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Praying the Covenant

Heavenly Father,

Jesus was made a surety, a guarantee of a better covenant. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7.22, 25) Jesus’ Blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant. (Exodus 24.8; Hebrews 9.20; 1 Corinthians 11.25; Matthew 26.28; Hebrews 10.29; Hebrews 13.20) Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. (Hebrews 9.15)

By the blood of Jesus, my heart is sprinkled from an evil conscience (Hebrews 10.22) and the blood of Christ cleanses my conscience (Hebrews 9.14; Revelation 1.5). Father, You promised to cleanse me from all my filthiness, to cause me to walk in Your statutes, to be my God as I am of Your people. You said You will take the children of Israel from among the heathen and gather them on every side and bring them into their own land, that You will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all, that they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all, neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgression. But You will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them, so shall they be Your people, and You will be their God. And David Your servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd. They shall also walk in Your judgments and observe Your statutes, and do them. They shall dwell in the land that You have given unto Jacob Your servant, wherein our fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children forever, and Your servant David shall be their prince for ever. (Ezekiel 37.22-25)

Moreover, You said, "I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them. Yea, I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore." (Ezekiel 37.26-28)

You said that what You do is not for our sakes, but for Your holy Name’s sake, which we have profaned among the heathen, whither we went. You said, "I will sanctify My great Name, which was profaned among the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be My people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleanness, and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that you shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen." (Ezekiel 36.22-30)

So let us remember our own evil ways, and our doings that were not good, and loathe ourselves in our own sight for our iniquities and for our abominations. Let us be ashamed and confounded for our own ways. (Ezekiel 36.31, 32) For thus saith the Lord God; "In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be built. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, this land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited." (Ezekiel 36.33-35) You Lord build the ruined places and plant that which was desolate. You said, "I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it." You said, "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD." (Ezekiel 36.36-38)

You spoke of the new covenant you make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. You said, "After those days, saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the last of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31.33, 34)

Father, You promised: "Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in Mine anger, and in My fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole soul." (Jeremiah 32.37-41) "The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good; for His mercy endures forever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, says the Lord." (Jeremiah 33.11)

I enter into the covenant to seek the Lord God of my fathers with all my heart, and all my soul (2 Chronicles 15.12; 34.31; 2 Kings 23.3) for the Lord my God will circumcise my heart, and the heart of my seed, to love the Lord my God with all my heart, and with all my soul. (Deuteronomy 30.6)

Father, Your Word says in Deuteronomy 7.9, 10: "Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations; and repays them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them: He will not be slack to the one that hates Him, He will repay Him to his face."

You are a covenant-keeping God. You established Your covenant with Noah, his descendants, and with every living creature going out of the ark, to every beast of the earth, promising that neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth, and You gave the rainbow as a token. (Genesis 9)

You promised Abram that You would make of him a great nation, and You would bless him, and make his name great, and he would be a blessing. You said, "And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you, and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 12.2, 3)

You told Abram that You were his shield and his exceeding great reward. (Genesis 15.1) You told him to look toward heaven and if he could number the stars, so shall his seed be. And Abram believed in You and You counted it to him for righteousness. You promised to give him the land of Canaan to inherit it and covenanted with him saying, "Unto your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates…" (Genesis 15)

Your covenant was with Abraham and you told him he would be a father of many nations and changed his name to Abraham. You said, "And I will make you exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come out of you. And I will establish my covenant between Me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto you, and to your seed after you. And I will give unto you, and to your seed after you, the land wherein you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. You shall keep My covenant therefore, you, and your seed after you in their generations." And You gave circumcision as the sign of the covenant. (Genesis 17)

You gave the covenant to Moses, the Law and the Book of the covenant. You gave the blood of the covenant You made. (Exodus 24) You commanded the sabbath to be kept as a sign between You and Your people throughout the generations that we may know that You are the Lord that sanctifies us. You established it as a sign forever, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. (Exodus 31.12-18) You set forth the blessings and the curses of the covenant (Deuteronomy 28).

You remember the covenant and do not break it. (Judges 2.1) You promised David a house and a kingdom and a throne established forever. (2 Samuel 7) You said,
My covenant with him will never fail." (Psalm 89)

Father, remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed Your name. O deliver not the soul of Your turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked. Forget not the congregation of Your poor forever. Have respect unto the covenant, for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. O let not the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise Your name. Arise, O God, plead Your own cause. Remember how the foolish man reproaches You daily. Forget not the voice of Your enemies, the tumult of those that rise up against You increases continually. (Psalm 74.18-23)

You are the Lord our God. Your judgments are in all the earth. You have remembered Your covenant forever, the Word which You commanded to a thousand generations, which covenant You made with Abraham, and Your oath unto Isaac; and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: saying, unto you will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance. (Psalm 105.7-11) Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto Your holy name, and to triumph in Your praise. (Psalm 106.47)

I declare to You Psalm 111 now. You gave Jesus Your Servant to be a covenant for the people (Isaiah 42.6, 49.8). You said, "For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people. All that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord has blessed." (Isaiah 61.8, 9)

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David; as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath which He swore to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life." (Luke 1.68-75)

Jesus offered Himself, His Body and His Blood. He is the mediator of a new covenant, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance…and almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (from Hebrews 9)

Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin You would not, neither had pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; then said He [Jesus], Lo, I come to do Your will, O God. He takes away the first, that He may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10)

In faith, I surrender to accept and experience what grace will do in my life by the Holy Spirit. I desire to trust in Your mighty working in me. I desire to be taught and led by the Spirit of God. I desire holiness. I desire truth in my inward parts. I desire to know the end of the commandment, which is love out from a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. (1 Timothy 1.5) I trust the Lord to keep and preserve me.

Thus, Father, we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the Blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, and so I draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having my heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and my body washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10.19-22) The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1.17, Galatians 3.11, Hebrews 10.38)

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make me perfect in every good work to do His will, working in me that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13.20, 21)

The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshiped God, saying, We give thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who is, and was, and is to come, because You have taken to You Your great power, and have reigned. And the nations were angry, and Your wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that You should give reward unto Your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Your Name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His covenant, and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. (Revelation 11.15-19)

I am the child of promise and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made me free. (Galatians 4.28; 5.1) I live in the Spirit (Galatians 5.25). The Spirit gives life. Sanctify me through the truth. (John 17.17, 19; Romans 1.7; 1 Corinthians 1.2; 2 Thessalonians 2.13, 3.13, 5.23-24; 1 Peter 1.2) What the law demands, grace supplies.

Jesus said, "It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto the one that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. The one that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son." (Revelation 21.6, 7)

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

© 2001 Mary Craig Ministries, Inc.

mary@marycraig.org

 

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