Prayer Pastoring – Chapter 3 – Righteousness

Chapter three

Righteousness

In our first two chapters of prayer
pastor-ing we talked about praying mercy and grace over peoples live
now our third step is praying righteousness.

Romans 14:17

For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost.

The kingdom of God is the Spirit of
God. Matt 12:28 says “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of
God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you”. The coming
of the Spirit is the coming of the kingdom. When we declare, “thy
kingdom come,” it is a release of the kingdom, a release of the
power of God. God’s Spirit encompasses all things and it is the
kingdom. Within His kingdom are righteousness, peace and joy.

Often in our Christian understanding,
we believe that Christ is our righteousness and God no longer sees
us, but He sees Christ. When he looks at you, He doesn’t see you,
He sees Jesus. This is not true in scripture. The first thing God
says to every church is “I see your works”. When He
looks at us He sees our life. He sees our sin. He knows everything
about us. He says in Revelation “I know you”. Then He
brings correction to individuals and to churches. He does not say “I
see the righteousness of Christ.”

You have the nature of righteousness
and the evidence of that naturet in your life is the fruit that you
produce. A tree is known by its fruit. Righteousness is a not a state
of being because you have said a prayer and have been born again and
now you can now live any way you please.

We are righteous in Christ and that is
absolutely true. Righteousness is a spiritual substance, a part of
the very essence of God that you receive not just when you are born
again, but continually. If the kingdom is righteousness, peace and
joy, then every Christian would have joy because he is in the
kingdom. We know that not every Christian walks in joy. Joy is not a
theoretical state of being but something you must continually
acquire. Joy comes by continually seeking the joy of the Lord in the
kingdom.

We can obtain peace through prayer.
Phil 4:6 says “be anxious for nothing, but in all things by
prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God and
the peace of God will come and guard your heart and mind.” It
is through prayer you obtain it. It is a spiritual substance. It
flows from Gods kingdom to us. It is not a theoretical state. It is
acquired like every other promise of God, through faith, on a regular
basis.

Joy and peace are a substance to be
acquired and righteousness is the same. When you receive Christ, you
receive righteousness. His righteousness is in you. You have to
partake of the very thing that you were made from to grow in
righteousness. You have been born again of the Word of God, now you
must feed on the Word of God. It is His food for you. The
righteousness of Christ that formed the new creation is the very
thing you must continually let flow into your life. Righteousness is
something that you can seek after. You can ask for. There is a
specific function of righteousness that works in your life. You
either have it, or you do not have it. Righteousness is either
working in your life or not. Paul writes in 11 Cor 9:10 “through
the work of giving (finance), we increase in the fruit of our
righteousness.” Righteousness had increased in the Corinthian
believers’ lives and now it was producing fruit which was their
giving to the poor. Their giving was a righteous act, and it
increased their righteousness.

Rev. 19:7-8

Let us be glad and rejoice, and
give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife
hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be
arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the
righteousness of saints.

In this verse the bride made herself
ready. There was an outworking of righteousness, not just a state of
being. You cannot outwork something that is not working inside of
you. Whatever is in you “for out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks” you speak. You speak what you live. If
righteousness was not a substance to be acquired then why would the
beatitudes in Matthew five declare “blessed are they who hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled” With
what? Righteousness! You come to God to seek righteousness, the
substance of righteousness, to be filled with righteousness.

Why is it that we need to be filled
with righteousness? The word righteousness means straightness,
equity, straight up and down. It means unbending and unyielding,
uncompromising, completely integral in the fibre of the manufacture
of the person who has it. When you look at righteousness,
righteousness is the very moral fibre, the moral character, the very
fibre of God’s character. It is the unbending, uncompromising
truth, and integrity of God Himself.

A person who is weak in character will
do great things, but they fail continually and fall into areas of
deceit and weakness and cannot get it right. God takes of Himself,
His very person and He plants it to us. He imputes it to us. He puts
it in us. The power of the greater one overcomes the corruption of
the lesser. The righteous character comes into you and brings that
same straightness, equity, justice. The same uncompromising,
integrity of His character moulds and fashions you.

When you come to God seeking His
righteousness, He gives you what you ask. There comes a release of a
greater power that goes into your character. Where you were dishonest
He changes you into integrity.

Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 “seek
ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” You are
told to seek righteousness. Seek after it for your lives. God imparts
it to us. He He plants it in us like a seed. It is not something of
yourself where your old life changes of itself. It is something of
God. It is the planting the new birth , the seed. It is a continual
supply of the very thing you were birthed from that makes that
righteous life grow up and produce fruit.

Isaiah 45:8

“Rain down, you heavens,
from above,

And let the skies pour down
righteousness;

Let the earth open, let them
bring forth salvation,

And let righteousness spring up
together.

I, the Lord, have created it.

The Scripture is about righteousness
raining down from heaven into humanity. As it comes down and touches
humanity, salvation springs up. People are saved in it. God pours out
righteousness in mass, across people, nations, churches, when they
seek it. As you open your hearts to salvation, Christ, the righteous
One springs up out of people.

Hosea 10:12

Sow for yourselves
righteousness;

Reap in mercy;

Break up your fallow ground,

For it is time to seek the Lord,

Till He comes and rains
righteousness on you.

Man was made from the dust of the
earth, and fallow ground speaks of the hardness of people’s hearts.
Breaking your fallow ground is your labour, travail in prayer, sowing
in mercy, sowing it in and releasing the mercy of God over people
breaking up the work of sin. “For it is time to seek the Lord,
till He comes and rains righteousness on you.” Plough, labour
in prayer and call on God to rain righteousness down as a substance
over your town.

Isaiah 45:8 says that righteousness as
it comes down, the earth opens up. Why does the earth open up to us?
Because! You have ploughed your ground. When the labour of prayer is
done, the earth is softer and salvation springs forth.

James 5:7 “therefore be patient
brethren until the coming of the Lord and see how the farmer waits
for the precious fruit of the earth (humanity), until he receives the
early and the latter rain”

Often we want to see the harvest but
not the rain. The farmer waits patiently for the early and the latter
rain to bring forth the precious fruit of the earth. The only fruit
that God is interested in on the earth is not apples and oranges, but
the lives of families in our communities. The rain is the coming of
the Holy Spirit. When the rain comes, only when God comes can lives
be saved. “No man comes to the Father, unless the Spirit draws
him.” It’s not a philosophy or change of life that will bring
a flood of salvation of souls but the miraculous working of the
Spirit.

One of the greatest prayers that you
can pray over people is to pray down righteousness. God revealed this
to me (David). God also confirmed this to me when I was reading a
book on Billy Graham. Graham said from the very outset of the
beginning of his ministry, he realized that nothing had ever happened
in any great work of God without prayer. He gathered some of the best
prayer-ers together, and they started praying in Ohio. They prayed
for weeks and weeks. When he had his first meetings, he said they
were praying down righteousness and Graham quoted Isaiah 10:12

Sow for yourselves
righteousness;

Reap in mercy;

Break up your fallow ground,

For it is time to seek the Lord,

Till He comes and rains
righteousness on you.

When he gave a straight, simple altar
call, without any eloquence the presence of righteousness came and
multitudes of people were born again. Billy Graham always
acknowledged it was the work of the Spirit bringing righteousness
that brought people to salvation.

Righteousness is not a state of being
when you are saved, righteousness is something that you can seek,
pray for it, call it down and cry out to God for it. You need to seek
Him on your knees until He sends it as rain flooding us. If your
character is letting you down, cry out to God, “Father in mercy,
send righteousness. I open my heart for your righteousness to
come into my character. Lord let it permeate my heart, my will, my
mind, every part of me. Lift your hands right now”. God will
send it to you because you ask. Father, release Your righteousness
into lives now. Release into our character, straightness and
integrity and it will come to us.

David had never believed that people
with poor character could make good Christians. I no longer believe
that. I believe any labour of prayer to bring righteousness down to
their lives will convert them and change them. Righteousness will
come down and what is in God’s heart will come into them. It will
release them and change them, so they become God-like, just like
Him.”