1 Samuel 13:12 Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.

The Hebrew word of supplication is challah, which means to make yourself sick or to be tired. Mainly to be sick and tired. Note the last phrase, I forced myself therefore. If you would, ponder on that for a moment.

In the Greek the word translated is deesis, which means need, indigence, with a secondary idea of seeking relief from God or man.

The last thing that many of us want to listen to is a whiner. Negative, negative, negative, it just wears us out. That attitude also keeps us from being honest in being supplicants. Sick and tired are physical conditions, need and indigence are conditional situations, they are based in unrealized expectations.

If I were to try and reconcile the two uses, old and new, I would use “I forced myself” as the example of how to properly be a supplicant. First, I have to get honest about my condition, both physical and emotional. I have to get honest with myself before I can be honest with God.

Do you see yourself as an overcomer, strong, able, enduring, or long suffering? Those attitudes can keep you from going to God for help. Do you see yourself as helpless, weak, dumb, crippled or enslaved? Those attitudes can keep you from going to God because you feel unworthy.

You have to force yourself to come to God earnestly, with honest conditions, honest emotions, and make yourself known. While God knows all, how can you expect to see God answer your requests if God gives you what He knows you need while you are looking for something different?

Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

“watching thereunto”

1 Kings 19:10 And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

Other translations use the word zealous rather than jealous and that is perhaps an easier word to understand. Jealousy in today’s society is often met with a scornful look. Then again so is zeal. If you think zealot your first instinct is to think terrorist and given that is what you hear most, who can blame you. Zeal is after all a dedication without selfishness. Zeal only listens to one voice, the cause.

Perhaps the problem is the cause. I have a zeal for the Word of the Lord. No matter how much I tell others this is me and I do not ask them to be like me, they are still uncomfortable. When the truth is spoken there is always the unspoken forsaking. Prophets of old spoke out against the forsaking and for it they were killed.

If you think that is not happening today because there are no more prophets, then I suggest you misunderstand the difference between the office and the gift. Today they shoot some but for the most part they are shouted down and told they are irrelevant, radical and a terrorist. You will not find a media outlet that gives audience to modern day prophets. Number one there is no money in it and number two fear of offending power.

Do you listen to the Word or the forsakers?