Power To Negotiate

I just got home and while putting things away I bought at the store and my mind was on the fact that a church brother died recently and his brother and some friends are preparing what is known as a Wake, in the Jamaican culture it is called Nine-Night. The website https://www.skylawnmemorialparksanmateo.com/blog/2013/11/understanding-the-difference-between-a-wake-and-a-funeral/ describes what a wake is A wake is an opportunity to visit and pay respects to a loved one who has passed on. At the wake, friends and family members gather together to share food and drink, memories, support, and to say goodbye. Traditionally, the wake is a memorial gathering held in the home of the deceased or their family before the funeral.

I was thinking about people who would be gathering tonight to socialize, eat, sing, listen to music and say words of encouragement to the family members. Personally I don/t like those events.

I found myself in the vision of preaching and asking do you have power to negotiate. Hezekiah was told in 2 Kings 20: 1 “Set thine house in order; for thou shalt surely die, and not live” The Bible said Hezekiah turn his face to the wall and prayed unto the Lord. The brother who died was sick for sometime and I was told that that he was worshiping God before he stepped out of this life. God may have chosen to take him home or he had gone before time only God knows.

When I think of the many people that would be at this Wake most people are not saved and even the knowledge of someone departing doesn’t bring consciousness of thought, it is just another day and even this gathering is an opportunity of fun,food, socializing and music. What if God was to say set your house in order can any one negotiate. Hezekiah had lived a life according to the precepts and had works to back his righteous living. The Bible say in 1 Peter 4: 18 “And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?

The question to the ungodly and sinners do you have power to negotiate? It is for us as children of the Living God to live according to the word and let the beauty of Jesus Christ be seeing in us. The Bible tells us about Jesus Christ our chief example in 1 Peter 2: 23 “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, the threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” Paul a good example of servant of Jesus Christ says in 1 Corinthians 4: 12 “And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it”

Can we so positioned spiritually that God can hear our prayers? Can we negotiate like Abraham the friend of God when God was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Can we negotiate like Moses when the Children of Israel was misbehaving and God wanted to wipe them out? Moses even went as far as telling God to blot his name out of His book Exodus 32: 32

What can block one’s from being in the position to negotiate? PRIDE this is the killer. First God does not walk with the proud or the scornful the Bible also states the God resist the proud and give grace to the humble. When pride fills the heart it stops people from repenting. Many people living in sin because of the pride of life. Many are people are now out of the dark era as Social Media connect people to many kind of influences. Most people will choose what will gratify the flesh but as said about Moses in Hebrew 11: 25 “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season”

Can we align or realign our lives in holiness so we can have power to negotiate. We may have to negotiate on the behalf of a home, a work place, community, a church, a city a nation or nations.

Who will be the Abraham? Who will be the Moses? Who will be the one to negotiate? Who will be the watchmen and women in Zion with the power to negotiate?