Pushing Back the Darkness (Pastor Mark Parsons)

God called Abraham when he was 75 years old to leave his home in Ur of the Chaldees and journey to the land of Canaan. This was the land He was promising to Abraham and his descendants forever. The Canaanites were a culture living in darkness serving Baal and other false gods. They practiced witchcraft, and spirits of darkness were in control of the land influencing the nature of the Canaanite people.

However, God had a plan to use Abraham as a forerunner to “push back the powers of darkness” and prepare the way for Joshua to conquer the Promised Land for His people, Israel.

In fact, after Abraham arrived at Shechem, God appeared to him and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord and called upon the Name of the Lord.

Abraham, an obedient and faithful servant of God, knew that he was facing a spiritual warfare with the powers of darkness and Satan. He went directly to his Source of strength, wisdom, might and life and “He called upon the Name of the Lord,” to push back the dark forces of evil in the land.

Abraham traveled on from there and pitched his tent between Bethel on the West and Ai on the East, and yes, once again, “He built an altar to the Lord and called upon the Name of the Lord.”

As God’s children we, too, like Abraham, must establish prayer altars in our own personal lives, our families, our work places, our churches and throughout our nation. These prayer altars today are not to be stone monuments or physical structures, but the altar of God in our hearts. These altars are hearts devoted to God through Christ Jesus in worship, adoration and praise to Him. The voluminous reading of God’s word is imperative and a sincere urgency to minister to God through Jesus as His devoted priests are a must to call down His presence. We are to enter the Holy of Holies in God’s very presence through the atoning blood of Christ and offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving due to Him. God inhabits the praises of His people! God’s presence therefore will push back the darkness of evil forces seeking to destroy the communion He so desires between Himself and His beloved children.

References: Genesis 12:1-7; Psalm 22:3

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