The Prayer of Shigionoth

We have come to the last of the last of the last days. It is a time when the sons of God must arise and take true assessment of the world we live in. This is necessary if we are to fulfill our purpose. If we are truly one with God, then our hearts should be grieved as we look upon the disposition of the nations. Once again we are driven to the old covenant in search of the heart and mind of God.

Although very little is known about the prophet Habakkuk, it is believed he lived and prophesied about 600 years before the coming of Jesus Christ. Therefore, he lived at a time when Israel was in gross disobedience to God.

Habakkuk 3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth

The spiritual disposition of the people is what prompted the man of God to pray. This spiritual condition is expressed in the word Shigionoth, which means . . . to err: sin, wander, go astray and to cause to go astray, deceived and to deceive.

Deceivers: to cause others to believe something that is not true, typically in order to gain some personal advantage.

There are many false prophets in the church who are preaching and teaching doctrines they themselves do not believe. But it is financially profitable to do so. With me, the greatest of all vexations regarding the false prophets who preach and teach the people of God, is that many of them are not ignorant of the truth; but the truth is not expedient. In fact, it is an offense to their aspirations. These men and women are willing to deceive the sheep for personal gain.

There are many however, who think it unethical and even ungodly to make mention of such men or women. Oftentimes their reasoning is that some have received salvation or some other deliverance sitting under such teachers. Therefore, they insist that we just pray for them and not mention the deceitfulness of their ways and the deceivableness.

But is that the mind and heart of the Father? Is God the one that has to take the bad with the good? Is He so afraid of failing in the church that He must suffer the evils of doctrines that caused His people to go astray? Will rebuke of these practices cause those who were positively affected (in that some were saved or sealed, etc.) because of their ignorance of these false practices, to fall into spiritual oblivion? I beg to differ on this matter. It is the Lord who saves. It is God who leads and guides us into all truth. He is not impotent in His ability to reserve the sheep in righteousness, while chastening the shepherds unto wrath.

Such a belief or mindset is the spirit of apathy. It is void of the boldness needed to stand and contend for the faith. To give a mistaken impression: The impression the world has of God the Father is faulty, erroneous and totally misleading. Because of the promiscuity and unforgiveness in the Body of Christ, neither the world, nor the church believes in the power of Christ to overcome sin, lust and emotional trauma.

Deceive oneself: failure to admit to oneself that something is true.

Recently, my Sunday morning message was about the power of holiness being a commandment from God. Well, after the service a woman who happened to be visiting the church approached me with what was clearly disagreement. She insisted that no sin was powerful enough to cause her to be lost, once she had been saved. She believed that no matter what sins she committed, grace guaranteed her eternal security. She was very fervent and wanted me to know how wrong I was for even implying a saint could lose their salvation. While listening to her, I thought to myself… my God, she is fighting so hard for her right to sin against God and still make it in. In spite of all the scriptures I quoted to the contrary, it was obvious she preferred to believe a lie.

Sad to say, she is not alone. There are many in the Body who have been seduced by doctrines that permit sin and unforgiveness in the kingdom of God. No matter how the word proves them wrong, they will cling to the lie. They simply refuse to admit to themselves the truth that is before them.

I Corinthians 6:9 (KJV)

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

Galatians 6:7 (KJV)

7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

These are the things the men and women of God ought to be praying about in this hour. The church and the world have come to its Shigionoth. We must pray even as the prophets of old prayed.

Habakkuk 3:2

2 O Lord, I have heard thy speech, O Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid:

In John’s letters to the seven churches in Revelation, Jesus repeatedly said, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches”. If the world will come to know that Jesus is real, it will be by the life of the sons of God. They will be suffering servants who maintain the character of Christ in the midst of great trials, distress, and persecution.

But this is a word to which the church seems to have turned a deaf ear. Where are the real sons of God? Where are the people who hear the word of the Lord? Who is it that maintains the fear of the Lord? Who has believed the report? Where are those who walk in the Spirit, forsaking the pleasures of the world? Who hears the voice of the Chief Shepherd and obeys without hesitation?

We know that holiness is right and that no sin will enter heaven. We know that there is a fiery consequence for walking outside the boundaries of the faith. But times are hard and many Christians are falling away in pursuit of a better or more materialistic life. Hard times are uncertain times. Many are not sure of the Lord anymore. They are looking for some quick fixes and they do not trust Him to deliver them from total financial destruction. They no longer believe that godliness can be obtained without great gain. Furthermore, Christians have departed from the faith in search of wealth, notoriety and sexual thrills. They have forsaken righteousness, calling that which is evil, good. So what are we to do about our brothers and sisters who have fallen along the way? Do we leave them to die in the wilderness? I think not; but we will pray as Habakkuk prayed in:

Habakkuk 3:2

Oh Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember Mercy.

We will ask the Lord to bring revival to his people in the midst of hard and tempting times. We are the workmanship of His hands. We will ask Him to revive His work.

1. Revive thy work - work miracles

• In the middle of hard times, God will suspend the natural, while he works the miraculous.

2. Make Known

• Open the mouths of the prophets. Cause them to see and to hear from you. Make their word a confirmation of that given to your apostles. Let them not be timid in their declarations or fearful in their rebukes Make your word plain to your people. Open up the scriptures and allow us to drink in revelation. Give us a spirit of enlightenment. Bring clarity to those things that have long been a controversy.

Isaiah 55:11 (KJV)

11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

• “Fulfill your eternal purpose in us. Make the heathen know that there is a God in the church. Manifest yourself. There are some of us who cling to righteousness and have truly forsaken the world. Use us to make known your great love for man”.

3. Remember Mercy – Pour out your grace. God will save to the utmost in hard times.

Deuteronomy 4:27-40 (KJV)

27 And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.

28 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;

31 (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?

33 Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?

34 Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35 Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.

36 Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire.

37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;

38 To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.

39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, for ever.

The sins of the nations are known unto the Lord. Yet in His compassion He has ordained the gospel of Jesus Christ to be preached in them all. His word will not return void, but it will accomplish salvation throughout the earth. Likewise, the Lord knows how to preserve His own. He knows how to deliver the righteous out of temptations and error. Both the church and the world need to experience a great move of God.

Well, the church is experiencing that move right now. We are not waiting for something else to happen. It is already happening. The Lord is revealing His truth that will set captives free. He is reviving the church and raising up young men and women who are set to do the will of God.

Romans 5:20 (KJV)

20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

Instead of cowering in religiosity, the sons of God must initiate revival in the church first, and then to the nations of the earth. We must believe that God is capable of saving souls in the midst of bad times. The reality is, “God will suspend the natural, while He works the supernatural”. We saw it in the old covenant many times.

Joshua 10:12-14 (KJV)

12 Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

14 And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.

Here is the prevailing mindset among the sons: the script says there has never been a day before or after likened unto that day, when the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man to do such a great wonder. Most believe there will never again be such a day. But just consider that there had not been such a day up to the time of the writing of the book of Joshua. This does not imply that God will not respond to others in the same manner. We, the sons, must believe the way Joshua did. We must believe that if we are fervently challenging the enemy for the souls of men, the Lord will surely supply our needs for such a battle.

Souls are precious to the Lord. The social, economic or spiritual state of the nations or the church is not a problem for the Lord. He simply needs an intercessor that believes and has enough courage to go forth in the power of the Spirit. We must trust the Holy Ghost. This would be easy if we continued to walk in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit would be easy if we developed an intimate relationship with the Spirit of God.

Thus the draw back is not always unbelief, but much of the time it is knowing that we have not walked in the ways of godliness. Therefore, we realize that we are unworthy to embark on such a mission. If the sin issue is resolved we should be able to win the many lost souls who are waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Joshua knew that he was fighting on the right side. He knew the Lord’s intent was to deliver his enemies into his hand. Do we not know the same?