This 44th week of the year, Heaven will be working against space-blockers and evil monopolies that are obstructing freedom and progress in the pursuit of God’s plans and purposes on earth. This is a week of power clashes. Ultimate power belongs to God. So, any power that seeks to limit the advancement of God’s purpose this week is an enemy that Heaven will overrun.
As spiritual watchmen, we take sides with Heaven, this week, and engage all Heaven’s forces against ‘evil controlling powers’ in the nations.The ‘controlling powers’ may be human authorities, terrorists, disease, poverty, racism, evil spirits controlling people’s lives and causing disasters in society, or customs and traditions of men limiting people and keeping them in darkness. The controlling powers make it difficult for people to live the way God wants them to live. They put people in prison and hold them captive.
The 44th week is a book-of-Acts week because the book of Acts is the 44th book of the Bible. In this book, God sent the Helper, the Holy Spirit to the Church. He was the secret behind the phenomenal growth of the church in the book of Acts. In the book of Acts, the authorities did everything to put the Church of Jesus Christ in check. The church submitted to God rather than submitting to the dictates of the human authorities. They said, “We would obey God rather than men”. There were reactions from the authorities (false accusation, physical abuse, imprisonment, and killings) but God always proved Himself greater than the authorities and their schemes. He granted mysterious escapes and deliverances to His persecuted people. God demonstrated His Superior Power to thwart the monopoly of hindering and opposing human authorities and advance His church. He granted power for miracles and amazing signs to His Christ-followers; and opened prisons mysteriously to release His servants.
The church was unstoppable in the book of Acts. The 44th week is when God makes way, forcefully, where there is no way. God sends help in second seasons like this44th week. The 44th week could be a season of harassment and intimidation through persecution; a season arrests, physical abuses, and incarceration; but it is also a season of mysterious deliverances and escapes. The 44th season is a season of conflict between liberals and conservatives, between, those who know God and those who do not; and between the weak and the strong. The seasons compels those who know God to call upon Him for help and intervention. It is a season of conflict between the gods and God; in which God demonstrates His sovereignty and superior majesty.
The word ‘prison’ appears in 66 verses in the entire New Testament. Twenty-nine of those verses are in the book of Acts. In this book, God demonstrated that human prisons and security guards were like toys before Him. Through prayer and manifestations of the power of God, the Church remained unstoppable; and even wore out the human authorities. The 44th season is a season of intense battle. The Lord clothed His Church with power at the beginning of the 44th book of the Bible because the 44th season is for ‘clash of powers’ and ‘show of force’. As the Church was unstoppable in the 44th book of the Bible, that is how you should be unstoppable this 44th week of the year.
In the 44th season, the evil one wants to put the just in prison but God’s will in this season is to open prison doors and set captives free. Three times in the 44th book of the Bible, people were released from prison supernaturally (Acts 5, 12 and 16). This is besides those who were freed from disease, lack, demonic powers and religious bondage. This is a week of opening prison doors.
OTHER BIBLICAL PATTERNS FOR THE 44TH WEEK
1. The 44th week is a second-day-of-creation week. This is because the 44th week is the second week in the seventh 7-week season of the year that egan October 22. As a second day of creation week, this 44th week is a season to deal with evil monopolies, space-blockers and controlling powers by engaging the firmament and space-maker called ‘Heaven’ in Genesis 1:6-8.
2. The 44th week is a Judges 4-6 week. The second 3 chapters of the 7th book of the Bible are applicable to the second week in the seventh 7 weeks of the year. This is a Deborah-Barak-Jael-Gideon week. It is a time to nail ‘Sisera’ to the ground! It is a time to awaken and challenge the fearful Gideons to go to war.
3. The second 10 books of the Old Testament (First Kings – Proverbs) is key to understanding the second week in the seventh 7 weeks of the year. It is key to understanding the significance of October 29 – November 4 in the seven week season running from October 22 to December 9. The 44th week is a time to triumph through the fear of God and godliness.
4. The 44th week of the year is a 44th chapters of the Bible week. The five 44th chapters of the Bible are Genesis 44, Psalm 44, Isaiah 44, Jeremiah 44 and Ezekiel 44.
B. BIBLE READING SUGGESTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Going through the 44th week of the year is like taking a journey through the 44th book of the Bible (Acts). It is also like walking through the five 44th chapters of the Bible. So, the Book of Acts and the 44th chapters of the Bible are great guiding lights for the week.
You may want to read the suggested passages as follows or as led by the Spirit of God:
October 29: Acts 1-4. Genesis 44.
October 30: Acts 5-8. Psalm 44.
October 31: Acts 9-12. Isaiah 44.
November 1: Acts 13-16. Jeremiah 44.
November 2: Acts 17-20. Ezekiel 44;
November 3: Acts 21-24
November 4: Acts 25-28
C. THOUGHTS AND PRAYER POINTS FOR THE 44TH WEEK
What does the Bible reveal about the 44th?
The 44th gate of time is the gate used by powers – powers that oppress and powers that deliver; powers that hinder and powers that help.; powers that shut doors and powers that open doors; the power of God and the power of man or satan. The hindering powers want only to have their ways to do whatever they want. The helping powers use this gate of time to rescue the just and innocent who are at the mercy of the proud and arrogant powers.
This 44th season is a week of help against closed doors. It is part of the 7th seven weeks of the year. In this season, God sends or gives help to make a way where there is no way. It is a gate of time through which help passes to open doors for the despised and persecuted. The 44th book of the Bible records the coming of the Helper, the Promise of the Father, to make a way for the Church where there is no way and to cause the unprecedented to happen.
It is the Spirit of Help that passes through this gate of time that gave the Allied Powers wisdom to fight a decisive three-month battle, from D–Day in 1944, against the Axis Powers to liberate all of France. It is the same Spirit of help that broke through monopolies and made way for Barak Obama to become the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to serve as US President. He is answerable to his Creator how he used the golden opportunity.
Psalm 44 is the cry of the oppressed and persecuted to the God of miracles for intervention. Psalm 44:22-26 says, “Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever. Why do You hide Your face, And forget our affliction and our oppression? [25] For our soul is bowed down to the dust; Our body clings to the ground. [26] Arise for our help, And redeem us for Your mercies’ sake”.
God shows off His power in the 44th season.
Isaiah 44:6 says, “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God”. He mocks idols and idol worshippers in Isaiah 44:9-20.
God shows off His sovereignty in the 44th season.
Isaiah 44: 24-27 says, “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself; [25] Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, And drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, And makes their knowledge foolishness; [26] Who confirms the word of His servant, And performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’ And I will raise up her waste places; [27] Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers’;
God shows He is final authority in the 44th season.
Jeremiah 44:28 says, “Yet a small number who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah; and all the remnant of Judah, who have gone to the land of Egypt to dwell there, shall know whose words will stand, Mine or theirs”.
Ezekiel 44 indicates that God is the Decision Maker in the 44th season. In this chapter, He told Ezekiel how things should be done and what should not be done.
PRAYER POINTS FOR THE 44TH WEEK OF THE YEAR
1. O Lord , this week, deliver your people from the arrogance and wickedness of the powers that be; as you delivered Peter from the hand of Herod.
2. Let your people be unstoppable this week. Let fire keep burning on the prayer altar. Release innocent prisoners in the nations.
3. Let the people of God in in the nations enjoy the backing of the Holy Spirit. Let the nations witness the power of the Spirit working through God’s people as the Church did in the 44th book of the Bible.
4. O Lord, stop those who are working against your people and your purposes in the nations – religious fundamentalists, corrupt political leaders, greedy people in business.
5. O Lord, release your power to deliver nations from their imprisonment and captivity. Let ancient gates of wickedness stopping nations open in the name of Jesus.
6. O Lord, disgrace all who use sorcery to advance wicked causes in the nations.
There are 10 ‘P’s associated with the 44th week. They are
- Prayer: this is a season to receive help from God
- Praise
- Preaching
- Prophecy
- Power
- Partnership
- Persistence
- Persecution
- Purity
- Prison
I pray you will experience the positive ‘P’s this 44th week.
Happy 44th week!
