Through Jeremiah, God promised and prophesied that His people will return from captivity and will rebuild God’s house; when Daniel read this, he prayed for God’s will according to the Scriptures, and God fulfilled his prayer.
Hallelujah, our God is a God of recovery and restoration! First He calls us, He redeems us, and He brings us to Himself; then, He continues by regenerating us, sanctifying us, renewing us, transforming us, and building us up with others, so that we may be His dwelling place on earth, the church.
However, many times we fall into degradation; many times we forsake God just as the people of Israel did.
Even worse, as seen throughout the history, Christianity has been mixed and mingled with the world, pagan things have come into the church, evil people are in the so-called church of God, and many deep things of Satan are right there in this thing called “church”.
Where is the church of God, the pure expression of God, the called-out ones who build up God’s habitation on the genuine ground of oneness?
Where are those who care for nothing but Christ, who are one with Christ, who enjoy Christ and take Christ as their everything, and who are genuinely built up with others to be the corporate expression of Christ?
If we look around us in Christianity, at best we see many who follow what the Bible says, enjoy having a praise and worship time in the church, have a Bible study to understand God’s plan for them, and regularly attend church meetings.
The people of God today is scattered, dispersed, and divided; there are many divisions in Christianity today, and here and there you can see genuine believers, true loving seekers of God, but they do not have a way to experience Christ and share their experience of Christ for the building up of the church.
What we see today is the building up of one’s church, the increase of one’s sphere of influence, the spread of a certain movement or denomination, and the church having so many denominations, that is, many names.
But praise the Lord, God promises to bring His people back to Himself so that they would only enjoy Him and experience Him, that they would be on the ground of oneness and build up the church as the dwelling place of God.
He promises that He will turn their mourning to gladness, He will comfort them and cause them to rejoice, and He will bring them into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land so that they would be built up as His dwelling place, and He will be their God! Hallelujah!
Standing on such promises, we need to pray for all those in Christianity, all those whom God has as His seeking ones, that they would rise up from their captivity, they would go up to the genuine ground of oneness in the local church, and bring up their experiences of Christ to build up the church as the dwelling place of God, for God to have a corporate expression on the earth!
God Prophesied that His People will Return from Captivity as Triumphant Warriors
God chose, redeemed, and blessed His people Israel; He delivered them from the usurpation of Pharaoh in Egypt and brought them into the good land, where they served Him and built His dwelling place.
However, Israel was not faithful to God; rather, they forsook Him and set up other worship centers in addition to the unique center at Jerusalem.
In Deuteronomy God spoke through Moses that, if God’s people would leave God and go after idols, He will give them in the hands of the nations, and they will be taken captives.
So this is exactly what happened: the kingdom of Israel was captured by the Assyrians, and later the kingdom of Judah was captured by the Babylonians. The city of Israel was destroyed, the temple and the wall of the city was torn down, and the people of Israel was taken into captivity.
The Babylonians left only the poorest of the poor to remain in Jerusalem, and even these ones made the decision to go to Egypt, where they were further scattered and destroyed. Oh Lord!
So if we read most of the book of Jeremiah and the end of 2 Chronicles, we see that the situation and condition of Israel was miserable in the eyes of God.
The good land was usurped and taken over by pagans, and the people of Israel were given by God as captives to the heathens; they were scattered all over.
The temple of God was burned, the wall of Jerusalem was torn down, and the entire good land was devastated.
No wonder that, when Jeremiah saw this, he lamented bitterly; he must have been sitting on the top of Mount Zion looking down at Jerusalem and lamenting over the situation. Oh Lord!
However, against such a black background, God first promised the recovery and restoration of His people, and He also prophesied through Jeremiah that He will return them after seventy years of captivity.
God assured Jeremiah that this miserable situation of his country and his people would last for just seventy years; then, God will bring some back, a remnant, to rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem to be His testimony. Some of those who were taken captives from Jerusalem, such as Daniel, would still be alive at the expiration of the seventy years.
God comforted Jeremiah by assuring him that, just as He gave the people up to captivity, so He would bring them back, and when they return, they will not come back as captives but as triumphant warriors.
Cyrus made a decree that all those of Israel whom God has stirred up would return to build God’s house; he even proclaimed that he was charged to build a house for Jehovah in Jerusalem, so he told the people who have the heart to go, that they would go.
God’s promise that His people would return to Himself and to the land still resounds today, and He wants to bring so many back as triumphant warriors for His bridal army!
When God’s people return from their captivity and dispersion, they come back not as defeated ones but as triumphant warriors, those who are ready to be formed as the army of God to fight for His interest on earth.
God is willing to bring His seeking ones back to Himself, back to the ground of oneness, for them to be built up as God’s dwelling place; He promised it and He prophesied it, and now it is time for the remnant to return!
May God stir up so many in Christianity to return to Himself for the building up of the church, and may these ones would go up to the ground of oneness, bring up the genuine experiences of Christ and their enjoyment of the Lord, and build up the church as the Body of Christ, so that He may gain a people who offers Him the cooperation He needs for His second return!
Thank You Lord for Your promise and for Your word of prophecy that Your seeking ones will return to Yourself and to the genuine ground of oneness to build up the church as the house of God on earth! Hallelujah, God has promised and prophesied that His genuine seeking ones, a remnant of them, will go up from their captivity to Christ as the good land, will bring up their experience of Christ, and will build up the church as the house of God! Amen, Lord, we pray that You will stir up the spirit of Your seeking ones that they would go up from the land of captivity, bring up their vessel filled with the experience of Christ, and build up the church as Your dwelling place! Amen, may Your triumphant warriors return from any captivity to Yourself and to the land where they can build up the church!
Being a Co-worker of God in Prayer by Praying for His People to Return to Christ and the Church
Daniel is one of the captives that was taken from Israel and brought into Babylon; he and his companions stood as an anti-testimony to the immorality, confusion, mixture, self-exaltation, and idolatry of Babylon, and these ones were God’s overcomers in that age.
Furthermore, Daniel read the Bible; he read especially in the book of Jeremiah concerning God’s promise and prophecy that His people would return to the land of Israel after seventy years.
Because he understood the prophecies in Jer. 25:11-12 and 29:10-14 concerning the seventy years of Israel’s captivity, Daniel set his face toward the Lord God to seek Him in prayer (Dan. 9:2-30).
He didn’t do anything outwardly – he turned to God in prayer and became God’s co-worker in prayer on earth.
Daniel understood God’s will from the Scriptures and prayed for God’s will according to the holy word of God. He knew that God’s intention was to bring the children of Israel back to the land of Israel for the rebuilding of Jerusalem; so he joined himself to God’s desire in His word and prayed for this.
Even though Jehovah made the promise and Jeremiah spoke the prophecy concerning the return of God’s people, there was a need for something else for this whole matter to be fulfilled: God needed man’s cooperation in prayer. The intercession of Daniel was needed.
Even though God determined something, He still needs some who are one with Him for His interest, those who are absolute for Him and who don’t care for themselves but for God’s intention, that they would pray on earth according to God’s promises.
The whole Bible is filled with the promises of God; we need to take these promises and pray them – not just to study them, try to make predictions based on the prophecies, etc but see, understand, gain insight in the Scripture as Daniel did, and pray them to God!
Daniel prayed three times a day toward Jerusalem, and he fulfilled what Solomon prayed when he dedicated the temple, If the people of God in captivity would pray toward the temple and the holy land, listen to them…
Daniel knew that it was time for the children of Israel to return, so he became God’s expression in prayer to coordinate with God.
He prayed and fasted until God released His people; he himself was not among those who returned, but he prayed for those who would return.
The extent to which Daniel prayed was the extent to which God worked; God answered Daniel’s prayer, and He did what Daniel prayed for.
We could say that the return of the children of Israel to Jerusalem was a result and issue of God fulfilling Daniel’s prayer.
So Daniel was a co-worker of God to open the way for God’s work; he caused God to work and led God’s work through his prayer.
We need to be such ones in the church life today; we need to read the Bible, pray over God’s word, pray God’s promises back to Him, and gain insight and understanding in the Scriptures.
And in particular as it relates to the return of the captivity of God’s people, we need to be joined to God through His word to pray that so many would return from their captivity and come back to the genuine ground of oneness to enjoy Christ, experience Christ, and build up the church as the Body of Christ.
The Jews who lived in Babylon could not build the temple – they had to be in Jerusalem to do it. The Jews who live in the USA today, no matter how rich they are, they cannot build the temple in Jerusalem – they have to be in Jerusalem to do this.
No matter how spiritual, gifted, and advanced in the spiritual experience the believers are in the divisions and denominations today, unless they return to the genuine ground of oneness, they cannot really build up the church as the Body of Christ.
May we be co-workers of God in prayer, being the expression of God in our prayer so that He may return so many to Himself and to the church life!
May we join ourselves to God’s desire through His word and pray God’s intention back to Him!
Hallelujah, God’s intention is to release His people from any division, confusion, mixture, and idolatry, and return them to Himself to build up His church – may we pray this to Him!
May we work with God in prayer to the extent that we open the way for God’s work, we cause God to work, and we lead God’s work in prayer in the Body!
Especially these days, at the end of the age, the Lord wants to gain His one flock under Himself as one Shepherd; may we work together with Him in prayer to coordinate and cooperate with God’s work of recovery and restoration of His people, for Him to gain His built-up church, His Body, His corporate expression, even His bride!
Lord, we believe that it is Your intention to bring Your people out of captivity and back to the all-inclusive Christ, to the ground of oneness, to God’s eternal purpose, and to the building up of the church. We join ourselves to Your desire as expressed in Your word and we say Amen, Lord, do it! We are one with You, Lord, and we pray for the building up of Your church so that You may gain Your Body, Your bride, the new man, the army, and the New Jerusalem. We stand one with You and in the Body, and we pray that You would stir up so many of Your genuine believers throughout the earth that they may rise up and go up from their captivity and return to the ground of oneness to bring up their experience of Christ for the building up of the church! Amen, Lord, make us Your co-workers in prayer, those who open the way for You to work today and gain what You are after, the church as Your pure and Christ-loving bride for You to return!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1956, vol. 3, “The Meaning and Purpose of Prayer,” ch. 3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 10, The Promise, the Prophecy, the Remnant, and the Recovery.
- Hymns on this topic:
– This is the time for building the temple of the Lord / That all the local churches may fully be restored. / ’Tis not the time for our house while God’s house lieth waste— / O brothers, for God’s building, rise up, make haste! (Hymns #1254)
– To Jerusalem, from captivity, / God is with us, let us all go up! / To the one unique ground of unity, / God is with us, let us all go up! / Go up! Go up! / God is with us, let us all go up! (Hymns #1252)
– Hasten, Lord, Thy work upon us / To restore and build us now. / For this work we give ourselves, Lord; / Here to Thee we make a vow: / “Though our strength is weak and feeble, / Yet our hearts would ever be / From this day, Lord, for Thy building, / Now and for eternity. (Hymns #1253)
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