Our Regional family gathered at Centralia Faith Tabernacle for The Ascent on Sunday, April 7 to worship, pray and intercede for our nation. It was a powerful time of declaration and agreeing with what was happening in Heaven on behalf of our country. God is on the move! The next four posts will be unpacking the direction and revelation that came from these times in a series titled - Restoring the Foundation. As we enter these next few moments together, ask the Holy Spirit to help you get your heart behind what the Lord is doing. Let Him reveal to you the significance of how unity of heart matters to God. Unity is not just that we are declaring the same thing together, but to have hearts that are joined together under the Head – who is Christ. Together, as our hearts are united, we are creating a large container to host and carry His glory.
clean hands, pure hearts
As we began our evening, we began crying out, “Give us clean hands and pure hearts.” This is a key to move forward in victory as we continue to take our position in governing the nation. It is no secret that as we read about what’s happening in the government that our hearts and hands can get dirty pretty quickly – bitterness, offence, judgement, unforgiveness – the list goes on and on. Truthfully, if we are desiring the righteousness of the Lord to reign and rule so His Kingdom of blessing can come, guarding our hearts right now is a MUST.
In Proverbs 4:23, the Bible encourages us to guard our hearts because out of it flows the wellspring of life. It’s our responsibility to take care of this, no matter what we see unfolding around us. If you’re wondering why having a clean heart is so important as we pray for our nation at this critical time, take a peek below.
“What bliss you experience when your heart is pure! For then your eyes will open to see more and more of God” – Matthew 5:8
Our hearts can so easily get clouded by sin if we don’t pay attention to what is going on in there and this can rob us from seeing what God is doing. The attitudes, thoughts and words we find ourselves saying are good clues.
It is in fear and trembling that we come before Him, honestly wanting to see what He sees, not to see through the tainted filters of our hearts. During The Ascent, one of our children created a piece of art that had 7 googly eyes glued to it. The number seven means divine completion, spiritual perfection. Seeing through the eyes of divine completion and praying from this viewpoint is going to be important in this new era.
We need to ascend the hill of the Lord. We need His presence to lead and guide how we pray – Psalm 24:4
Clean hands and pure hearts grant us ACCESS. As the night continued, we started to hear new sounds that began to break old cycles. What gave us access to this high place was first that we asked the Lord to give us clean hands and pure hearts.
The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger - Job 17:9
Clean hands and pure hearts are linked to our forward movement and our strength increasing – both of which we need to continue the momentum in seeing our nation turned.
KEY ACTIVATION POINTS FOR YOUR PERSONAL LIFE:
Ask the Lord to create in you clean hands and a pure heart and to renew a steadfast spirit within you. – Psalm 51:10. He can create something out of nothing!
Ask Holy Spirit to show you if there is anything that you need to repent of to clean out your heart towards people. If He does, agree, repent and receive forgiveness. Repeat this process on a personal level in your life and also for the ones who are leading our country. It’s important to remember that being grieved by decisions made in government is what moves us into action. But in your petitions to Heaven and your actions on Earth, let your first stop be to ask the Lord for clean hands and a pure heart towards the people so you can see how to pray out of faith and not out of your own frustration.
KEY ACTIVATION POINTS FOR the region/body of christ:
Declare that we are a generation who will ascend the holy hill of the Lord. Continue to declare that we have access to the throne room by the blood of the Lamb who creates in us clean hands and pure hearts.
Decree that our nation will be governed by those who have clean hands and pure hearts. Ask that the Lord creates in us – as a nation – clean hands and a pure heart.