Living Outloud: Prayer's Global Role

We explore 2 Chronicles 15–19 to show how loyalty to God shapes national peace, leadership, and justice. Personal faith matters, but collective prayer and truthful counsel shape the fate of leaders and courts, and God strengthens those who stay loyal.

• Asa’s reforms and the link between seeking God and national peace
• Conditional promises and what forsaking God costs a people
• Micaiah’s vision, lying spirits, and why leaders need truthful counsel
• Prayer as real agency in unseen and public realms
• Daniel’s delayed answer and persistence in intercession
• Reforming judges, resisting bribes, and guarding justice
• The Lord searches for loyal hearts to strengthen
• A modern story of community renewal through repentance and worship
• Practical calls to pray for leaders, advisers, and courts

Please reach out at outloudbible.com to share how you found the podcast, what your kingdom work looks like, and how this landed for you

Chapters

• 0:00 Framing National Faith And Agency
• 2:41 Global Listeners And Shared Calling
• 4:56 Asa’s Reforms And Peace Explained
• 7:31 Conditional Promises And National Drift
• 11:11 Forsaking God And Hard Truths
• 15:21 Community Change In Haiti Story
• 18:31 Micaiah, Lying Spirits, And Leadership
• 22:11 Prayer’s Unseen War From Daniel

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

Hey, this is Living Out Loud, the segment of the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast, where we take a chance to just go a little bit deeper with what we read in the week. I'm Mike.

SPEAKER_00: 0:32

I'm Kelsey.

SPEAKER_01: 0:33

And we are gonna take a look at Second Chronicles. We covered several chapters this week, and we're honestly gonna kind of draw from all of them. Sometimes we drill down deeper into maybe one story or segment and pull out a bunch of practical things about how do we live this out personally to not just let the Bible say what it says, but also have it inform our actions and change our lives. And in as such, we often draw good personal lessons and good personal takeaways. Today, though, I think based on what we read and based on what's needed, frankly, I think we need to zoom out a little bit and consider life on a on a national scale. Because when we read these uh these chapters in 2 Chronicles 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, this is matter, these are matters of national importance and national impact. We see kings interacting with kings, affecting nations, clashing with other nations. And so I think this is a good opportunity to think nationally and how we all fit within the global international plans of God, who of course has plans much bigger even than that. His plans extend to the cosmos. But uh it's all it's all just a chess game that God is playing and he is winning.

SPEAKER_00: 1:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:55

We don't always see it that way. We don't see uh nearly a fraction of what he does, but it affects us highly.

SPEAKER_00: 2:01

And it's I I'm gonna backpedal a little bit your chess game analogy because he's not just a chess master moving pieces around. He is winning for sure. But one thing we also see is that we have some somehow, in some way, he has set up the world in such a way that our prayers affect our world. Yeah. Our prayers can affect his decisions, our prayers and our loyalty to him, our disloyalty to him affects situations. And so so before you hear it's a chess game and God's winning, pull back from that and recognize that your involvement in the spiritual realm changes things in the spiritual realm and in the physical.

SPEAKER_01: 2:42

And we see a glimpse of that here. Yeah, if for some people, the idea of a big man in the sky who's moving people around like pawns, which is not accurate, but to some people, honestly, they're okay with that. They're like, honestly, I don't know. I don't just I'm just gonna live my life. Some people are offended by that idea because I want to have free will. Don't take away my free will. Well, he's not taking away your free will. As a matter of fact, he seems to be very interested in letting his creation have effect in his world. We see that on a multiple levels here. So uh we're gonna talk nationally. Now, of course, Kelsey and I are in the United States, and so we're gonna be talking as far as what we know, which is our nation of America. And even that, we it's not like we know politics are not our thing. We're not even getting super political in this podcast uh episode, but uh, we're gonna be speaking from the American perspective because that's just what we know. Um, but I also understand that we have a number of listeners on this podcast, you may be one of them, who uh is listening internationally with uh with another from another country. And I I was just taking a look and I I found we have faithful regular listeners in Canada, in South Korea, in Australia, in the UK, in Ukraine, and and many others. But um thank you for joining us here. And uh I would love to I would love to hear how you found out about this podcast. What are you doing? Like what's what's your kingdom work look like and and um and how how is this landing for you? I would love to hear from you. If you would you reach out, send us a note through outloudbible.com, contact us there.

SPEAKER_00: 4:10

But as we're talking about national level things, we we recognize that the United States was built and founded on Christian principles. Perhaps you're listening from a country for whom that that is not the case. These what we'll talk about today still applies. Uh still praying for your leaders and praying for God's favor in your country still applies regardless of what nation you are listening from. So so I want to encourage, regardless, wherever you're listening from, whatever nation you find yourself living in, God has placed you there, and he didn't make a mistake when he placed you there. And he has a plan for you being his hands and feet on the ground where you are right now.

SPEAKER_01: 4:53

Yeah. So let's kind of pull, it's like almost like a buffet. We'll draw from here and there throughout this uh section of 2 Chronicles, where we see King Asa, and King Asa really did enjoy a a lengthy time of peace. And that is credited in 2 Chronicles 14 to the fact that he personally was seeking the Lord, and he led his people, the nation of of I say the nation of Israel, at this point it's the like the tribe of Judah, but that's the nation he has, the tribe of Judah to also seek the Lord, to honor the Lord, to obey him, to to follow the laws and regulations that God had set up. And that really did result in peace on the national scale.

SPEAKER_00: 5:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 5:31

And it's important also to make the distinction between your personal life and your national life, I guess, your national context too, because like peace isn't always guaranteed in our like, oh, I feel peaceful sense uh in our own life. We could be doing everything exactly right, and we can still sweat bullets of blood like Jesus did in Gethsemane. Um, but there is this overarching promise that deal that God has with his people that, hey, look, if you're faithful to to obey what I say and you honor me and you're loyal to me, then your life will be defined by peace. You are at peace with God, therefore that peace has positive effects.

SPEAKER_00: 6:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 6:14

And on the national scale, that seems to be very much true. Um and you see it in in the history of Israel from biblical times to today, their uh conflict with uh with other nations really does seem to be tied to their level of conflict with with God and and Jesus, who is God, right? Um but when we seek the Lord and when we're faithful to him, it's one of those conditional things that like there are unconditional promises of God. You he no one can break them because he's not gonna break them. But there are conditional promises very much tied to how loyal are you to God. And I know in in America we were founded on Christian principles, which I think lent to uh a legacy of a lot of prosperity and peace. And America has enjoyed that for a couple centuries. Nowadays we're seeing that fall apart in a number of different ways. And I don't think it has to do with attacks by enemies or cyber attacks, or I I think ideologically there are attacks as well, but I think ultimately those may be consequences and those may be ways in, but I think it's because our nation has is no longer considered a Christian nation.

SPEAKER_00: 7:37

No.

SPEAKER_01: 7:37

You can't I I you can't honestly say that anymore. It's a nation that has abandoned the the way that America was founded and the God on whom that those those founders really did try to establish the nation.

SPEAKER_00: 7:49

Yeah. Second Chronicles 15, 2, you read it. It said, the Lord is with you when you are with him, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

SPEAKER_01: 7:59

And this is so dicey.

SPEAKER_00: 8:01

Is it though? Like like I understand what you're saying, like on a personal level. We even recently preached this. We we taught this at our church and it is And like people got pretty upset.

SPEAKER_01: 8:10

Yeah, there there was it it it does not make a good sound clip to just say God's not with you.

SPEAKER_00: 8:17

Um God being with you is conditional, I think was the the sound clip that someone pulled out and saying it doesn't translate.

SPEAKER_01: 8:24

It took a little bit of of working to try to figure out how how we can communicate this fully. It doesn't condense down into an easy to digest bit. But this verse is clear. Yeah. It uh and and it does reflect the heart of God. We'll read it again. Second Chronicles 15, 2. God is with you when you are with him, when you're loyal to him. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

SPEAKER_00: 8:50

Now I think the the translation you were reading even said if you reject him, he will reach to you.

SPEAKER_01: 8:54

Yeah, and that flies in the face of like, well, Jesus said that uh I will never leave you or forsake you. Correct. He was saying that to his disciples who are going off to do his work, to follow him. That's great. And the heart of God is I I feel like I'm trying to parse this out again. Maybe it's important. Um, but it's also, yes, God is always with you in the sense that he is a prayer away. If you guess multiple times, even even in these books of chronicles, he said, like, if my people who are known by name, my name repent from their evil ways and call out to me, I will forgive them and heal their land. He's that close. He's that with you if you need him. However, he is not with you when you go do your disloyal running from God, I want to live my life my own way, things. He is not obligated to be with you in those things. I'm talking personally, and I am still also talking on a national scale. If a nation is like, we call the shots, we are a world power, or we want to run our lives our own way, or a dictator is like, this is my nation, I'm running it the way I want, that nation does not have God with them. And we're seeing that in our country, in the United States, and there are countries who have seemed to be oppressed for generations. And you can point to a number of different reasons, and there are socioeconomic experts out there who could who could have their entire podcast about this. I am not one of them. But what I see just from a person who reads the Bible and tries to figure out the world based on what I read, I look at the nations, and to varying degrees, the nations who have a strong Christian presence and a desire to seek the Lord tend to do well or have a history of that, tend to be nations that are more at peace, maybe even have some prosperity. And those who have rejected him, and really there's not much of a of a godly heritage there, have been oppressed for a long time.

SPEAKER_00: 10:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 10:59

I may be overgeneralizing it, so forgive my lack of socioeconomic knowledge here.

SPEAKER_00: 11:02

But I mean, this happens on a personal level, on a family level, on a community level, on a national level, on a global level. I I was um given an opportunity to go on a mission trip to uh Dominican Republic, and the group I was going with was specifically ministering to Haitian refugee communities who had left Haiti and come to the Dominican trying to find a better life than the oppression of Haiti.

SPEAKER_01: 11:28

It's one big island, half Dominican Republic, half Haiti.

SPEAKER_00: 11:31

And and so the group I was with was specifically ministering to the Haitian migrant communities. And um, the the year before I had gone, this this team goes every year, and and this team had had warned me, like, okay, we're gonna go to this one community, but you've gotta be aware they're really steeped in voodoo, and so it's really dark, and people are really depressed. Like the drug abuse is massive, the suicide rate is through the roof, like people are heavy here. So just be aware that that's what we're walking into. So we take the bus and we go to this one community. We're there to hand out food and resources and and and tell them about Jesus. We go to this community, and the team who had been there the previous year was shocked into silence. And finally, they were like, this is not the same community that we were here last year. Last year it was everything that I just described. This year, people are praising God and like the whole air is lighter. And I wasn't there both years, so I can't personally testify to the difference. But I can say that when I walked into this community, I didn't feel like I was in danger. I didn't feel like the warnings were warranted that were given to me.

unknown: 12:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:36

I saw we were playing praise and worship music, and the people there were worshiping God and they were praying and they were thanking us for coming. And there, the whole community shifted because hearts turned back to God and turned away from voodoo, which is satanic. Yeah. And so I it was just, it was a very clear, like side-by-side picture for those who'd seen it both years that that turning back to God, hearts turning to God shifts entire communities. It shifts families, it shifts individuals, it shifts communities. It can shift the entire nation. And the opposite is true as well. Rejecting God as a nation, as a community will lose his presence will leave, and his protection will leave, and his blessing will leave, and it leaves you darker, more depressed, more susceptible to the work of the enemy, more angry, more violent, more um dissonance, more division when hearts turn from God. And so I was listening to you. Um normally I have to go back and listen to prepare for these conversations. I go back and listen to the recorded uh podcast. Today, I was just listening to you record these conversations or these passages. And so I was able to listen in real time as you were reading, and I was just in the room, and my mind was just flooded with this plea. If you're listening to this podcast, my plea is that you pray for your leaders. Pray for them, pray for your nation to turn to God, whether you're here in the US with us or you're somewhere else abroad, pray for your nation, pray for your leaders. And and one thing that that really just gripped me, Mike, while you were reading is that crazy story in 2 Chronicles 18 that Micaiah is coming to we love how sarcastic this dude is. Like he's he's great. But the crazy story he tells um the the kings to that he saw this council in heaven where God's trying to figure out how to get rid of King Ahab, right?

SPEAKER_01: 14:43

Yeah. Um not that God needs help figuring anything out. Right, but for some reason he's he's opening this up to discussion.

SPEAKER_00: 14:50

And and for some reason he opens it up to discussion, and for some reason he allows a spirit to say, Hey, I know how to do it. I'll put a lying spirit in the mouths of his prophets. And then those prophets were saying, Yes, Ahab, you will get success if you go into battle. God, all the while, all the while knowing this battle will be the one where he dies. I just need to get him there. I need to get him to willingly walk in. And so he allows these the prophets to be filled with a lying spirit to pour forth lies because it's what Ahab wants to hear. And I was just listening to you read that and overcome with this desire to pray for our leaders, our pray for our national leaders to turn their ear to godly voices and to turn away from voices that are filled with lying spirits because we know that they're out there. Right? This is a crazy, crazy look into the spiritual realm of something is happening that where where God is permitting influence from spirits. And can we just pray that our leaders surround themselves with advisors and counsel that is listening to God and not listening to and repeating the words of a lying spirit? I think that scripture shows us that we can pray into that and plead with God and and ask for our leaders to follow him.

SPEAKER_01: 16:15

Because clearly, God, like we've said, uh has some desire to involve his creation in the governing and uh in the the impact of the world. And he opens it up to discussion with with spirits, apparently even evil spirits. Now, hey, if you think that's too weird to swallow, take it up with God. I don't know. I can't I can't explain why, and I don't, I'm just seeing what the Bible says. Um, and also he the I think we underestimate the power of prayer, our own individual impact. We see in the book of Daniel, do you remember we were in that in when we're going through Daniel on the podcast? There's a time where Daniel was praying, and an angel eventually came to him two weeks later and said, Hey, as soon as you started praying, I was told to come to you. But I was stopped by uh one of Satan's guys, and we had a whole tussle, and I'm finally here to give you the answer to your prayer. And that shows you, wow, the impact of one person praying is is way beyond what we would imagine. Apparently, some apparently, if we just start praying, God is willing to, hey, all right, let's make it happen. Let's do it. And it's it's wild. Of course, Satan would want us to downplay and underestimate the importance of prayer because who knows what God is willing to do when we start praying for it.

SPEAKER_00: 17:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 17:36

And so, yes, we need to pray for, let's pray for our leaders and our advisors. We may not have a seat at this heavenly council that God seems to have for some occasions. We may not be in the room where the leaders and the advisors are. We may not get to advise our leader in the way that they do, and hopefully represent God in the room, but we get to pray, and that enacts something. Who knows? The the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. How powerful and effective? I don't know. Why don't you try praying?

SPEAKER_00: 18:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 18:08

And also from this section in 2 Chronicles, another thing to add to our prayer list here is our judicial system. It was interesting at the end of 2 Chronicles 19. Jehoshaphat, after having learned his lesson, he kind of got in trouble by allying himself with Ahab. Afterward, you see he kind of softened a little bit and humbled himself a bit. He established some ju some judges across the region and pleaded with them. Like, you need to follow the Lord. You need to be faithful to the Lord. Like the Lord does not look kindly upon people who accept bribes, who perpetuate injustice. You need to judge fairly and you need to judge according to the law of the Lord and seek him. And we, again, I don't know a judge. I maybe know a couple of lawyers. I don't know a judge. I can't go talk to them, but I can talk to the one who establishes all earthly authority, and I can pray that our judicial system acts rightly. And that if there is anyone, and I say if, come on, there's corrupt judges all over the place in our country, and pray that those their sin and injustice is exposed and they're replaced with someone who will do what's right. I don't have the power to remove anybody, but I do have a in an invitation and a direct line to talk to the one who establishes authority on earth.

SPEAKER_00: 19:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 19:32

I I would be foolish not to take it.

SPEAKER_00: 19:36

So I kind of want to I I want to close this conversation with 2 Chronicles 16, 9, because I think that this is a verse that we can take as a personal encouragement and also pray it over our leaders in our countries. Um, it says, the eyes of the Lord search the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. So that is that is an encouragement to you, to me, to you, Mike. Like, let our hearts, when God searches the earth and his eye lands on me, let my heart be fully committed to him. Like that is my prayer for myself. I think that that is a personal encouragement to us. But also, can we pray that for our leaders? Can we pray that as the Lord's eyes scan the earth, that he He strengthens and encourages those believers who are in positions to make effect and change in our governments and in our nations. Can we pray for God to strengthen them and to encourage them and to have their hearts fully committed to him and to not wane and to not give in under cultural pressure? I want to pray for those, those people who are in our government systems who are following the Lord, and then also pray for God to lift up more godly leaders.

SPEAKER_01: 20:53

Great. So we're not going to send you off to just, all right, that's your homework. Go pray, which, hey, please do. Let's do that together. Would you join us? Let's pray. If your nation is not the same as our nation, pray for your nation. And also please pray for our nation because we need it too. But let's let's pray together on this global national scale. Father, thank you for your promises. Thank you for revealing your heart that if we seek you, that you that you seek us, that you're you're looking for hearts that are fully committed. I pray that your eyes would land on us and my friends listening on the podcast today, that you would hear our prayers. Father, please return the heart of our people back to you. And I know in our country, it was founded really well. It started so well. And just enough compromises have been made, and enough uh just choices have been made that we've strayed from that. Not that the system of government is is the thing that we need to uphold. It's it's the relationship with you, it's the the prioritization of you and your way of life that we've abandoned. Please forgive us for that. And please turn your heart with kindness and mercy toward our country. I pray for our leaders uh who hold a lot of power with a word and the advisors who are around them. I'm thankful for the advisors. Uh I pray, God, that your truth would come out of their mouths. Whether they follow you or not, would you please get your truth and your wisdom into the room? If there are any advisors who are working their own wills and agendas that are not of you, then God, would you please replace them with people who will speak on behalf of you? And may our leaders uh be protected from the evil one who's seeking to cause chaos. Would you please uh enact your power to shine light in the dark places where our leaders stand and and the effect that they have? And God, I also pray for our judges who are making decisions that often set precedent for the future. Would you please provide them with wisdom, give them uh the ability to s to discern truth from lies, starting with the lies that are in their own heart? God, would you please bring them to truth, help them to execute and judge truth? And for any corrupt judge, God, would you please expose them, remove them, and re-establish someone who will judge rightly according to your will and your way. And God, thank you for allowing us to play a part in this grand scheme that you are already winning. Thank you for allowing us to be on your team, and we're excited to join the ultimate heavenly kingdom where Jesus is established forevermore, and all knees bow. We look forward to that day, and we pray for your kingdom come on this world in the meantime. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 23:57

Amen.