Fail to prepare and be prepared to fail

I was reading through Numbers 15 recently, as you do, and the first 12 verses deal with the correct preparations for the supplementary offerings, in excruciating detail. The amount of finest flour, and olive oil, and wine to accompany the main offering varies according to the animal being sacrificed. Please feel free to go ahead and read it for yourself!

I am not convinced that the specific amounts really matter to God, but rather it is that careful preparation which matters. As an activist such thoughts do not please me!

Charles Upham is a New Zealand hero, being the only person to be awarded two Victoria Crosses during the second world war. Having already served five years in the NZ territorial army, he enlisted in 1939, at the age of 30, and was awarded his first VC in May 1941, and his second in July 1942. He was captured that month, and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner, including time in the notorious Colditz castle.After years of preparation, his active service lasted only two and a half years, before he was captured, yet in that short period of time he was awarded two Victoria Crosses! Maybe all that training and preparation was frustrating, but how valuable it proved to be.

When Joshua and the Israelite army were faced with the walled, fortified city of Jericho, God had an unusual plan. The whole army was to walk around the city walls every day for six days, then on the seventh day they were to do so seven times! Sure enough, at the end of circuit seven, accompanied by the soldiers' shouting, the walls collapsed, and victory was achieved. What was that all about? Perhaps it was again about preparation. As the soldiers marched, their fear and doubts decreased, and confidence grew, while those looking out from the inside became more and more fearful. All that walking changed something in those inside and those outside the walls!

In Isaiah 40:3 we read of "a voice of one calling: 'In the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord..." What does that mean for us? Well I think it has to be prayer, prayer and more prayer. As we pray, and as we prayer walk, we are changed, and the spiritual atmosphere is changed, and people's hearts are opened. There is quite simply no other way.

It often feels that our nation is under a kind of fog, which prevents people from seeing God, and truth, and spiritual reality - and only as we pray can that fog be removed. Prayer is the preparation God requires of us. As we pour out our hearts, and listen for God's guidance and instructions, everything changes. We position ourselves to be ready and available for God to work in us and through us. So the transformation of the nation begins.