To Encourage You

1 Kings 1:11-14 “Then Nathan said to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, ‘Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has become king and David our lord does not know it? Now therefore come, let me give you advice, that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. Go in at once to King David, and say to him, “Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying, ‘Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne’? Why then is Adonijah king?” Then while you are still speaking with the king, I also will come in after you and confirm your words.’”

As you look around at the world today, are you ever grieved that God’s name is not honored and that His will is being opposed?  Does it grieve you that so many are following “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), rather than the glorious Prince of Peace?  Do you ever pray, as Jesus told us we should pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10)?  It’s this very thing of which we see a shadow in the passage above from 1 Kings 1. It’s from an incident in history of the kingdom of Israel in which a usurper had attempted to place himself on the throne. King David was nearing the end of his life, so one of his sons, Adonijah, saw an opportunity to claim David’s kingdom for himself.  But it was never David’s desire that Adonijah become king. Rather, he had earlier declared that it was his son Solomon who would succeed him.  So the prophet Nathan, who regularly spoke in the name of the Lord, approached David’s wife Bathsheba and urged her to make David aware of the situation.  He enjoined Bathsheba to remind David of the following words that he had spoken earlier: “Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.”  Then Nathan further encouraged Bathsheba that while she was speaking with David he would come alongside her and confirm her words.  

What a wonderful picture we are given here of the actions we should take as we view the chaos wrought by Satan in his ever-present attempts to wreak havoc on the kingdom of God.  We are not to ring our hands as we hear of millions of babies dying tragically at the hand of abortionists with the full consent and support of the federal and state governments. As we hear of wars and rumors of wars, we aren’t to shrink in fear. As we see people succumbing to the effects of sinful attitudes and practices with the resultant destruction of individuals and their families, we aren’t to sink into hopelessness.  Rather, just as Bathsheba, the wife of David, turned to her king, the church, as the bride of Christ, is to turn to HER King.  And just as Nathan prompted Bathsheba into the action she took and came alongside her at the very time she besought the king, so the Holy Spirit moves on our hearts to pray to our King and promises to come alongside us and “(intercede) for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27).  And what should we pray?  Exactly what Jesus told us to pray. Like Bathsheba did with David, we are to “remind” the Lord of the very words He has already spoken to us, such as “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10) and “the days are coming when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land” (Jeremiah 23:5).  Ultimately, what we are praying for as we approach the Lord in this way is that “The kingdom of the world (will) become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). And how does this happen? It happens as one by one and moment by moment people are “delivered . . . from the domain of darkness and transferred . . . to the kingdom of (God’s) beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). 

So are you doing this? Are you regularly interceding on behalf of those in your life who aren’t now in the Kingdom of God?  Do you pray that “they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:26)? And are you praying, as the Holy Spirit both prompts and assists you, that their eyes will be opened and that you, in your interactions with them, would “not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting (your) opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:24-25).

You see, that’s the desire for our King Who rules at this very moment in Heaven. It’s both the message and the work of the Kingdom that God has called us to as we serve Him as His ambassadors to those currently the subjects of the kingdoms of this world.