Telling the Truth

Guest (Female): Who is sitting on the throne of your heart? Today, Jill Briscoe shares in her message how amazing things can happen when you let Christ reign in your life.

Guest (Male): We'll hear from Jill in a moment, but first, the generosity of friends like you keeps broadcasts like this one going out around the world so you and others can experience life through the biblical teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. As thanks for your gift today, we'll send you Powerful and Effective Prayer, a newly curated collection of messages from Stuart and Jill that will give you timeless wisdom on the subject of prayer and help you build a more consistent and inspired prayer life.

So call today to request yours at 1-800-889-5388. That’s 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill with today's message, Honoring God.

Jill Briscoe: I'd like you to open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 32. Read with me if you would, Isaiah chapter 32: "See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. Each man will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land. Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, the ears of those who hear will listen, the mind of the rash will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear. No longer will the fool be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected. For the fool speaks folly, his mind is busy with evil, he practices ungodliness and spreads error concerning the Lord."

The passage is really talking about what happens when things are right at the top. When the king is king, when a king reigns in righteousness. This is supposed to be a Messianic passage, which means it looks forward to the time when Jesus the King, or the King that God will send, the Messiah, will reign and rule. When He reigns and rules, then everything will get put into place. He will choose the right rulers under Him, who will choose the right rulers under them, and so on. There will be a trickle-down righteousness bit. That's what happens when the right king is on the throne.

In this specific instance, Hezekiah had just come to the throne. Isaiah the prophet is pointing this out to the people. See, when a king reigns in righteousness, what happens? He gets rid of the bad people and all the corruption, gets a new police force in place, and gets the thing cleaned up. Then everybody begins to settle down, even down to the ordinary people. No longer will the fool be called noble and the scoundrel be called somebody wonderful. Right won't be called wrong anymore, there will be no oppression, and the courts will get cleaned up. Everything in society will get put into place.

This points forward to the kingdom to come, of course, when Jesus Christ reigns, when everything will be in place. The kingdom to come in the future, whenever that is for us—maybe we'll still be alive, maybe we won't—when Christ comes back again to establish His kingdom, that's one thing. But there is another kingdom. When you think of the kingdom of God, you think of many things. There is a kingdom within our heart. There is an internal kingdom. Jesus said the kingdom of God is not only the kingdom that will come when I come back in the clouds and all the rest, but the kingdom of God is within you.

The kingdom of God within us has a central place where there is a throne, and somebody is sitting on that throne. In every single person's life, all those of you that are listening to me, there is somebody on the throne of your life, somebody in charge. When the King, when King Jesus is in charge, then everything in the kingdom of your life will fall into place. Things will get ordered. It doesn't mean everything will go right; everything wasn't going right in Hezekiah's kingdom. But it does mean there will be a sense of order, of coming together, of all things working together, of bits being put into the right place, of pieces of the puzzle fitting.

You'll be together inside even if your world is falling apart outside. The kingdom of your life, ruled by King Jesus who gives the orders that you obey, is a life that is lived in righteousness, in rightness, and things get into line. People around you will feel the effect of that. So the first question is: who is in charge? Are we playing God? Are we playing God? I remember when I was raising my teenagers, and it's a long, long time ago now because I'm very old. But I remember when my kids were teenagers that I played God. I couldn't stop it, and I couldn't help it.

What does it mean to play God in the lives of your children, for example? Well, what is God? God is omnipotent, God is omniscient, God is omnipresent. That's what it means. You have to be everywhere they are. These are things that happen to all mothers wanting to play God—know everything, be everywhere, omnipotent control. The problem with parenting is you're going to lose control. You're going to lose control. None of us handle that well. Some of us handle it better than others. It's a very hard thing to give up the need to be needed because you sense that as losing control.

You can't manipulate anymore, and you can't make them do anything anymore. I remember Pete growing to my height. I had a hot dish in my hand and turned around from the stove and said, "Move, Pete, move!" He was standing right here and I said, "Move, move!" He didn't, and I looked up straight into his eyes. He had this grin on his face and he said, "Make me." Apparently, he had come to this momentous point in his life where he realized he was as tall as his mother and I couldn't make him. I remember standing there aghast with this hot dish between us, looking at him with this horrible sinking feeling in my stomach.

I remember David coming home at six years of age from an English school saying, "Mommy, how was the world made?" "Well, God made the world." "Well, my teacher said that it was made through evolution and all of this, the Big Bang." I was in the sink and I just simply said, "Well, David, that's not true. God made the world." I just went on and then I realized he hadn't responded. He was sitting at the table, six years of age, and I turned around and said, "David, listen to me. God made the world. You believe Mommy, don't you?" He didn't answer. I had this horrible sinking feeling: I can't make him believe. I can't play God.

But when the King is King in my life, I have to constantly remind myself: it's His job to be sovereign, it's my job to be loyal and get on with what He wants me to get on with doing—to be the mother, to say the things I should say, and all the rest of it—and let Him work His work in my child's life. You're giving control to God, you're not giving it up. It's called trusting, very hard to do. But when the King is King, that part of your kingdom will be in place. You'll be able to refer it to the throne. It's all a matter of who's in control.

Who is King in your life? Is it King Jesus or is it King Me? We can call Him King, but I'd ask you a question: is it true? Do you ever listen to yourself when you're singing and ask yourself, "I'm singing happily My God Reigns, but Jesus is very firmly not the King of my life at this point." I am. I'm the one calling the shots. In England, we have a weird system with the monarchy. I remember watching Princess Elizabeth come home from Africa where she had heard about her father, George VI's death, to become Queen of England. I remember as a teenager watching that coronation.

There was a lot of commentary that went on as the crown was put on her head. All the most important people in the land came and knelt in front of her and said, "My Lord and my Liege," which is what they say, offering their sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, their allegiance. Now, from that point to this day, Queen Elizabeth of England has never signed a decree. The Prime Minister does that. She is apart from government. That's what I see in many Christians' lives. We kneel before Him and say, "My Lord and my Liege," and He's never signed an order. He's never been the Prime Minister. I'm the Prime Minister.

It doesn't work that way. But when the King is King, when the King reigns, when we are seeking to live our lives in obedience to God moment by moment and day by day in a one-on-one relationship with Jesus Christ, our Savior and King, then the kingdom of our lives begins to get in order. When He is Lord, He is Lord, He is Lord. We sing it. Next time you sing anything like that with King or Lord in, ask yourself this question: who is King? Is it King Jesus or is it King Me? Is the government on His shoulders or is the government on mine?

Now then, when the King is King, the influence begins to happen. I want to look at three pictures in this passage of Scripture today. When the King is King, we quit playing God and playing games. We will become like a windbreak, a shelter from the wind, like a watershed, like streams of water in the desert, and a wall, the shadow of a great rock within a weary land.

Guest (Male): Jill will be back in a moment, but first, are you encouraged by this message from Telling the Truth? You're listening to today's message because of the generous support from listeners like you. Your financial gift allows us to reach people with the hope of Christ both on-air and online, including people like Scott, who recently shared this with us: "Thanks for this message. So much hope in knowing that Jesus cleans up the messes I make. I am free to walk in His finished work through the Holy Spirit." What a great reminder for us all, Scott. Thank you for sharing that with us and encouraging our listeners.

Do you ever feel like your prayers are bouncing off the walls instead of landing in the presence of God? Or do you pray more out of obligation than relationship? Maybe you recognize a lack of passion in your voice even as you pray, and you're left to wonder, "Does God even hear my prayers, or will He answer them?" We’d love to help lead you toward a more inspired and vibrant prayer life by sending you a newly curated collection of messages from Stuart and Jill called Powerful and Effective Prayer.

This one-of-a-kind resource is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life in Christ through the teaching resources of Telling the Truth. Your support enables countless people across the globe to stand strong in the unchanging truth of Scripture, and we’re so grateful for friends like you. So request Powerful and Effective Prayer when you call to give: 1-800-889-5388. That’s 1-800-889-5388, or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Let’s return to Jill with more of today's message.

Jill Briscoe: As you know me now, those of you that do, you know that I work in pictures. I love pictures, and of course, the Bible is full of pictures. They fall out every time you open the page. To me, as I looked at these three pictures, they gave me a wonderful application of this passage. They gave me an opportunity to ask myself a question: if the King is truly ruling and reigning in my life, then my life will be like these pictures. I will be like a windbreak. I will be like a watershed. I will be like a wall.

And everybody in the sphere of my influence—they say there's 200 people in the sphere of everybody's influence give or take—will know that about me. I want to ask you a very strong question: when people look at your life, are you like a windbreak, are you like a watershed, are you like a wall? Let's look at the windbreak. Obviously, Jesus is our windbreak. In John chapter 10, you remember Jesus gave some teaching on the fact that He was the Good Shepherd. Now, the Good Shepherd does many things for the sheep. He gives His life for the sheep, Jesus said in that passage.

He was talking to people that knew very well that that was a fact sometimes in the fierce, wild animal country where shepherds operated in the hills around Jerusalem and all over Judea. The lions and the bears could come upon the lone shepherd. David said he fought with lions and overcame them when he was a shepherd boy. With his own hands, he killed and fought the lion. Why? What was the lion doing? The lion was coming to get the sheep. And so the shepherd in those days would lie across the door. There wasn't a door to the sheepfold. He would gather the sheep in at night into the sheepfolds that were scattered across those mountains. You can still see them there today.

Then when the sheep were tended, he would stretch himself to sleep to guard the sheep across the door. So when the lion came, the lion had to get the shepherd before the lion could get the sheep. Now, Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd. I came down to Earth and I lay across the door. I am the door of the sheepfold," He says in that passage. "I am the door." The thing about Jesus is the lion got Him. And on Good Friday, the lion got the Shepherd.

But if you read Psalm 22, which comes between the very famous Psalm before the wonderful Psalm 23, you will discover something. It starts on a low key, the Psalm, and finishes off on a high key. In the middle, it talks about lions gaping their mouths open, ready for the prey. People believe that Psalm 22 is a Messianic Psalm; it points forward to Jesus on the cross. Read it sometimes. And the lions gaping, people opening their mouths ready to tear Him to pieces, are a picture of what the devil was inciting people to do. And of course, behind what people did was that lion, the devil, roaring around waiting to devour the Lord's Christ.

The Psalm ends on this incredible note of triumph: "He has done it." It talks about everybody coming to the feet of the One who was crucified and torn to bits by the lion on the cross and how He will be exalted. It ends up: everybody will come and lay down things at His feet, and He has done it. The words "He has done it" is the equivalent to Tetelestai: finished. The words Jesus borrowed on the cross were from Psalm 22, the end verse: finished, done. So the lion got Him on Good Friday morning, but on Easter Sunday morning, He got the lion.

Jesus is our windbreak. What happened on the cross as our Good Shepherd suffered there? What happened was God poured out His wrath against sin. God doesn't like sin. He is angry at sin. He is wrathful about sin. He said sin must be punished, and so His Son came to become the punishment. On the cross, God's wrath was poured out from heaven and Jesus took it. He was the windbreak. You know what a windbreak is. You wear a windbreaker; it stops the wind, the wrath of the wind, of the storm getting to you. On the cross, Jesus became our windbreak. He stopped the wrath of God falling on us.

He became the windbreak. Now because He was my windbreak and I acknowledge that and He has become my Savior and my Lord and my King and He reigns in my life, I am now to become a shelter from the wind for other people. Not in the sense of redemption, of course, but in another sense. How can we become a windbreak? How can we become a windbreak for other people? I could illustrate this in many ways, but I think I want to illustrate it through prayer. One way we can stop what Satan is trying to do in other people's lives is to become a windbreak in the matter of prayer.

Every time you pray for someone else, you are being a windbreak. You are stopping the blast against that person in the name of Jesus. I remember reading a missionary book hundreds of years ago with a story I have never forgotten. It was the story of a missionary out in some wild country, I think it was Nepal. Every time he had to travel, it was difficult. He would take money from one little group of believers to another in his clothing. But like the biblical story, he fell among thieves many times. It was very dangerous to carry anything of worth in that wild, uncivilized country.

But back home in England, in Somerset actually, there were four ladies and they were part of a missionary movement that prayed for missionaries. I don't know what happened to it; I don't think we do it anymore. But it was a home movement where missionaries were prayed for by groups of people. This particular missionary had been sent out by a missionary society and these four ladies had committed themselves once a week to gather in this little tiny cottage in England and pray for this man. So they had been doing this through his history.

He sent them a message home—and of course, in those days, there wasn't any email, it took about two months to get anything out and another month to arrive in England—he said, "Pray for me because I'm having to travel from little group of believers to little group of believers and I'm having to take goods and money to help these people. It is getting worse and worse; it's getting so dangerous." He said, "Soldiers sometimes come with me, but I can't get them to do it all the time and then I'm on my own." So every week the little ladies would pray for his safety.

And one particular day, he was coming with quite a large amount of money into a little bigger town. Some thieves waited to attack him and to take the money. They saw him, and then one of them said, "Wouldn't you know it, he managed to get the soldiers with him today," and so they didn't do it. He arrived in the town, and the believers there were absolutely amazed. They said, "We heard rumors and checked it out that the band of thugs from the next village had gone to get you. We never expected to see you alive." And he said, "No, I didn't see anyone at all."

And they said, "Well, that's wonderful. They have no idea how you got through." And so one of them said, "Well, did you get the soldiers to accompany you?" He said, "No, I didn't. I didn't have any soldiers with me." And of course he did. He had four soldiers with him, four little old ladies in a cottage in England who were on their knees, on their faces, praying, "God, keep him safe." And God in a miraculous way manifested those four praying people to those brigands. The soldiers—they thought there were four soldiers with them—and they let the man go. A windbreak.

Guest (Male): This is a message from Jill Briscoe on Telling the Truth. Jill will be back in a moment, but first, "I'll pray for you. Just pray about it. Prayer changes things." You've probably heard statements like these from other Christians or said them yourself. But if you ask most believers how prayer works, the answers are likely to be all over the map. So how does God want to use prayer in our lives? Is He listening to every single request, and can prayer really make a difference?

To help answer questions like these, we've put together Stuart and Jill's five-message teaching series, Powerful and Effective Prayer. This collection of messages can help you uncover the secret to a more vibrant prayer life—one where you lose yourself in the presence of God and have confidence that your prayers are rising, making a difference. You'll gain wisdom and insight on prayer from Stuart and Jill's decades of ministry.

Powerful and Effective Prayer comes as our thanks for your gift to help more people fix their eyes on eternity through the truths of God's Word shared through Telling the Truth. Your support enables countless people across the globe to stand strong in the unchanging truth of Scripture, and we're so grateful for friends like you. So request Powerful and Effective Prayer when you call to give: 1-800-889-5388. That’s 1-800-889-5388, or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Let's return to Jill with the conclusion of today's message.

Jill Briscoe: I am getting an increased burden to do something about prayer and to start prayer adventure groups and basement prayer meetings and all sorts of things to get back to the work of prayer so that we could become a windbreak. I remember many, many times when Stuart was on the road in difficult and dangerous places and I was staying at home. He would write back to me about an incident, and I would directly link it with prayer time that our staff had had or our family had had or the children had had as Daddy went on his missionary journeys.

I remember putting a map up when he'd start on a three-month tour of ministry on our kitchen wall. And then I'd get all the kids going, and they'd be drawing donkeys. And I would tell them about Paul doing his missionary journeys on a donkey, but this time Daddy had an "air donkey"—it was an airplane. And so they would be drawing these little air donkeys, you see. And then we would stick them on the map. Every time Stuart would move, we'd put the air donkey there and then we'd have it here and we would follow, and then we'd pray. And I would write and tell Stuart how we were praying about this, that, and the other.

I think it was last Christmas I got a Christmas card from a husband and wife in quite dangerous Bible ministry, taking Bibles into countries where Bibles shouldn't be taken. There are so many countries like that. They're doing undercover work for God. And the husband wrote back in his Christmas card this to his wife: "May the Lord keep watch between you and me while we’re away from each other. Helping together so far apart, long distances dividing, and loving words pass not our hearts between, nor know we each the many things betide, nor on each other comforted may lean.

But we may pray with strong and holy pleading and live that so our pleadings must prevail. And He who knoweth well what each is needed can guide us what to ask to help avail. And at the end, when safely home in glory, when prayers and needs have changed for wonders new, how sweet, how blessed if we may read the story of how each helped to pray the other through."

Guest (Male): Thank you for that truth, Jill. We hope today’s message encouraged you. Before we go, remember that when you give today to help keep Telling the Truth broadcasts like this one going out, we’ll send you Powerful and Effective Prayer, a newly curated collection of five messages from Stuart and Jill that can help you start moving from a mundane prayer life to one that’s rich and vibrant. So call now to give and request Powerful and Effective Prayer with our thanks: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. We’re so glad you joined us today. Come back Monday as the Briscoes share more powerful truth from God’s Word. We’ll see you then, right here on Telling the Truth.