Habakkuk's Final Prayer - Habakkuk: Pilgrimage to Higher Ground

Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.

I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.

Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to the Born for War podcast.

Well, today we're coming to the last chapter of the book of Habakkuk.

And what perfect timing from God that we would be in the last chapter of the book of Habakkuk because we're going into the last week before the election.

And so if any of you, here's our goal.

My goal at the road is that you would not be surprised by an October surprise.

Okay?

That you would live above that, you'd be victorious, you'd be triumphant, and you couldn't have a better chapter in all of the Bible than Habakkuk chapter three.

And so we've been on this journey, and it's been a pilgrimage.

That's the title Pilgrimage to Higher Ground.

So up to this point, the four messages before this have kind of been in the valleys with Habakkuk, in the valleys of his struggle.

But now in chapter three, it's this eruption.

It's like this revival eruption in Habakkuk of praise and worship to the Lord.

But let's quickly go back over where we've been.

So Habakkuk chapter one, if you recall, is unique in the Old Testament and with Old Testament prophets, because instead of him getting a word from God to start what he wrote, he's actually complaining to God before he wrote.

And so instead of Habakkuk having a word from the Lord, he's actually mad at God.

And if any of you have ever been mad at God, raise your hand if you've ever been mad at God.

Anybody?

And the rest of you are liars.

Because we've all struggled with, you know, God's ways are not our ways, right?

And so if you have had those times in your life where you felt angry or you felt bitter toward the Lord because of something that happened in your family, in your life, in your finances, in your job, you're on good ground with a lot of great saints.

And next week is gonna be Reformation Sunday.

I'm gonna make it Reformation Sunday.

It is Reformation Sunday, but I've never actually taught on Reformation Sunday except the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, which was in 2017.

But I'm gonna be talking about Martin Luther.

And if there was anybody that was angry with God, it was Martin Luther.

So hang on, come with me next week, that'll be powerful.

But back it's in that line of struggle with God.

And if you recall, he he cries out to God in verses 2, 3, and 4 of chapter 1, and then the Lord replies, and what God says to him is, I'm gonna judge Babylon.

So I know you're complaining about what I'm gonna do with Babylon as it relates to Judah, but I'm actually gonna judge this evil empire.

There is a judgment coming.

And men and women, when he says that, uh then Habakkuk is more upset.

Because how can you, who are good, who are loving, or kind of, how can you allow even greater evil than the evil in Judah to judge Judah?

And so in that scenario, in chapter two, remember, Habakkuk takes a stand.

So Habakkuk's kind of used up all his ammunition with God, he's used up all his bullets, and now he takes his stand.

He goes, it appears, to a rampart or a high place.

And we talked about the fact that every time you take a stand, you go to your high place with the Lord, it might be a bathroom, it might be your study, it might be in the woods.

I mean, I don't know, everybody's different, but you take that stand with God and you and you come before him, you cry out, and then you listen, then you have advantage.

Listen, guys, you have advantage over the enemy.

That's actually a physical military truthism.

That as a military strategy, you want the higher ground.

And you get the higher ground, which is spending time alone with the Lord and being with him, you have the advantage of seeing what the enemy's up to because you get the advantage through the sovereign word of God to you.

It's called Rhema.

God gives you a rhema, he gives you a revelation about your situation.

But you can't get that revelation if you're not on the higher ground listening to him.

So that's what chapter 2, verse 1 is about is that Habakkuk takes his stand.

He says he's gonna watch and he's gonna listen.

And then God gives him a vision, and he speaks this vision to him that he has not forgotten Israel, that he's moving, he's gonna move even in these latter days.

And then we come to one of the great passages of scripture, verse 4 to 4.

Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith.

And this is the this is the verse quoted in Romans 1.17 that set Luther on fire.

And then more about that next week.

But what he's saying here is that the just shall live by faith, meaning that righteousness is often beyond what we see and what we feel.

We have to walk by trusting God, by walking by faith.

We we don't understand everything.

We don't understand what God's doing a lot of times, but God is moving, and then he says in verse 14 the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Look, I am working out something.

You're you you, Habakkuk, you're you're so myopic.

How many have heard before that this election is the most important election ever in the history of America?

Okay.

Look, I'm old enough to have heard that so many times, okay?

So America is bigger, made up of people like you, than who the president is.

Vote.

You better vote.

If you don't vote, don't tell me.

I'll be really mad at you.

But everybody should vote.

Okay?

Vote life.

Vote life.

Yes, someone said vote early.

There's a difference of opinion on that, but I tend to agree with that vote early.

But here's the point this election is not gonna change the fact that the knowledge of the glory of God is going to cover this land as the waters cover the sea.

That doesn't change.

So don't be fearful.

Guys, don't be fearful.

I want you to learn from Habakkuk here.

Habakkuk is leading us into this prayer, this incredible prayer in chapter three.

So look at chapter three.

That's where we are today.

Oh, I almost forgot.

There is another prophetic word that I need to give about chapter two, and this is from Johnny Cash.

My favorite song by Johnny Cash is God's Gonna Cut You Down.

Now that doesn't sound very loving, does it?

But the reason I like it is because it shows a different side of God that God's going to deal with evil.

You can run on for a long time, run on for a long time, run on for a long time, sooner or later, God'll cut you down.

Sooner or later, God will cut you down.

Go tell that long-tongue liar.

Go tell that midnight writer.

Tell the rambler, the gambler, the backbiter.

Tell him that God's gonna cut them down.

Tell him that God's gonna cut them down.

That's what chapter two is about.

But now, in chapter three, we see this prayer of thanksgiving, this prayer of praise.

I mean, let me tell you, Habakkuk is now on the higher ground.

Look at verse one: a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, on Shigeonoth.

On Shiganoth.

That's a word for praise.

That's one of many words on praise.

And he's speaking of triumphant praise.

Here's what the New Testament study of the words of the Old Testament have to say.

It's a musical term, the Hebrew word shiganath, means a song to be sung with strong emotion, impassioned triumph, and a sense of victory.

Let me tell you, at the women's conference on Friday night, that worship team did sugar.

I mean, they kicked it into gear.

It was crazy good.

And Desiree did this tremendous teaching on praise.

It was fantastic.

I think it was the eight words, the eight meanings of praise, and it was called the Highway of Praise.

It was so, so good.

Liz and I spoke on being unshakable.

Amy Stevens spoke on how to pray in the midst of a shakable time.

It was just so good.

And then Saturday was so practical about all the ways to prepare.

You are a prepared church.

If you're not prepared, that's on you, man.

We've done our part to try to help you.

It was so good.

It was really good.

And so here we come to chapter three, and we see three to five stanzas, however you want to look at it.

But you see, look, look on the right hand side of your Bibles, you're gonna see three times the word Selah.

Selah.

Selah means get quiet.

It means think deeply about this.

This is this is a poem.

This is a worship song.

This is a prayer.

It's all that.

And so now we're gonna look at how this man Habakkuk, this prophet Habakkuk, how he addresses God from the high place in the new vantage point of military, spiritual military advantage over the enemy.

How many of you know that God, when he comes, when he comes, destroys the works of the enemy.

Do you know that Jesus came and he said, the Son of Man, James says, this, I mean, uh John said, the Son of Man came to destroy the works of the devil.

Every time you take an advantage or you take an advantage point of the higher ground, and you begin to speak in the authority and power you have as a priest and a king of the Most High God, you scatter the enemy.

You scatter the enemy.

That's what's happening here in chapter three.

And this week, what I mean, what we don't know what's gonna happen.

It always always happens on Monday.

So the October surprise, ooh, I'm shaking in my boots.

The October surprise is gonna be this Monday or the next Monday.

And go to go to Habakkuk 3 when it happens and just read it and get fired up because this is a worship prayer of triumph and victory.

Here's the first thing he says.

Verse 2 Oh Lord, I have heard of your speech, and and I was afraid.

Now he's not afraid anymore of his circumstances, he's afraid of God.

God is holy, God is on is on his throne, and he's out of bullets.

He doesn't know anything more than that, but here's what he does know.

Oh Lord, revive your work.

Circle revive.

Revive your work in the midst of the years.

In the midst of the years, make it known in wrath.

Remember mercy.

Pray that for America.

Many women, pray for revival in our day, that God would come with revival power even in our day, that he would revive his work in our day, that he would come and he would use all these circumstances that create fear, that he would build faith in each one of you who are part of the road church, and you would not walk in fear.

You would walk in faith and you would have an attitude of bring it on.

Why not?

Bring it on.

So here is what I think is happening as Habakkuk is praying, because he would have known about Isaiah from a hundred years before.

I think maybe what's going on in Habakkuk's mind is Isaiah, what we now know as chapter 64.

Here's what Isaiah 64 says.

Oh, that you would rin the heavens, that you would come down, O Lord, that the mountains might shake at your presence, as fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil.

For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides you who acts for those who wait on him.

You see what's happening here?

That's what Habakkuk has done.

Habakkuk has waited on God.

God has poured strength into him.

When Liz and I spoke on Friday night about being unshakable, we spoke from Psalm 46.

Psalm 46 says, God is my refuge and my strength.

God is my refuge and my strength.

And here's what we said.

Until God's your refuge, he can't become your strength.

Until God becomes your refuge, he can't become your strength.

When God becomes your refuge, he becomes your strength.

You see, it's waiting on God, and that's why in Psalm 46, at the very end, be still and know that I'm God.

Be still.

Church.

Be still and know that He is God.

I happen to believe that there's a renaissance coming to America.

That there's a move of God upon our land led by the most interesting people.

People who will not quit when things get hard.

And God wants to do a new renaissance work in our country.

Our best years are ahead of us.

I really believe that.

I believe you got to go through some dark times sometimes.

Sometimes you have to go through things that you trusted in to find out you don't want to trust in them.

And God's gonna come and God's gonna cut them down.

Simultaneously, God's gonna raise up righteous men and women.

So that's my conviction.

If you have a different one, then that's great.

I'm no prophet.

I'm just telling you, my sense from Scripture is that what Abacak is saying here is true.

And that we should pray for a Pentecost.

He's praying for a Pentecost before there was a Pentecost.

He's saying, in wrath, O God.

In other words, in your judgment, remember grace.

Remember grace.

Now, verses three through seven, he now begins to recount what God has done in the past.

How God wants to come down in glory.

God wants to come down in power, like he did before when he brought Israel out of Egypt.

Verse 3: God came from Taman, the holy one from Mount Peran.

His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

His brightness was like the light.

He had rays flashing from his hand.

And there is power, there his power was hidden.

Before him went pestilence and fever followed at his feet.

I believe he's referring to what happened to the Egyptians.

He stood and he measured the earth.

He looked and startled the nations.

And the everlasting mountains were scattered.

The perpetual hills bowed.

His ways are everlasting.

I saw the tents of Cushun in affliction, and the curtains of the land of Midian trembled.

Here we see in these verses Habakkuk recalling the Lord's wonderful acts in Israel's past.

He's asking the Lord to renew his wondrous deeds again among his covenant people so that the earth might acknowledge his power.

All the nations heard.

Church, everybody heard about what happened with this little insignificant, enslaved nation, that God showed up in the most powerful nation in the world, the Egyptians, and judged them, releasing Israel out.

They come to the Red Sea and they open up and they cross over, and the Egyptians, see the timing was perfect.

God's timing is always perfect.

That right when they got over, the Egyptians are now down in that valley, going through the ocean, and the waters come back over them.

He's saying, look, God, I pray, would you do that again?

Would you do something for Israel in your time like you've done in the past?

And then he recounts Mount Peran.

Mount Peran.

So the first thing he says, God comes from Taman, that's the south.

So he's talking about south, the southern tip there of the promised land.

God came there in the wilderness.

And after Mount Sinai, Israel moved to Mount Peran, and God came down in power.

He's recounting that.

And he's talking about the splendor of the majesty of the praise of God over that.

His glory.

Look at verse 3.

The Holy One came from Mount Peran.

His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

His brightness was like the light.

Look at verse 6.

The everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills bowed, his ways are everlasting.

I think he's recounting Deuteronomy.

In Deuteronomy 33, 2, write that down.

Deuteronomy 33.2, Moses writes, The Lord came from Sinai and dawned on them from Sear.

He shone forth from Mount Peran, and he came with 10,000 of his saints.

From his right hand came a fiery law for them.

I don't know what Moses saw, but it almost seems as though what he's seeing might have been the Watchers.

Remember, we talked about the Watchers.

If you weren't here when I went through the series on spiritual warfare and all of that, I'm not gonna go into it here, but these heavenly beings, it's almost like Moses saw these heavenly beings all coming forth in splendor after Mount Sinai went there on Mount Peran.

And that's what that's what Habakkuk's bringing up.

He's saying, God, would you come with that kind of praise?

So if you ever wonder what heaven's like, read Revelation chapter 4.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

Because in Revelation chapter 4, we see what God loves.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

You see what God really loves in Revelation chapter 4, heaven.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

What he loves is praise and worship.

So I've wondered, I've wondered if from that Deuteronomy passage, if after Mount Sinai, after the Ten Commandments were given, and they go to Mount Peran, if they weren't looking up and they saw a little glimpse of heaven.

And that and that the saints there, he calls them the ten thousands of saints, those might have been the watchers, the celestial beings, the seraphim, the cherubim, of there worshiping the Lord.

And so, church, every time we come together on Sunday and we worship the Lord, we're simply lining ourselves up with God's living room.

In other words, God comes down when the people are Worship him because he loves praise and worship.

He loves it even if you don't feel it.

And a lot of times we don't feel it, but by faith you sing the song.

By faith you raise your hands.

The just shall live by faith, right?

So by faith we choose joy.

We choose joy even when we don't feel like it.

God gets involved in that kind of people.

He likes this kind of people.

He likes people that are all messed up, got all kinds of problems, but they choose joy.

Got all kinds of issues in their marriage, got all kinds of issues over here, all that kind of stuff.

Got a nation that's got a few messed up people that are in leadership and all that.

And yet, when we choose joy, he comes down.

That's what a back is saying.

Church, will you choose that?

Steve, will you choose that?

A lot of times I don't.

Ask my wife.

She's always saying to me, you need to go spend some time with the Lord.

Quit complaining so much.

But God has come.

He is a revivalistic God.

All through history.

God comes in revival.

God comes and he moves again.

The first Great Awakening.

The Second Great Awakening.

Azusa Street.

The Great Crusades, the Healing Crusades in the 40s and 50s, the Jesus movement, Jesus Revolution in 69 and the 70s.

God's moving.

He will move again, folks.

Don't let the naysayers, don't let the fundraisers, don't let all those negative critics get under your skin.

Just read them real briefly and then go, no, I know that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord is gonna fill this land as the waters cover the sea.

You gotta choose it, man.

And then we see in verse 8 a switch in this great praise song, this prayer.

He says, Go to war, God.

Time to go to war.

Fight 'em.

I need you to fight, Lord.

Oh Lord, were you displeased with the rivers?

Was your anger against the rivers?

Was your wrath against the sea?

That you rode on your horses, your chariots of salvation.

Your bow was made quite ready.

Oaths were sworn over your arrows.

You divided the earth with the rivers.

Kind of the idea here is almost like that here's the arrows of God's warfare, and he's anointing the arrow to hit the target of the enemy.

The mountains saw you and they trembled, verse 10.

The overflowing of the water passed by.

The sun and moon stood still in their habitation.

At the light of your arrows they went, at the shining of your glittering spear.

You marched through the land in indignation.

You trampled the nations in anger.

You went forth for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your anointed.

You struck the head from the house of the wicked by laying bare from foundation to neck.

You thrust through with his own arrows the head of his villages.

They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me.

Their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret.

You walked through the sea with your horses through the heap of the great waters.

He's conjuring up the Red Sea crossing here, I believe.

When I heard my body, trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered my bones, and I trembled in myself that I might rest in the day of trouble.

When he comes up to the people, he will invade them with his troops.

I mean, he's saying, God, just as in history, come again with your armies.

Come as a warrior.

And we don't like to talk about a warrior God.

People don't like that.

They like the beach, the bathed, the tanned.

Surfer, Southern California, Jesus.

That's what he looks like.

Let's say he's been at Santa Monica on a boogie board.

And he's got his little crook and all the sheep are there, and he's Jesus a shepherd.

And he is.

He is a shepherd.

Don't get me wrong.

I love that image of Jesus.

But men and women, he's coming back, and he's gonna have a shield, and he's gonna have a sword, and he's gonna judge evil.

He is also warrior God.

That was not Shepherd Jesus that came to Pharaoh through Moses.

I imagine if we hung out with Moses, we wouldn't invite him to every party that our community groups have.

I imagine Moses is a pretty gnarly dude.

This is no sissy in front of Pharaoh.

God uses mighty men of God, mighty women of God, who have blood splattered on their gown.

This is a blood splattered God.

In Exodus 15, 3, God delivered Israel out of the Red Sea, and Moses, singing to the Lord, said, The Lord is a man of war.

The Lord is his name.

This is a bloody Jesus.

This is a warrior Jesus.

Isaiah writes, The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man.

He shall stir up his zeal like a man of war.

He shall prevail against his enemies.

Moses writes in Deuteronomy 24, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you victory.

Men and women, when we when we take our authority as kings and priests, and we take the word and we ask God to speak to us.

He gives you a word and you stand on that word, and you say that word back to God, said, You said, I'm gonna trust you, I'm gonna believe you.

Your enemies get scattered.

You scatter the enemy.

And some of you in this room have got to get bolder.

Some of you in this room have got to say no to evil and yes to righteousness with a more vehement conviction coming from your heart, knowing that God will give you everything that you need.

You have the power of the Holy Spirit.

You have the power of the Holy Spirit.

You have the power of the Holy Spirit.

Use it.

Use it.

Let that power become praise.

Let that power become your joy.

Let that power become your victory.

Let that power become your triumph in Christ.

Because that's what he does.

He's good at it.

But even Habakkuk not understanding what's going to happen.

Even us today not understanding what's going to happen, makes a choice for joy.

Makes a choice for rejoicing because you see, Habakkuk knows he doesn't know.

And by the way, when people say that they know, be careful.

They don't know.

They may have a vision or a dream.

That's great.

We've Liz and I've gotten many visions and dreams, and you always hear us say, we sense that.

Or we're we're we're wondering if God's doing this.

And yet Abacuck says, Well, looks like from what I've heard from God, we're going down.

I'm going to choose joy anyway, and I'm not going down in bitterness.

I'm not going down in depression.

I'm going to go up to the higher ground in joy.

So look at verse 17.

Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be upon the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

Shuganoth.

Shuganoth.

Triumph.

Victory.

We win.

We've got what it takes, he's saying.

I will rejoice in the Lord.

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

He's the one who saves me.

The Lord God is my strength.

He will make my feet like deer's feet.

He will make me walk on my high heels.

And then he says to the chief musician with my stringed instruments.

So we believe that Abakuch was maybe of the Levitical priesthood.

He's a worshiper.

This is a worship song.

Go back to it again and again if you need to this week or for the rest of your life.

When I went through a really deep kind of reality check in my junior year of college, where I realized some things that were not happening that I had hoped would happen in my life.

This was the set of verses that I memorized.

17, 18, and 19.

They're still very, very special to me because it gave me strength, even though things weren't happening in the direction that I wanted them to.

And some of you have been through divorces, some of you have been through agony with your kids.

I don't know what you've been through, but everybody goes through that.

Some of you've lost jobs, some of you are looking for a job.

Some of you are financially in a difficult place.

But here about it gives us one of the great, maybe, principles, the relational principles of all time, that though things don't go my way, though things don't exactly line up in all the perfect ways that I had hoped, I'm going to choose joy.

I'm going to choose praise.

Because when I'm on the higher ground, I'm just better.

Folks, when you're on the higher ground of joy, you think better.

When you're on the high place of joy, whether you feel it or not, but you choose joy, you're more astute.

You're more aware.

You're smarter.

How many of you have noticed that when you're depressed, you don't make good decisions?

So don't go there.

Reject depression.

Reject it.

Well, how do you how do you?

That sounds easy for you, Steve, if you don't struggle with depression.

Well, the reason I don't struggle with depression is because I don't go there.

So, but I'm in it.

What do I do?

I think the best thing you can do is keep going every day to the high place.

Keep going to that inner room, spending time with the Lord, opening up God's word, asking God to speak to you, and then get quiet.

Any of you are tired of hearing yourself talk?

Because if you're not, I can guarantee you there's a lot of people that are.

So sometimes you need to quit talking and start listening to God.

Sometimes you need to say what you need to say to God, to his heart, and then we get quiet.

And he says, be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know that I'm God.

Choose joy.

Please, church.

Please, church.

This week, next week, and months ahead.

Choose joy.

Just buckle it up and realize it's gonna be hard.

You're gonna hear stuff in the media, you're gonna experience stuff around you that is lies, lies, lies.

Choose truth, truth, truth.

And truth is found here.

Not in your emotions.

But I promise you this: the more you believe truth, the more your emotions will follow.

Thank you for listening to the Born for War podcast.

We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.

God bless.