“Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jehozadak responded by starting again to rebuild the Temple of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them and helped them. But Tattenai, governor of the province west of the Euphrates River, and Shethar-bozenai and their colleagues soon arrived in Jerusalem and asked, “Who gave you permission to rebuild this Temple and restore this structure?””
Ezra 5:2-3 NLT
I love reading this. Immediately I noticed that the prophets were leading the effort to rebuild the Temple. A prophet’s heart always burns to encounter the presence and glory of God, anything that falls short of that fulfillment causes their hearts to hurt with longing. So you see it’s a collective effort of the prophetic to build up the body of Christ and motivate them into growth. The prophetic/apostolic mantle is a powerful divine head of leadership representing the heart of God. It unifies believers and causes them to work together zealously to take down the forces of darkness.
Only a spirit of witchcraft would see this level of authority and be jealous of it’s power and influence. This spirit comes through bitterness and a desire to control others. We see in this story, it is the political leadership that tries to stop the rebuilding of the temple. The enemy here is political so he works through the ranks to influence the top political official, the king.
In this season I see a canopy of Heaven coming on Gods people not just enabling them to stand, not just giving them an anecdote from Heaven to match the demonic threat we face, God is the God of abundance of more than enough, so this canopy of glory coming over us makes us a fierce threat to the kingdom of darkness especially as we unify. God is giving us more than enough to win!
““This was their answer: ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the Temple that was built here many years ago by a great king of Israel. But because our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he abandoned them to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who destroyed this Temple and exiled the people to Babylonia. However, King Cyrus of Babylon, during the first year of his reign, issued a decree that the Temple of God should be rebuilt.”
Ezra 5:11-13 NLT
God’s people had history on their side. They explained they were rebuilding something that should still be here, it was built as part of the origins of their culture and then they cited the law of the land and showed that even through the wording of the law they had authority to restore what was originally there.
We can relate to this. Last November we celebrated the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower Compact. Did you know that you can pray prayers of agreement with people who prayed for America hundreds of years ago? A friend of mine has an ancestor who signed the Mayflower Compact, last year I told her she had the power to agree in the spirit with the prayers of her ancestors! Our homeschool group read and prayed the Mayflower Compact last year and then all the children and parents signed it. We have history on our side. Our nation was birthed in the presence of God and purposed for His glory to be revealed through us to the whole earth. These are our origins and destinies. We have both history and the words of the law of the land on our side just as God’s people did in this story. I believe that if we keep pressing we will see America reborn.
“So King Darius sent this message: “Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province west of the Euphrates River, and Shethar-bozenai, and your colleagues and other officials west of the Euphrates River—stay away from there! Do not disturb the construction of the Temple of God. Let it be rebuilt on its original site, and do not hinder the governor of Judah and the elders of the Jews in their work. “Moreover, I hereby decree that you are to help these elders of the Jews as they rebuild this Temple of God. You must pay the full construction costs, without delay, from my taxes collected in the province west of the Euphrates River so that the work will not be interrupted.”
Ezra 6:6-8 NLT
God moved through the political and the law of the land forcing the enemy to not only “cease and desist” his striving against God’s people but also to finance their work! Can you imagine that?
Let’s pray: God you have the power to reverse the flow of wealth. You have the power to cause those who oppose us to financially support our causes for You! Let Your strong right arm be raised in power over America and Your church. Let us be “reborn” into the purity of our original purpose for Your glory. We receive the canopy of Heaven anointing us with more than enough to be highly successful in this season.