20 years into a prosperous reign, King Jehoshaphat receives a report of a coalition of nations coming against him to war. Known more for being righteous than a warrior, he puts into action the only course he believes will help.

Instead of preparing swords, shields, and arrows, he calls for a nationwide day of prayer and fasting.

Join us today as we explore this story from 2 Chronicles 20 and see Jehoshaphat’s prayer that focuses on looking solely to God as an answer to this national crisis.

Jehoshaphat is not much different from you and me. We still have access to the same God of the Bible.

Listen to this inspiring story of God’s power and why this is so relevant for us today.

In this episode:

Are you overwhelmed by business because:

• People have not acted honestly and to come clean will be costly. May lose customers.
• Fear that being open and honest may result in a nonconformance in an audit or lose your certification or license.
• You are a start-up and JUST DON’T KNOW what is the best way forward?

Are you overwhelmed in life because:

• Your children are not following God
• Your marriage is deteriorating because one or both are not on the same page
• You are so busy with work you don’t feel you have time to get away and be with your family

Pray how Jehoshaphat prayed:

• I have no might against this attack
• I don’t know what to do
• My eyes are upon YOU.

Listen in to the winning formula from the Bible in which God guarantees He will respond.

There is no one right way to success, but there is one right source of success.

As a student of the Bible, I believe that everything we do in life and business should be evaluated by the standard of God's Word. If God speaks to something, we should follow Him.

We are to be transformed by God's Word and not conformed to this world.

We make God known by creating content that is Biblically sound, simple to understand, practical, and worthy of God's name.

I happen to be a podcast host and coach

If you do not know what to do, I invite you to book a time with me that we may talk and pray and seek God’s face together.

Seek God’s face, get to know Him, and follow Him. It’s the only true one size-fits-all solution to success in business and life.

Book a time to talk: Let’s talk.

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[0:00] 20 years into his reign, Jehoshaphat hears an ominous report. There is a great multitude coming against him to attack and destroy Judah, to take away their lands. For the children of Moab, the children of Ammon, the children of Edom, have joined together to come and attack Judah. This strikes a severe chord of fear inside of Jehoshaphat. But you may ask the question, with 1.1 million soldiers in waiting, ready to fight, why is Jehoshaphat so afraid? You have to look at the previous chapters to understand why Jehoshaphat is afraid. In the scriptures, Jehoshaphat only has two battles recorded during his reign. The first battle was a few chapters earlier when he was helping King Ahab from Israel. If you remember, King Jehoshaphat made alliance with Ahab, and they went out to fight against Syria.

[1:00] And during that time, God had predicted and prophesied that King Ahab would die. And because of that, Ahab clothed himself in the regular garb of a soldier, while Jehoshaphat dressed like a king and both went out into battle. While the king of Syria had instructed his army to go and fight only against the king of Ahab. So they saw Jehoshaphat and thought, Jehoshaphat, that's the king of Israel. They're going to go attack him, and they go after him, but he cries to the Lord, and he's delivered. A soldier at random draws his arrow and shoots and kills King Ahab. So even though King Ahab tried to hide himself and not look like a king, in this battle, he died.

[1:50] But it was more to that. When Jehoshaphat came back to home, a prophet came to him, Jehu by name, and said, Jehoshaphat, shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from the Lord. Nevertheless, there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land and hast prepared thy heart to seek God.

[2:20] Jehoshaphat has already heard from a prophet of God that wrath is upon him he's looking back at this last battle that he was in where King Ahab died and now we have an army coming against him what do you think is going through his mind? What's going through his mind is I'm in trouble wrath is upon me There's this army coming. Last time Ahab got killed, I'm next. I'm next. And so he is afraid. And what would you do if you had a million-man army? Many of us would start sharpening swords, gathering arrows, preparing for a fight. But not Ahab. I'm sorry, not King Jehoshaphat. King Jehoshaphat did something completely foreign to what we do today, completely foreign to how we prepare for a military conflict.

[3:20] It says he set himself to seek the Lord.

[3:26] It says, As Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord, proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. A fast is when people come together. They don't eat food. They many times don't drink. And they did it for the purpose of afflicting themselves, to pray to God, to ask God for help. And so as all Judah gets together into Jerusalem, not to fight, but to fast and to pray together, and to cry out to God. Jehoshaphat leads the prayer team, and he prays a wonderful prayer. And he reminds God of his greatness. He reminds God that these three nations, the Moabites, the Ammonites, Edomites, when they came out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan, God did not allow the Israelites to touch these three nations. They had to go around. They never attacked these people. And now these people are coming against him. They're returning evil for good.

[4:26] So what did Jehoshaphat say? The prayer is wonderful. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'm going to read verse 12. It says this, O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon you. Listen to that prayer. He says, we have no might against this great army. They have a million people. They say they don't have any might. He says, we don't know what to do.

[5:01] But our eyes are upon you. That's the key. Their eyes are upon Jehovah. Their eyes are upon God and waiting for God to answer you.

[5:16] What does God do? God sends an answer. Very interesting, right away. It says, Then upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jehiel, the son of Matthad, and the Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation, and he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow go ye down against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz, and ye shall find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jeroboam. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem, fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord will be with you.

[6:20] God answered them. God answered them and said, go forth, and God will be with you. Now, this is great contrast to when Jehoshaphat went with King Ahab. Because when Jehoshaphat went with King Ahab a few years ago.

[6:37] So Jehoshaphat wanted a prophet to say, hey, get us a prophet to see what's going to happen here. And a prophet of God came in and showed and said that King Ahab, you're going to die.

[6:50] And King Ahab did everything that he could in order not to die, but he still died in that battle. And yet in this one, God is not saying that Jehoshaphat's going to die. God is saying that Jehoshaphat is going to not just live, but be successful. I love this story. I love this story because it shows the greatness and awesome power of God. Let's hear what happens as it goes on.

[7:19] It says, and they rose early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa and as they went Jehoshaphat stood and said hear me O Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in the Lord your God so you shall be established believe his prophets and ye shall prosper, and when he consulted with the people he pointed singers unto the Lord that they should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and to say, raise the Lord, for his mercy endureth forever. In case you didn't catch it, they're going to have this army that's going to go out and fight, but in front of the army, at the lead of the army, is going to be a bunch of singers. A bunch of singers, not war crying, but praising and honoring and glorifying the God of heaven. That's what they're doing. They're praising God as they go forward.

[8:17] It says, And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord sent ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah, and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and to destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness, they looked upon them, to the multitude, and behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth. None had escaped.

[8:56] Friends, this is not just story time. This is true.

[9:00] And God sent ambushments against these people. As the children of Judah with Jehoshaphat came and his army, God set them against themselves. They fought against themselves, and by the time Judah showed up to the battlefield, everyone was dead. The battle was done. It says, they came upon the slain, and there was spoil among them, and that's what they did in the day. They would take the spoil, and that was their reward for being victorious in battle. It says that there's so much spoil there, there were three days. Three days in collecting all the spoil, there was so much. Of course, after that, they went back to Jerusalem and they celebrated, not in their great victory, not in their great power, but they celebrated God who gave them the victory.

[9:53] Now you may ask, why in the world I'm telling you this story? By the way, this story is detailed in 2 Chronicles 20, if you want to read more details or read it again. But you may say, why do I tell this story? I tell you this story because it is an example of what happens when you go all in with God. My friends, in business, in life, your lasting success and peace and rest is a direct correlation with your relationship with God, the one true God. I'm not talking about any religion. I'm talking about Jesus and his father, the Jehovah Christian faith. Friends, when you are overwhelmed, because we all get overwhelmed. When you are overwhelmed in your business, who do you turn to? If you have a business and people have not acted honestly, and you feel like coming clean is going to be so costly to your business and may lose customers, how do you make that decision? If you are overwhelmed in business and fear that being open up and honest may result in a non-conformist in an audit or lose some certification or license, what do you do? If you're in business, if you're a business startup and you just don't know which is the best way forward and you may be at a loss, what do you do?