Guard your heart

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Proverbs 4:23

My Lord, My King, You have graciously laid the foundations of this city. You have instructed me in how to construct walls to defend against the Enemy. You have given me a law by which to guide the daily actions, and the future of this city. But the enemy is clever and persistent, and he has encroached upon this city where I have allowed the guards to become lax. Oh Lord, open my eyes to see the gateways into this city of my life. Lord help me to keep those gates shut, and teach me how to stand watch along the walls of my heart that I may not fall victim to the enemy. Help my heart stand watch for where the enemy has set up shop, where he has even placed himself on the high council of my heart. Let your angels banish him and his darkness from every corner and crack of my life. Send your angels through every alley of my mind with the name of Jesus on their lips. Oh that the darkness would flee from within me, Oh Lord teach me to stand as a sentry at every gate that enters into me. The enemy is afoot. He is strong, he is clever, he has sacked many lives. Even men stronger much stronger than myself have fallen victim to his wicked schemes. Oh lord, no gate is too small to keep an ever watchful eye upon. Quick let us double the guards. The enemy will surely strike soon, now that he has been driven from within. Satan is a cheapskate. He swaps the fine linen you have clothed me with for filthy rags and rotten wool. The stench is unbearable. He swaps my water source for used oil and pond scum, he sells me these things in the market of my heart, and I pay a high price for these foreign commodities. Oh lord, I have been a fool. Let not these things continue to foul up my life. Let your banner of Love once more fly high above my city. I desire once again to see your foot prints in the streets of my life. To hear your voice in the market place, and in the galley. To hear your laughter in the fields, and to hear your counsel and truth in the high court of my life. Teach my army how to stand guard, how to keep watch, how to sound the alarm. Teach them how to shoot their arrows at the enemy far off. Teach them how to hold him off with long spears. Lord teach my army how to wield the sword that they may hold the lines and not allow the enemy to advance into this city. Lord teach them the dagger for when the enemy attempts to surprise us at the gates as a poor and weak beggar that seems to pose no threat. Lord, sharpen their eyes and senses, that they will be able to pierce through deception. Oh Lord, teach them hand to hand combat so they will fight tooth and nail to protect that which you have so graciously delivered. Oh lord, I stand in faith and claim this city as something worthy of saving, worthy of protecting, and worthy of enlarging. Not because of what it is, but because of the blood that was shed atop this city. It is Your blood, Jesus that flows in these streets. A great price was paid for this city, Oh my God, let it not go to waste. Redeem this life from the pit. Oh lord, I render this throne to the true King. I am no king, the world around me calls me king, and I have done nothing to correct them. Lord, show me my place in this life. If it is crawling on the ground in rags, then Lord help me to do that with faithfulness. If it is at your right hand, then teach me what I need to know, for folly is bound up deeply within me and longs horribly to be poured out in all that I do. So lord, reveal to me your truth, your wisdom, your Love! Lord teach me how to honor YOU. Strengthen me, teach me, love me. I am in need of your grace! This message is in earnest. Come quickly to deliver your servant.

Forgotten flood gates, buried deep beneath this city have long been thought to have run dry. Much of this city has even forgotten of their very existence. Their only mention are in musings and stories of lore and myth. Oh my God, release the flow of that precious water once again. The lands of this city have run dry. There are cracks and dry stones that have become ever present landmarks in the river beds of my soul. Let the waters rise up, let them retake the land that they once ruled over. Let the tides once again ebb and flow with the beat of your living heart. Let the current keep flowing, pushing the soot into the far reaches of this land. Oh lord, bring your fertile touch to the vegetation of this land. Teach the farmers to once again learn the tools of their trade. Reclaim this barren land. Let you touch bring fruit to the branches of these trees. Lord, enter into your temple. Break the hinges that have been rusted shut. Let a fresh breeze once again flow into the inner chambers of its rooms. Go into the scroll rooms, and break the seals on a fresh revelation. Speak it into my life, may your words echo through the streets. May the understanding of the revelation be applied to the men of every trade within this city. Thank you for your truth, for your life, for you ways. Thank you for the blood cleans and protects this city. Thank you for you Love and your Grace.