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Steps to Bringing Life to Your City (Insights in Prophets)

4/12/2013

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To bring life to your city, sound the alarm for a sacred assembly so the body of Christ mourns and prays as it returns to a loving God who removes the world's scorn, provides provision to restore life and removes shame. Expect God to pour out His Spirit through prophesies, dreams and visions bringing deliverance, judgment, freedom and life in your city among those who call upon Him. 

Declare a Sacred Assembly To Mourn and Cry Out to God

God told Joel to have various generations share what the locusts ate. He asked the drunkards to wake up and weep because of the wine. A powerful nation invaded God's land with teeth of a lion to ruin vines and fig trees. They mourned like a virgin grieving for her husband. Priests mourned since grain and drink offerings were cut off. Because the fields were ruined and harvest destroyed, farmers and vine growers grieved. The joy of people withered away. Joel commanded those who ministered before God to spend the night in sackcloth because offerings were withheld from the house of God. Priests were to declare a fast and sacred assembly for elders and everyone to cry out to the Lord. The day of the Lord grew near like destruction from the Almighty. Food and granaries dried up, fire devoured the open pastures and burned the trees (Joel 1:1-20). Declare a sacred assembly for everyone to mourn and cry out to God since the economy was destroyed.

Sound the Alarm to Pray Before Destruction
Joel said to blow the trumpet and sound the alarm since the day of the Lord was close. It was a day of darkness and gloom like dawn spreading across the mountains. Before the  massive army, fire devoured the land into a desert waste. Nations were in anguish when the army plunged through defenses without breaking ranks as it rushed upon the city. The sun and moon were darkened. The day of the Lord was great and dreadful. Who could endure it? (Joel 2:1-11). Sound the alarm to pray before destruction comes upon your land. 

Return To a Loving God to Stop the World's Scorn of the Church
God said to return to Him with all their heart in fasting, weeping and mourning. God was gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. He could leave a blessing with grain and drink offerings offered to Him. Blow a trumpet, declare a holy fast and call a sacred assembly to bring elders, people and children together. Priests were to weep between the temple porch and altar to prevent God from making His inheritance an object of scorn among the nations asking, "Where is their God?" (Joel 2:12-17). Return to a loving God with weeping, fasting and prayer to stop the world's scorn of the church.

Praise God for Provision to Restore Life and Remove Shame
The Lord was jealous for His land, took pity on His people and sent grain and riches to satisfy them. In not making them an object of scorn to the nations again, He drove the northern army far from them. God told them to not fear, but rejoice in Him who did great things. He gave them a teacher for righteousness, sent abundant showers, filled the threshing floors with grain and overflowed their vats with new wine and oil. He repaid them for the years the locusts ate. They had plenty to eat and praised God who worked wonders for them. His people would never again be shamed knowing God was in Israel as their Lord (Joel 2:18-27). Praise God for His generous provision to restore life and remove shame.

Expect God to Pour Out His Spirit and Multiply Deliverance
Afterward, God would pour out His Spirit on everyone so sons and daughters prophesied, old men dreamt dreams and young men saw visions. He even poured out His Spirit on male and female servants. God showed wonders in the heavens and earth with blood, fire, sun turned to darkness and moon to blood before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Everyone who called on the Lord would be saved.  Deliverance came in Mount Zion and Jerusalem among whom God called (Joel 2:28-32). Expect God to pour out His Spirit through prophesies, dreams and visions bringing deliverance among those who call upon Him.

Expect God's Judgment to Free People From the World
In those days, God restored the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem when He gathered and judged all nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. They scattered His people among the nations, divided up His land, casted lots for His people, traded boys for prostitutes and sold girls for wine so they might drink. Were Tyre, Sidon and Philistia repaying God for something He did? If so, God would return it back on their heads since they carried His silver, gold and finest treasures to their temples. They sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks where they were sent far from their homeland. God roused them from the places they were sold and returned on their heads what they did. He sold their children to Judah who sold them to the Sabeans (Joel 3:1-8). Expect God to judge the nations so He could free His people from the world system. 

Trust God as Refuge and Stronghold to Bring Life to Your City
Joel told the nations to prepare for war, rouse the warriors for battle, beat plowshares into swords and pruning hooks into spears. God judged the wicked nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The day of the Lord was near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon were darkened and stars no longer shined. The Lord would roar from Zion as a refuge and stronghold for Israel. God dwelled in His holy hill with foreigners never invading Jerusalem again. In that day, mountains dripped new wine, hills flowed with milk and Judah's ravines ran with water. A fountain flowed out of the Lord's house and watered the valley of acacias. Egypt and Edom were desolate because they shed innocent blood in Judah. Judah and Jerusalem would be inhabited forever. God pardoned their bloodguilt (Joel 3:9-21). Trust God as a refuge and stronghold to bring life to your city.

Will you sound the alarm for a sacred assembly in your city? 
Are you mourning, fasting and calling upon a loving God?
Do you desire to see God stop the world's scorn of the church?
Are you calling upon God for provision to restore life and remove shame in your life and the church?
Are you calling upon God to pour out His Spirit through increased prophesies, dreams and visions?
Are you calling upon God to bring deliverance and life into your city? 



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    Mark Pomeroy

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    My goal is to ignite the hearts of people by explaining God's word in the Law, Prophets, Psalms and New Testament consecutively, much like the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:32,44). I have been a missionary in Lincoln, NE, for 13 years with Christ For the City Int. and Sync with God.
     

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