When we declare God’s will in and through prayer, we are putting an instrument of creation to work. We are calling God’s will to manifest on earth as it is in heaven. This week, we pray to bring this seven-day season into alignment and conformity with God’s principles, promises and patterns. The Lord reigns!
How should we pray in and concerning the 7th week of the year?
1. THE SEVENTH WEEK IS AN ‘END-POINT’ WEEK
Genesis 2:2: “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done”.
This is the week ending the first seven weeks of the year. God ended His work of creation on the seventh day and rested. This became a pattern for terminating troubles, problems, yokes and burdens in the seventh season. The wall of Jericho fell down flat after Israel marched around the city seven days and seven times on the seventh day. Naaman was healed of leprosy after dipping in Jordan the seventh time. In Second Kings 7, Elisha terminated famine and food scarcity by a prophetic word. In Esther 7, Haman, the enemy of the Jews, died and came to an end by hanging. Jesus healed the sick and ended their troubles on the seventh day. He took the rest of the seventh day beyond the realm of ‘no work and no movement’. He gave the people rest from their worries. The seventh week is a week of rest from distress and unrest.
PRAYER: Pray and decree that problems (yokes if the enemy) that have journeyed with us through the first six weeks of the year will end this seventh week. Pray that Haman harassing God’s people in the nations will fall by his own sword.
2. THE SEVENTH WEEK IS A BLESSED SEASON.
Genesis 2:3: “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made”.
God blessed the seventh day BECAUSE He rested on that day. He did not bless any other day of creation as He blessed the 7th day. On the fifth and sixth days, He blessed His creation with fruitfulness and multiplication but not the days. The blessings released on the seventh day was intended to keep curses away from the seventh season. Blessings drive curses away as light drives darkness away.
PRAYER: Bless this seventh week as the Lord blessed the seventh day. Speak preservation and intervention into it.
3. THE SEVENTH WEEK IS A SEASON OF INTERVENTION
The 7th book and 7th chapters of the Bible indicate that seventh week is a season in which divine intervention is greatly needed.
The seventh book of the Bible is named Judges after the deliverers (Shamgar, Othniel, Ehud, Barak, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, etc) God raised for Israel against her enemies. In Genesis 7, Noah’s ark saved him and family from the flood. God used the ark to preserve life. In First Samuel 7, Samuel saved Israel from the hand of the Philistines. In Second Kings 7, Elisha saved Samaria from famine. In Luke 7, Jesus saved an only child of a widow from death. Revelation 7 talks about those who came out of the great tribulation. Jesus intervened in the lives of the distressed on the seventh day. Whereas the Jews advocated limited activity and movement on the Sabbath, Jesus stood for spirit-soul-body rest from shackles. For Him, it was the best time to heal the sick and set captives free. For Him, it was a day to announce to everyone, “It is done; no more worries; receive your freedom and enjoy it”.Week seven is a week of salvation from oppression.
The seventh 7 chapters (43-49) of the Bible bear witness that the seventh season is a time of intervention. Going through Week 7 (Days 43-49) is like going through the seventh seven chapters of Genesis, Psalms, Isaiah or Jeremiah. They are chapters of intervention. Think of Genesis 43-49. In this seventh section of the book of Genesis,Joseph stood out as both the savior of his family and race and the savior of Egypt. Through him his family came to live in Egypt and were cared for. Through him, Egyptians were preserved from a seven-year famine. May the Lord bless you with a Joseph or make you one in this seventh week of the year.
Heart-felt intercession in a seventh season is great intervention (2 Chronicles 7:13-14; Mark 7:24-30)
PRAYER: Raise your voice to God as intervention for those in need of intervention. Pray that the Lord will raise help and helpers in the nations. Pray that this will be a week of deliverance from diverse kinds of oppression. Let saviors emerge from the nations to save their people. Pray that those God will raise for His battle this week will not become casualty.
4. THE SEVENTH WEEK IS A SEASON OF DELIVERANCE FROM DEATH
The seventh chapters of the Bible reveal that the mouths of death and the grave are wide open in the seventh season.
The Spirit of death comes in the seventh season to separate men from their labors and cause them to rest eternally. God may use it for judgment. Satan employs this spirit against righteous in seventh seasons.
Many lives were lost in the seventh book of the Bible (Judges) – especially from wars. The flood of Noah’s day is recorded is recorded in Genesis 7. In Joshua 7, Israel lost 36 soldiers. The stoning of Achan and his family is also recorded in that chapter. Gideon defeated and killed his enemies in Judges 7. The palace official who doubted the prophetic declaration of Elisha died in 2 Kings 7. The death of Haman is recorded in Esther 7. Proverbs 7 is the warning of wisdom against the strange woman whose ” house is the way to hell, descending to the chambers of death” (Proverbs 7:27). Ecclesiastes 7 exalts the season of death and mourning above birth and celebration. In Luke 7, Jesus raised a young man (the only son and child of a widow) from the dead. He was already in a coffin and ready for burial. The Jewish leaders spoke of killing Jesus in John 7. Stephen was stoned to death in Acts 7. Hebrews 7 is about Jesus our High Priest and Saviour from death. In Revelation 7, 144, 000 people from the 12 tribes of Israel were sealed against harm and death. The seventh season is a deadly season without divine intervention. May the Lord intervene this week for the sake of the elect. The first attempt to assassinate a US President happened January 30, 1835; in the season of the seventh President, Andrew Jackson. The assailant shot at him but the gun misfired.
PRAYER: This week, pray and shut the mouth of death and the grave and deliver those appointed to death in the nations (Psalm 79:11; Proverbs 31:8). Pray that this week will be a week of preservation; not of destruction and death. See Hosea 13:14.
5. THE SEVENTH WEEK IS A SEASON OF REST AND FAITH IN THE FINISHED WORK
Week 7 is a seventh-seven-books-of-the-Bible week (Books 43-49). The 7th seventh books of the Bible are John, Acts, Romans, First Corinthians, Second Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians. These books are about the application of the finished work. In the 43rd book, John, Jesus declared on the cross, “it is finished”. Those books are about the riches we have in Christ – salvation, eternal life, power, righteousness, freedom, gifts, ministry, position and authority. These seven book show us that, in Christ, we have rest from the Law, by faith; and that the struggle is over. Five Pauline Epistles are part of the seventh seven books. Let this week be a week of rest; not a week of unrest or distress.
PRAYER: Pray that people will come into the finished work and rest of God. Pray that religious people around the world who are struggling and labouring for salvation will come into His rest this week.
6. THE SEVENTH WEEK IS A HOLY SEASON OF PURSUING THE PLEASURE OF GOD
Although we are to pursue God’s pleasure at all times, some seasons demand that specially; and they come with heavy distractions from the pursuit of God’s pleasure. The book of Judges is the seventh book of the Bible and provides a pattern for the seventh week. This book is about three things: Israel’s intermittent sin, suffering, and salvation. The book is called Judges because of the ‘judges’ who rose at different times to guide Israel back to God and to deliver Israel from her oppressors. In the days of the Judges, there was no king in Israel and everyone did was right in his or her eyes. They forsook the pleasure of God and pursued their own pleasures. That was the reason Israel suffered in the seventh book of the Bible. Isaiah 58:13-14 says, “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words, [14] Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.” The evil one fights to have this season and lures men to commit abomination and sacrilege in this season. Islam was born in the 7th century of the Church. It is man’s desecration of this season that makes it a season of curses.
PRAYER: Pray that this week will be a week of recovery from every kind of declension. Let it be a week turning and returning to God and pursuing His pleasure. Pray that the enemy will not rejoice over God’s people this week. Pray to be delivered from taking steps, making decisions and saying or doing things that would give power to the enemy.
7. THE SEVENTH WEEK IS A SEASON TO WALK IN UNITY
The account of the seventh day of creation is not recorded in the same chapter with the account of the first six days. This because the seventh season stands out from the bunch. This is true of the march around Jericho, the seven seals of Revelation 7-8, and the t trumpets of Revelation 8-11. This also seems to be the root of the negative tendency towards division and disunity in the seventh season. Four times, in the seventh book of the Bible, we are told that “in those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 21:25; 18:1; 19:1). The tribes even fought themselves in the 7th book of the Bible.
PRAYER: Pray that this week will be marked by unity and not disunity among God’s people Let this week be marked by true love and not self-centeredness (Psalm 133:1-3). Pray that the Lord and His Word will be our rallying point this week.
SCRIPTURE FOR THE WEEK
2 Chronicles 7:13-14: “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, [14] if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land”.
PRAY FOR COUNTRIES MARKING INDEPENDENCE THIS WEEK:
Tibet (February 13)
Serbia (February 15)
Lithuania (February 16)
Kosovo (17 February, 2008)
The Gambia (18 February, 1965)
