Last week I was reading the story of Josiah, a king of Judah. He became king when he was 8 years old. He later found the book of law in the temple after it had been lost for many years. He came under such conviction that he tore his robes and went on a holy rampage against the idols and high places of the time. It was one of the greatest revivals in OT history. When I was reading, the Lord highlighted to me the name "Shaphan son of Azariah". Out of curiosity I Googled it. The internet can be a beautiful thing as I had instant access to a professor of OT history. Thanks to Claude Mariottini, I found out the entire history of Shaphan and his family.

http://www.claudemariottini.com/blog/labels/Huldah.html

It turns out Shaphan was an amazing counselor. I don't know how many 8 year olds you know, but the ones I know can barely remember to brush their teeth, much less run a kingdom. Yet by listening to the counsel of Shaphan and others like him, Josiah turned out to be the best king since David, never turning back once he knew what was right. Shaphan didn't hesitate to go to a prophetic woman, Huldah, to get direction even though women had little value in that culture.

Not only that, but Shaphan must have been a good father. His sons and grandsons were all influential in the remaining days of the monarchy in Judah. They aided Jeremiah the prophet with his mission. His grandson Gedaliah even became governor of Judah once the kings had been taken out by Babylon. The story of Gedaliah is great just by itself. He was courageous in the face of death and refused to kill the man who was plotting to take his life. Gedaliah was eventually assassinated by that man, but the Jewish people remember his sacrifice today in the "Fast of Gedaliah".

http://www.claudemariottini.com/blog/2007/09/fast-of-gedaliah.html

I thought all of this fascinating and because the Lord had pointed it out I felt like there was something to it. Later that night I got the confirmation through the language of the Spirit. Since Nicole is pretty immobile nowadays, she and I have been watching old seasons of Lost, our favorite program. That night we watched an episode from season 2, which originally aired November 30^th, 2005, in which one of the characters recited the story of Josiah to explain what he had found that would fill in one of the blanks to the show’s mystery. Now what are the chances that I would be watching a secular TV show that is almost 4 years old, on the internet, on the very same day that I read the story of Josiah? Not very likely, I love the language of the Spirit.

But what it meant I did not yet know until today. Since we are in ND for the summer, I get our church’s webcast a day late usually. I was listening today and while the message did not deal directly with this topic, at the end of message, Pastor Bill was leading some prayers and he mentioned that someone had had a dream that President Obama was hearing counsel from a godly individual, and an ungodly individual, and he hadn’t decided to which man he would listen. When I heard that I knew why God showed me what he did.

We need to pray for President Obama. It is not a statement against his character to say that he is not the most experienced person to be elected president. We need to pray for his staff. He needs good counsel like Josiah; the 8 yr old kid who inherited a kingdom needed good counsel. We need to pray that the gifting and the anointing of Shaphan would be on his staff. That they would give good counsel; That they would seek out the prophetic for direction; That they would be good parents that would raise generations that would impact the government for good; Pray that God would lead our leaders in revival as He leads the people of this nation in a revival like we have not yet seen before.

This is important

-- JT

HT: Desiring God

Crazy Healings on Saturday

This Saturday was my turn in our church's Healing Rooms. We have them open each Saturday and we have 4 teams that each take a week a month to pray for the people who come in to receive prayer. I've been doing this for years, and have seen some pretty cool things. However, this Saturday I saw the most amazing sequence of healings that I've ever seen. A young girl came in who was completely deaf in her left ear. It had been that way for 4 years, ever since she had a tube inserted in it. We begin prayer by commanding the left ear to open up. We then started doing some simple tests of hearing that she was able to pass. When we asked her if she was feeling anything she began to vigorously rub her ear. I asked her what was happening and she said her ear popped. Someone asked if this was normal and she said it hadn't happened in years, ever since the tube was put in. Then it began to pop continuously, which freaked her out a bit. I assured her that if the popping wasn't normal, and hadn't started until we prayed, that God was doing something with her ear. We did a few more tests and her hearing was completely restored! We all praised God and thanked him for His goodness for moment before I asked her what was wrong with her legs. She said she was born with twisted bones in her legs, which had caused her pain since birth. I had her sit down and I brought her heels together to see if her legs were the same length. I could see her left leg was about 3/8 ths of an inch shorter then the right leg. I commanded the left leg to grow out. It immediately started moving rapidly outwards, it came so fast that it actually shot past the right leg until it stopped about 3/8 ths of an inch longer then the right leg! I told the girl not to panic and that I would just command the right leg to grow out. After I did that, the right leg began to grow out until it came to a stop at the same length as the left leg. While I was doing this the girl kept crying out that her leg was on fire. I told her that was a good thing and one of the team members could feel the heat radiating off her leg through her jeans without even touching it. At this point we were all freaking out with joy and surprise. None of us and seen this much healing all at once with one person. I thought I might as well ask her if there was anything else she needed healing for since God was on such a roll. She said she couldn't see very well, and that words needed to be about 6 inches from her face for her to read them. We prayed for her eyes to be healed and had her test them out be trying to read a coffee cup that was in the center of the room.. She couldn't read that but another team member was walking up so I had him stop about 5 feet away and asked if she could read his name tag, which she excitedly said she could. We all praised God in wonder for a few minutes before sharing the news with everyone in the room who was either praying for people or had come in for prayer. There were several other healings reported after as the faith and expectations were raised. I was so blown away by what happened, i just wanted to share with you all that God is still in a good mood and these kinds of things are still happening, I've seen them with my own eyes. Praise Jesus!