Cry Out!

14 And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. 15 And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

20 And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” 24 And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. 25 But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; 26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”28 And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; 29 and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, He went His way.

Here we see Jesus going around doing wonderful miracles, and then He came to His home town Nazareth. He read this Scripture to them telling them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." They were happy about that, hoping He would do miracles there as He had in other places, even though they mentioned that He was just Joseph's son. But instead, Jesus talked about how Elijah only went to one widow and Elisha only healed one leper in Israel, and that a prophet is without honor in His home town. In other words, He wasn't going to do what He'd been doing in other places there. Immediately, they became upset with Him and wanted to kill Him. They took Him to the foundation of the city and wanted to throw Him off. It's interesting that they wanted to "throw Him off their foundation." 

Instead of saying, Lord, it may be true that that happened in Elijah and Elisha's time, but we want You to move in our midst! Instead of crying out to God for Him to move among them, they became angry and offended. 

Here today in Waterford, and southeast Michigan, instead of getting offended or angry at the Lord for moving in other places and not the same way here, or even getting discouraged or into unbelief, we need to cry out to Him, seek Him. Let Him know we want evidence of Him in our midst. We want these things to bring in the harvest of this region. Don't get offended because He hasn't moved here as He has in other places.

Lord, we pray, and repent on behalf of the church, if we have been angry, or had an attitude, gotten discouraged or off into unbelief, we repent. On behalf of all of southeastern Michigan. We apologize for anyone of us who has gotten an attitude or lost hope. We repent. We cry out to You, please, come and pour out Your Spirit in this region. Move among us. Let Your presence be here in such a powerful way that it becomes evident it is You. Even the things that are currently hidden, blinded to the eyes of some people, bring these things to light. The things we haven't been able to see because we've been blinded by offense or anger or unbelief. We humble ourselves before You, we recognize You as the Messiah. You are the One that was sent.

We receive You as our Savior, as our Messiah, the Son of God. We proclaim Your lordship over this community and region. We ask for Your Spirit to be poured out in this area, eyes be opened, people see the Light, and follow the Light. Not get off into doubt, unbelief, anger or offense.

Lord, wherever we've lost hope, touch that. Those who have been laboring and gotten discouraged, we release hope to them, into the community. We release hope to Your people, and all people. That we abound in hope. Hope and the exception of seeing You, beholding You, and the works You do. Do the awesome works here! Send your angelic host to move and prepare and work with us so this can happen. Let Your people cooperate with them, so You are lifted up and all are drawn to You. Blinders go from people's minds in Jesus' Name. Let the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ shine in their hearts. You never leave us. We thank You for that. We believe. Move among us as You desire.

Even if Jesus was saying, I'm not going to move among you today, rather than getting offended and angry, they could have listened to Him. Let Him teach them. He went everywhere teaching. He always taught, more than He did miracles. Let's learn from that and listen to His words, His teaching. What is He saying to us? When we receive His written word, instruction, teaching, and commandments, then we can receive His living Word--His presence--and how He wants to move among us.

God, I pray the people in this area give a high priority to Your Word. To read it every day, and meditate on it. 

Start a structured, disciplined, systematic study or reading of the Word. Don't wait to be "led by the Spirit" to read a certain passage of Scripture, but discipline yourself to get into a daily reading plan. Let Him speak to you through that. Value, honor, and cherish His words. Then as we receive the Word into our community, He becomes part of our foundation. They were going to throw Him off, but we want Him to become a part of our foundation. Read His Word in the morning and make it your base for the day.

Thank You father that your Word does not return void but will accomplish what it was sent to do here, in Jesus' Name!

Isaiah 61:1; 1 Kings, 17, 18; 2 Kings 5; Romans 15:13; John 10:38; John 14:11; John 12:32; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 9:35; Isaiah 55:11