A Counsellor to God?

“Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).  Was God’s sharing with Abraham His intention to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah an outworking of this principle?  If so, the practical result was that Abraham was given opportunity to intercede on behalf of  Sodom.

If intercession is the privilege of the prophets, consider Moses.  “And the Lord said to Moses: ‘How long will these people reject Me?  And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?  I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make you a nation greater and mightier than they” (Numbers 14:11, 12).  But Moses resisted and God relented, after hearing Moses rationale for sparing Israel, saying, “I have pardoned according to your word;…” (Numbers 14:20).

Similarly, did God’s bringing it to Daniel attention that the time of Israel’s 70-year captivity in Babylon was at an end represent an outworking of this same principle?  If so, this gave Daniel an opportunity to mid-wife this concern into reality by prayer and intercession.

If these three incidents reveal a principle with God, what might be said of believers “. . . looking for and hastening the coming of the day of the Lord” (II Peter 3:12)?  Here might it not be said that believers have something to do with “hastening the coming of the day of the Lord”?  Grant it, the “day of the Lord” is a complex of many things, still it involves the coming of the Lord.  That being true, would not the Lord want to invite His followers into His counsel for intercession and proclamation?

Let me point out two verses with some specificity about end-time events, but at the same time reveal a certain amount of open-endedness.  The first is, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).  The second is, “Therefore … they asked Him saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel’” (Acts 1:6)?  Both verses deal with separate events, albeit connected.  When that last convert is made, be sure it is registered in heaven.  When Jesus establishes His throne in Israel, that, too, will be a most notable and specific event.  But the question needs to be posed:  “Are these fixed events, or, is there wiggle room for their fulfillment allowing for prophetic intercession and proclamation?

Can it be that as walk in closest obedience to God and His Word that He will see fit to include us in those matters He has ordained to come to pass?  Those things He has ordained do not happen in a vacuum, they require the cooperation of His people to pray them in and proclaim them.