Today, we are picking back up with the series on increasing the Presence of God in your everyday life. The series is about adjustments, adjustments you can make in your heart. We’ve spent some time looking at this prayer adjustment as we look at the believer’s role in praying for kings and presidents and God-ordained authority. We left off talking about a second king, Nebuchadnezzar whom God set-up but then brought down because he refused to acknowledge that it was God who sets men up and takes them down when they don’t act right. Nebuchadnezzar, as we saw, was not acting right. he got over into pride and God took his mind from him for a seven-year period. We looked at Job who also got over into some areas he shouldn’t have gotten into over the trial he experienced. We saw how God mercifully positioned Job into a place of humility so the grace of God could resurrect him from his tragedy. We’re going to pick up right where we left off, with Job, Nebuchadnezzar, and a new king that you would never have guessed that God would anoint to be king. All this and more on this week’s Light on Life.

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Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put into operation.
This week’s call is:

Adjustments must be made in our ‘prayer thinking’ when praying for the leaders of our nation. Being critical and opinionated about whom God sets up is dangerous territory. Humbling ourselves is always divine order.

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Question:  Please share your personal testimony of an adjustment you made which lead to an increase in the Presence of God in your life. Please share your comments, in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

You can find additional information on the Name of Jesus in the resources listed below.

1. #S1-049: How to Cultivate Gods Presence In Your Life [Podcast]
2. #S1-050: More How to Cultivate Gods Presence In Your Life [Podcast]
3. # S3:025: How Timely Adjustments Unlock The Presence of God [Podcast]
4. #S3-026: Why Successful People Allow the Lord to Build Their Life [Podcast]
5. #S3-027: How Do You Pray for A President You Don’t Agree With? [Podcast]
6. #S3-029: Why God Sets Up the Lowest of Men as Authority

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

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Podcast Notes

Job Prayed for His Friends

• One other thing you should note before we leave Job.
• Job prayed for his friends at God’s request.

Job 42:7–8 (NKJV) 7 And so it was, after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. 8 Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.”

• Sound familiar?
• Remember Abimelech?
• Job heard from God, sound familiar?
• He had a vision. He heard God out of a whirlwind.
• Sounds almost like prophetic ministry doesn’t it?
• I’m not 100% saying Job was a prophet but it sure sounds pretty close to what we have already seen.
• That is getting the prophet of the Old Testament, the person who heard from God to pray for you.

How to Ask Questions and Stay in Humility

A Tale of Two Questions

Luke 1:30-31, 34 (NKJV) 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

Luke 1:11–13, 18 (NKJV) 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 18 And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”

• At first glance, these two questions from Mary and Zechariah seem to be the same.
• But, they are very much different.
• Judgment fell upon Zechariah for his question. Why did it fall?
• The scriptures tell us why.

Luke 1:19–20 (NKJV) 19 And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. 20 But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”

• There is no problem asking questions.
• There’s a huge problem if you don’t believe the Word.
• Mary asked her question believing the Word she heard.
• Zechariah asked his question not believing the Word he heard.
• You can see by their response that they didn’t believe Him to start with.
• Almost every atheist out there became one over prayers which weren’t answered.
  • They prayed for a loved one and they died.
  • They had ‘why’ questions but no answers so they turned from God.
• In the same vein, there are many who had a special healing ministry who experienced the death of a loved one. Oral Roberts lost a son in a plane crash. Kenneth Hagin lost a sister in her fifties. F.F. Bosworth lost both a young son and his wife. John G. Lake lost his wife while on a missions trip. Wigglesworth daughter who assisted him in his meetings was deaf. He was unable to get her healed.
• All of this men had questions, but they stayed true to God.
• And God used them to heal hundreds of thousands of people.
• Just because these men had a case where they didn’t receive doesn’t mean it was God’s will for them to enjoy the benefits of health.
• That would be just like saying, it’s not God’s will for everyone to be saved because you witnessed to someone and they didn’t receive.
• You have a right to ask questions because you don’t understand.
• You don’t have a right to not believe because you don’t understand.
• It’s not okay to not have faith.
• Would you agree with these words?
• The road to anywhere in God is by adjustment.
• In order to receive adjustments have to be made.

God Sets Up Inferior Leaders and Knocks Them Down

• Let’s get back to Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 4:17 (NKJV) 17 ‘This decision is by the decree of the watchers, And the sentence by the word of the holy ones, In order that the living may know That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, Gives it to whomever He will, And sets over it the lowest of men.’

• Again, the word ‘lowliest’ in Daniel 4:17 means low or inferior in station or quality.
• We are all inferior to God.
• Now, just like Cyrus II scribed a cylinder which was discovered so archaeologists have found multiple cylinders referencing Nebuchadnezzar.
• One of them was auctioned off in New York, April 9th, 2014 for $605,000.
• The cylinder details Nebuchadnezzars effort to build and restore temples to false gods.
• One of the false gods was named Shamash, the god of justice and one was named Ninkarrak, the goddess of healing.
• God inferred by these very words that He set up Nebuchadnezzar as an example of a low or inferior leader.
• Does God set up inferior leaders?
• The scripture just said He does.
• Do you, one hundred percent, understand all of that?
• Are you okay with not understanding all of that?

When you’re on a prayer assignment, remember that not everything looks relevant because you’re taking care of only one part of a big picture. – Lynne Hammond

• Would you vote for low or inferior in quality, if such a leader was on a ballot?
• God did.
• How low and inferior was he?
• Nebuchadnezzar was the king who captured all of Judah. That’s pretty low.
• He was the king who captured Jerusalem and destroyed it. That’s pretty low.
• This is the same king who threw the three Hebrew boys into the fiery furnace. That’s pretty low.
• He was the king who sacrificed to the same little ‘g’ god Cyrus did, Marduk, the chief Babylonian god. That’s really low.
• But, are any of these above reasons the reason why this king ‘became a wild animal of a man and lost his mind’?
• Is this why judgment came upon him?
• No, the scripture specifically tells you why the judgment came.
• It came because the pride of his heart would not allow him to acknowledge that it was God who set him up to be king.

Daniel 4:28–33 (NKJV) 28 All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 At the end of the twelve months he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. 30 The king spoke, saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?” 31 While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice fell from heaven: “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you! 32 And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen; and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses.” 33 That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar; he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.

• We are back to the pride issue again.
• God dealing with pride in the world of men is a more common issue than you realize.

Acts 12:1–3 (NKJV) 1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. 2 Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3 And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Acts 12:20–24 (NKJV) 20 Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; but they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus the king’s personal aide their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food by the king’s country. 21 So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. 22 And the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” 23 Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. 24 But the word of God grew and multiplied.

• Why did this ruler die unexpectedly?
• Because he didn’t give God the glory.
• The scripture says, he was eaten by worms, that means maggots got a hold of him.
• Pride and maggots go together.
• They are both heinous things in the sight of God and man.
• There are many who have perished unexpectedly because they didn’t give God the glory.
• John Lennon comes to mind.
• He said the Beatles were more famous than Jesus, he was shot to death six times.
• Marilyn Monroe was visited and witnessed to by Billy Graham who told her that the Spirit of God told him to go and visit her.
• She said, in response to the gospel,’I don’t need your Jesus.’ One week, later she was dead.
• Tancredo Neves, President of Brazil, said during his presidential campaign that if he got 500,000 votes, God himself wouldn’t be able to remove him from his presidency. He got the votes and he got sick the day before being made president and died.

One Vital Difference Between Job and Nebuchadnezzar

• God knocked both of these men down.
• He knocked one down with questions.
• He knocked the other man down with judgment.
• Why didn’t God take the same approach with Nebuchadnezzar as he did with Job?
• Why not just appear to him out of a whirlwind and question him down to sackcloth and ashes.
• Because it wouldn’t have worked.
• Sometimes, the questions don’t work.
• Sometimes, it takes physical judgment to knock a man down.

God’s MO Has Not Changed

1 Corinthians 1:26–29 (NKJV) 26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.

• God chooses the lowest.
• That’s true in Christ and it’s true in the world of men.
• No one, absolutely no one, will glory in His Presence.
• If you want to increase in the Presence, get rid of the pride.
• Pride and Presence do not go together.

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