Let the preachers pray.....

Joel 2: ¹² “ Now, therefore,” says the LORD,

      “ Turn to Me with all your heart,
      With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
       ¹³ So rend your heart, and not your garments;
      Return to the LORD your God,
      For He is gracious and merciful,
      Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
      And He relents from doing harm.
       ¹⁴ Who knows if He will turn and relent,
      And leave a blessing behind Him—
      A grain offering and a drink offering
      For the LORD your God?
       ¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion,
      Consecrate a fast,
      Call a sacred assembly;
       ¹⁶ Gather the people,
      Sanctify the congregation,
      Assemble the elders,
      Gather the children and nursing babes;
      Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber,
      And the bride from her dressing room.

       ¹⁷ Let the priests, who minister to the LORD,
      Weep between the porch and the altar;
      Let them say, “Spare Your people, O LORD,
      And do not give Your heritage to reproach,
      That the nations should rule over them.
      Why should they say among the peoples,

      ‘ Where is their God?’”

Verse 17 ALWAYS sticks out to me here. Let the ministers WEEP between the altar and the porch pleading with God to spare His people.  We preachers always seem to have an answer for every reason "stuff ain't goin' right". If we are not growing our churches by leaps and bounds, we claim we are in a bad area. If we are not the "coolest" church where "the party is" then we claim our funding is a problem. If we are not seeing souls saved, lives reformed, and marriages put back together, we claim that it's not God's timing. If we are not walking in a mighty anointing and don't have a fresh Word from God, we blame our people. Oh, you have heard the quote, I'm sure: "Prayer-less pews make powerless pulpits." While I agree with this on some level, I also tend to gravitate towards the thought that maybe...just maybe...our powerless pulpits are not anyone's fault but our own. We have people all around us who are so very desperate. They are looking to all the wrong things to help them out of their jams. Any why can't we seem to reach them? Because we are prayer-less ourselves. We, God's called ministers of the gospel, have gotten SO busy with "ministry" that we have forgotten what our REAL ministry is supposed to be. We are supposed to be a group of people on our faces before the Most High so that we can receive some REAL power from the throne room of God. And WITH that real power we are supposed to be calling for God to have mercy on His people and save their  never-dying souls! We are not seeing an influx of souls because we, the preachers, are no longer willing to pay the price.
Now, I understand you have to take care of your church people. I understand that many times there are no other Spirit-filled men like Stephen of old that will stand up and HELP pastors with the chore of making sure everybody is in good health and has some at their surgeries and someone to pray over their sick wayward spouses, and visit the widows and take care of the orphans. I, as a pastor's wife and pastor's kid, understand all too well that pastoring takes SO much time that you don't seem to have time for what Joel calls for. But then maybe again we DO have time but we are so busy trying to please everyone that we cannot possibly find our prayer closet. I think maybe there is too much junk cluttered up in front of that prayer chamber door. Maybe it's time to clean things out...re-prioritize our lives, and get back to some of the basics. Prayer & fasting. After all, this is how the old guys that blazed trails before us did it. Maybe some of those old paths are worth visiting.

I, for one, grow quite weary of the same old same old. I am ready to see and be a part of the last part of Joel 2. But I am also smart enough to know God does things in order and until we get the first part of Joel 2 right, we will never walk in the latter part. SO I challenge you to scrub your "agenda" for the day and find yourself alone with God. There is something He wants to show you....... SO I SAY LET THE PREACHERS PRAY!!

Joel 2:

The Land Refreshed

    ¹⁸ Then the LORD will be zealous for His land,
      And pity His people.
       ¹⁹ The LORD will answer and say to His people,

      “ Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil,
      And you will be satisfied by them;
      I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
       ²⁰ “ But I will remove far from you the northern army,
      And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land,
      With his face toward the eastern sea
      And his back toward the western sea;
      His stench will come up,
      And his foul odor will rise,
      Because he has done monstrous things.”
       ²¹ Fear not, O land;
      Be glad and rejoice,
      For the LORD has done marvelous things!
       ²² Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field;
      For the open pastures are springing up,
      And the tree bears its fruit;
      The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
       ²³ Be glad then, you children of Zion,
      And rejoice in the LORD your God;
      For He has given you the former rain faithfully,^[d]
      And He will cause the rain to come down for you—
      The former rain,
      And the latter rain in the first month.
       ²⁴ The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,
      And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
       ²⁵ “ So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
      The crawling locust,
      The consuming locust,
      And the chewing locust,^[e]
      My great army which I sent among you.
       ²⁶ You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
      And praise the name of the LORD your God,
      Who has dealt wondrously with you;
      And My people shall never be put to shame.
       ²⁷ Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel:
      I am the LORD your God
      And there is no other.
      My people shall never be put to shame.

God’s Spirit Poured Out

    ²⁸ “ And it shall come to pass afterward
      That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
      Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
      Your old men shall dream dreams,
      Your young men shall see visions.
       ²⁹ And also on My menservants and on My maidservants
      I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
       ³⁰ “ And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
      Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
       ³¹ The sun shall be turned into darkness,
      And the moon into blood,
      Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
       ³² And it shall come to pass
      That whoever calls on the name of the LORD
      Shall be saved.
      For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,
      As the LORD has said,
      Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.