The Sons of Issachar

May 2007
We often hear the term “sensitivity to the Spirit” used, and I believe one way to define the term is recognizing God’s timing and responding accordingly (that’s not from any dictionary, just my own definition). I Chronicles 12: 32 describes a group who were good at this. It says, “the Sons of Issachar understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” Jonathan Edwards, the great 18th century preacher and theologian, put it this way: “I believe the task of every generation is to recognize in which direction the Sovereign Redeemer is moving, and move in that direction.” What I see for us is this: we must recognize that this is a divinely appointed season of favor for our church. While this is great news, it is not to be taken lightly. We must respect, guard, and cherish the moments that God turns His face toward us. During the Brownsville revival, that church had a saying. They said that they must not do anything to “make the Dove fly.” In other words, they were having an historic visitation and they recognized the importance of handling it with care.
I believe these coming months will be an historic opportunity and visitation for our church, and we must be in our places and be sure to not take this season lightly. We must seize the moment! We must give with a grateful heart, not just with financial giving, but giving of our time and talents as well. In fact, the Bible says the Lord loves a cheerful giver. David collected the resources for Solomon to use in constructing the temple. David himself gave more wealth and resources toward the project than anyone, yet listen to David’s attitude in his prayer of I Chronicles 29: “who am I, and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from You, and we have given You only what comes from Your own hand.” Let’s be in our places, so God can use us in a mighty way.
Finally, I want to ask you to pray for God to release the prophetic in a greater dimension in our ministry. In I Chronicles 25:1 David assigned the singers and musicians a specific task. It says, “David and the officers of the army also set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthan, who were to prophesy accompanied by lyres, harps, and cymbals."

Danny