am sure you know what I am talking about.
As I was chatting and asking the Holy Spirit some questions, He told me to say the Lord's Prayer. My attitude was like, "Why?" But anyway, I started saying it. "Our Father...deliver us from evil...." (Matthew 10). There, He stopped me, and said, "I promised you I will deliver you from evil, but I never said you were going to have a trouble-free life."
MY GOD DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!
In fact--He went on to say, "Your troubles might bless you." Say what?! I said to Him, "Look, I know You are the Holy Spirit and You know everything, but unless You explain this, I cannot swallow it." He then pointed me to Hosea 2:14, where I read things that totally prove we serve a God that does not make sense. My God does not make any sense!
God says that He will "allure her into the wilderness and...speak comfort to her." Come on! Comfort in the wilderness? Then, in verse 15, He says that He "will give her vineyards from there." Really? Just in case you do not know about the valley of Achor, where God says He will give "her vineyards from there," it is a desert in the middle of the wilderness! Another name for it is the "valley of death." Vineyards? And to top it all, He also says in verse 15, that the valley of Achor "will be your gate of hope."
The Lord said to me, "Don't you see it?" "I don't," I said. He then said, "Look again." I retorted, "Lord, I just don't get Your point." And that's when He shouted to me:
"YOUR TROUBLES CAN BE THE GATE TO YOUR BLESSINGS!"
How could that be? The Holy Spirit then said, "Stay with Me, and I will show you where lies the hinge, over which the door revolves--from troubles to blessings."
He then took me to 2 Kings 19, where we read the story of Jerusalem surrounded by the Assyrians with Sennacherib at the head. The siege was long, and the heathen king even blasphemed the Lord. King Hezekiah and the nation were in dire need, and they were facing certain death. Then Hezekiah went into the temple and called Isaiah to a prayer meeting. There, Isaiah made intercession for Hezekiah and for the nation. And the answer came.
BECAUSE YOU PRAYED
The Holy Spirit then noted to me that He will never ever answer a prayer that has not been made! Only "because you prayed" will you then have deliverance.
And surely as daylight, deliverance came for them. As you continue to read the story in 2 Kings 19, 185,000 enemy soldiers were killed by the Angel of the Lord and Sennacherib, king of Assyria, broke camp and withdrew!
But I was still thinking of how "troubles can be a blessing." I thought here that, "The blessing was actually the deliverance from trouble," but the trouble itself did not look to me like a blessing. If it was a blessing in disguise, I have to admit, it was the master of disguise!
And the Holy Spirit pointed me to some history, particularly the history of ancient warfare. In ancient times, an army like the Assyrians, would go out on campaigns that lasted months or even years. In many cases, they would conquer and subjugate a city or nation, and instead of going home, they would simply continue to the next city to conquer. This seems to be the case with Sennacherib as it shows when he is boasting--it seems he was riding on a highway of victories, leaving behind conquered lands and subjugated peoples.
AFTER YOU PRAY: GATHER!
I said to the Lord, "What do you want me to gather from this portion of history?" And He just said, "Gather." Oh, right! What? My head was already spinning as usual when I get into a direct talk with the Holy Spirit. He gives me peace, but He makes my brain smoke!
He said that the Assyrians were in a conquering campaign and they had already submitted quite a few nations, and they surely took big spoils and tribute from them. Where was the gold and silver they took? Where were all the valuables they took from the conquered peoples? They did not send boxes of gold via UPS ground, and there were no FED-EX planes yet. They had all the goods with them; they were carrying it all with them!
THEY LEFT THEIR GOODS AT THE GATES OF JERUSALEM AND FLED!
This is our God! This is the unfathomable God. Only one such God can allow the mightiest army in the world (at that time) to come and siege Jerusalem, and then God Himself slews a big chunk of them, causing the rest of them to flee in absolute terror, leaving behind their possessions. I said, "Lord, the Bible does not say that they left all the gold there." Oh my! I should know better by now to not teach the Bible to the Holy Spirit. He simply asked me, "Do you think that the Assyrians, in all their terror, would take time to gather their gold when they were running for their lives?" No, they left all the stuff behind so that the people in Jerusalem could gather it all. And it all happened "because people prayed,"--that's the hinge!
OPEN YOUR GATES, NOT THE GATES OF HEAVEN
So many times, we keep crying to God to open the gates of Heaven and send blessings, when we could simply open the gates we have and gather the blessings God's "already" caused to be left at our gates--when we prayed! But this takes action--we need to act, open the gates, step out in faith and believe God!
Nothing will happen that you do not pray for; but many times the blessings you prayed for are already at your gates. Because you prayed, they were sent to you; because you prayed, blessings were stored at your front door; because you prayed, He came with deliverance; because you prayed, He came with provision.
God will never answer a prayer that has not been made. But then again, God will never answer your prayers by sending quail flying into your camp already roasted!
Be blessed and be a blessing!
Conrad Lampan
Revival Highway
Email: connect@revivalhighway.org
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