2 KINGS 18:18 - 19:37
INVASION OF SENNACHERIB: Shalmaneser, king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria. Years later, Sennacherib, king of Assyria captured the fortified cities that protected Jerusalem. To slow them down some, Hezekiah paid them tribute by scaling all the gold and silver from the Temple and the Palace.
THE DEVIL'S TAUNTS: The Assyrian field commander taunted the Jews on the city walls - ”Hezekiah has deceived you! YOur God won't save you! No one has even escaped me yet! Have you EVER seen anyone get away from me? Give up! Come out here to me and I will give you food, a home, prosperity, safety, security! Stay behind the wall and you will end up eating poop and drinking your own urine!" The SECOND time, the Assyrians sent the threats in WRITING!
HEZEKIAH'S RESPONSE: He prepared himself and went before the Lord. He sent his aides to see the prophet, Isaiah. The officials reported to ISAIAH that the Assyrians had ridiculed the living God. Isaiah's reply: "DON'T BE AFRAID!" Later, when Hezekiah got the written threat, he "spread it out before the Lord."
ISAIAH'S RESPONSE: (to the written threat): The King of Assyria (Satan) was insulting, blaspheming and threatening the "HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL", not just the people of Judah. The Church is to laugh at the enemy. God knows the devil's whereabouts, and when he comes and goes. Satan will be turned back. (Sennacherib won't even shoot one arrow against Jerusalem!) He will return the way that he came! GOD will defend this city (the Church)....for His own sake (and David's) Sure enuf'! During the night, "the angel of the Lord" killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers! And then one day, Sennacherib's own sons killed him.
RESPONSE: Walking with the Lord is best done on the knees. Especially when you are responsible for other people.
ACTS 21:1-16
"THROUGH THE SPIRIT": Sometimes the Holy Spirit shows us things without putting any interpretation or advice on it. Sometimes we like to "interpret" what we are seeing by the Spirit and we get it wrong. We SAW it right, but put the wrong spin on it. The people at Tyre saw "through the Spirit" what would happen to Paul in Jerusalem and so they begged him not to go there. (That was their interpretation of what they "saw".) The Spirit revealed the same thing to Paul, and here is his interpretation of it: "And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself..." Acts 20:22-24.
"There on the beach, we knelt to pray...." The other believers, men and women and children, walked with him to his departure aboard ship.
"Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven": (See Acts 6) He was one of the original seven deacons, as prominent as Stephen, as a preacher, "full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom." He was the first to preach to the Gentiles in Samaria (other than the "woman at the well"), and then the Ethiopian eunuch. 19 years later, he ministered to Paul, "the apostle to the Gentiles", at his house! Here another word was given by the Holy Spirit about Paul's being bound in Jerusalem by the Jews. Again he was begged not to go. BUT, "I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus."
RESPONSE: I would have been tempted to believe that the Holy Spirit was WARNING ME NOT TO GO to Jerusalem! BUT, Paul's reasons for going were to preach, to worship at the Temple (Ac 24:11), to bring offerings and alms to the Temple (to God) (Ac 24:17). He also totally believed the trip and subsequent events to be the will of God (Ac 21:14; 9:15-16), and Paul was always very sensitive to the Holy Spirit's directions, especially where he was going and the timing of those trips. I have knowingly walked into a bad situation before - KNOWING God wanted it, and there was no escape. It was unpleasant, but God was with me. We don't know all the ins-and-outs of every situation, and I believe God does things in the background where we can't see, and it comes to fruition later. Any bad situation is an opportunity for God to be manifest somewhere and somehow! It is my opportunity to know God in another dimension, too, to SHARE in the sufferings of Jesus Christ - who suffered undeservedly (1 Peter 4:13).
PSALM 149:1-9
PRAISE HAS TWO ASPECTS: Exuberant worship and victorious living. A "new song" is occasioned by thanksgiving for victory and deliverance. We praise Him with our minds and our bodies! Our reason for joy? "The Lord takes pleasure in His people." (God enjoys us!) In fact, we can be unable to sleep for the very joy of it! We exercise real power when we give exuberant praise. Our praise executes judgments and vengeance on our enemies (the antichristian world-spirit)....and it binds up devils. What an honor! When we praise the Lord (see yesterday's blog for a definition.), it is like putting our boot on the neck of that evil world-spirit!
PROVERBS 18:8
See also Prov 26:22. The "wounds" refer to hammer-blows. Slander injures clear to the heart. Words can kill and make sick - especially when they are not true!
RESPONSE: "Halal" praise can include spinning, jumping, shouting, shrieking, clapping, dancing, laughing, throwing up our arms, raising hands, running, leaping, shaking, yelling...all kinds of things. It does NOT include soft speech, weeping, sitting, kneeling, thinking, meditating, quietly saying "amen". "Clamorously foolish" means just that! Sometimes when I feel a shout coming on, I run out into my yard and cut loose! I can't do a cartwheel, so one time I had one of my grandchildren do one FOR me! God loves joyful praise and sometimes I am so happy about God that I can't hold it all in! Other times, His Presence so fills me, that I must express it or I will burst! Now THAT's "clamorously foolish". 
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