MONDAY, OCTOBER 21
Scripture: Matthew 21:33-38

Matthew 21:33-38 gives us the parable of the landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it. He dug a winepress, built a tower and created a first-class vineyard. But he leased it to greedy vinedressers. And when they saw the landowner’s servants had come to collect their master’s due, the vinedressers abused some and killed others. Finally the landowner sent his son saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said, “Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.” What is interesting here is the Greek Word translated, “seize.” This word is kat-ekh-o and is the same Greek word translated, “restrains,” in 2 Thessalonians 2. So when we find that our job in the end-time church is to restrain evil and we look how the Greek word kat-ekh-o is used, we have to ask ourselves, what kind of intercessory prayer is warranted? What kind of prayer and judicial intervention will seize an emerging flood of evil and grind it to a halt? Anything less in the account of the evil vinedressers seizing the inheritance is not the true restraint of evil that God intends for His end-time church. Are we prepared for that? Does the church think in terms of facing a situation and seizing it by prayer and bringing God’s Judicial Hand of intervention in such a way that everyone knows it is God’s judgment? Jesus painted a picture of an end-time church that fully represents Him as both Savior and Judge. Right now we have a church that only represents Him as Savior. Because the church lacks the biblical mentality of seizing advancing evil, we are mostly ineffective in this God-given assignment. This is not God’s fault. And sadly, it is not the fault of most of the people in the church. Religious spirits have hidden this dimension of Who Jesus is and unless we are trained to participate in Holy Spirit led judicial prayers in the last days, we fail at restraining evil. I do not want to fail in any God-given assignment. I do not know a single Christian who wants to fail in any aspect of their personal Christian walk. But the truth is, much of the church is now failing in this realm. We cannot rewrite 2 Thessalonians 2. One Holy Spirit assignment in the last days is that of restraining evil. Will we choose to say yes to the Lord and begin to prepare for this assignment?