A Call to Solemn Assembly

To read about my own background and testimony on Solemn Assembly, then click here.

Table of Contents;

• Introduction
• Catch the Vision
• Getting the Vision Back
• Time for a Called Solemn Assembly
• Revive Me!
• The Unity of a Solemn Assembly
• From Assembly to Victory
• The Results of a Solemn Assembly

Solemn Assemblies were held at times during Feasts in the Old Covenant. There was a Solemn Assembly of the people at the Feast of Tabernacles where they would come together to offer a sacrifice after a week of Feast. The eighth day would see a solemn event where they would offer a sacrifice and seek God’s Face. They would not do any work that day, but stop everything to seek God’s face.

But there were other kinds of Solemn Assemblies outside of the regular Feasts. Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20 called a Fast and Solemn Assembly to seek the face of God when their enemies were poised to destroy their nation and people. God spoke to the Prophet Joel that they would call a Solemn Assembly in the Last Days when the oppressors were come to invade Israel. Blow the trumpet in Zion is a call to Solemn Assembly (there was a shofar call that was to call everyone to a Solemn Assembly).

In the New Testament, the 120 gathered in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost was a “New Testament Type” of Solemn Assembly. There are times when the people of God are called to come together and put aside other things in order to seek the “face of God”. There are times when the land is in trouble and danger and when we are ourselves either physically or spiritually in peril (or both together many times), and we come to recognize that we NEED for GOD to intervene and move in our lives and in our situations. There are times that we recognize our need and move to seek God for that need, and these occasions are extremely serious.

The history seen in scriptures of the people of God shows the same patterns. God would bless and revival would come and the people would enjoy the Lord and life. But after a time of blessing, the people would become lazy and apathetic, and turn to other gods and worldly pursuits. There would come a backsliding and dark forces would start claiming the land and the people’s lives. The Spirit of God would be grieved and God would withdraw His blessing. An oppressor would rise up and the people would reap what they had sown and cry out in their fear and/or pain.

Many times, in their arrogance, the people would take God for granted and the Enemy would take hold of their lives without their recognizing their peril. The kings and government would become corrupt and evil and turn to other gods. Sexual immorality would take hold in people’s daily lives and the ministry (priesthood) would many times themselves become corrupted trying to hold on to God and the world at the same time.

God would move from chastening and as the hearts of the people hardened, He would move into scourging and toward actual judgment.

When DESTRUCTION was AT THE DOOR… there would be a remnant or a leader who would recognize both their imminent danger and the source of their deliverance. They would turn to God. And they would CALL FOR A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY.

Sometimes, it was the King who called for a Solemn Assembly. Sometimes it was a Prophet or Minister who gave the message as a directive from God that it was time to seek the face of God. God Himself sometimes commands us to assemble together so that we can repent and get to the place where He can deliver us and bring revival.

The Solemn Assembly is a time for the people to FAST AND PRAY; AND SEEK THE FACE OF GOD; and to REPENT. It was not just praying for the arm of the Lord, but the face of the Lord as we recognize our own sin and failures and our need for God to be God in our lives again. It is a need for REVIVAL that brings REPENTANCE and DELIVERANCE.

It is an act of repentance and faith as we fast and pray and seek and put our carnal desires aside to see the face of God and have His help. It gets us back to where we should have been all along, and we catch the vision of God again and begin to fulfill it.

MAIN TEXT: Romans 10:14-17 " 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

1. The world is in a great need for the hope that can only be brought by the Word of God. And God is looking for men of God who will get the burden of a lost and dying world and catch the vision of the Hope of God.

The vision is the mind’s eye picture of the will of God for our lives that comes from God made alive by His Holy Spirit. The vision gives direction for our lives and hope. The Holy Spirit leads us and makes the Word of God come alive in our lives as we become doers of the Word and fulfilling the will of God in this Earth.

THE MAN (or woman) OF GOD IS GIVEN THE WORD... A VISION! HE SHARES THE VISION WITH THE PEOPLE. WHEN THE PEOPLE HEAR THE WORD OF GOD, IT GIVES THEM FAITH TO BELIEVE THE VISION AND SEE IT HAPPEN!

Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

When we get the vision of God in our own spirits, it gives hope to look for things beyond the natural. Faith brings those things into existence and brings those hopes alive for the world to see.

Without the VISION that is born of God, the people of God lose their hope and become LUKEWARM.

Proverbs 29:18 "Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he."

Hosea 4:6 "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children."

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR SOMETHING THAT IS WORTH GETTING EXCITED OVER AND WORKING FOR? TRY THE VISION OF GOD! Get involved in what God is willing to do and is into, and you will find the power of God already there moving. That is where you see the dynamic of God changing lives. We need to find the direction of the Holy Spirit and be led of the Spirit.

1 Peter 1:24 "For all flesh [is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."

NEHEMIAH IS AN EXAMPLE OF A MAN OF GOD WHO SAW THE DESOLATION OF GOD'S PEOPLE AND THEIR CITY, AND GOT A VISION FROM GOD TO REBUILD WHAT HAD BEEN TORN DOWN.

Nehemiah was the Persian King Artaxerxes' cup bearer. He heard about how Jerusalem's walls were broken and the gates burned. He heard how his people there were greatly afflicted and reproached. It broke his heart enough for him to seek the face of God and pray. Not only that, he was willing to follow up his prayer with action.

And Nehemiah 1:4 said that his heart was so broken that he cried and mourned and then he did what is necessary to see restoration of a land:

The man of God got a burden and Nehemiah 1:6 said that he prayed night and day for his afflicted people.

He was given the authority to build, and he went and organized the people into a great building force. However their neighbors were not happy about any growth or restoration in the holy city.

When the people became scared at the sheer opposition of the rebuilding, Nehemiah the man of God led prayer and then reminded the people of Jerusalem of who it is that is the God of Judah! Preaching many times is just reminding you of what you have forgotten in the hard times.

Nehemiah 4:14 "And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, [which is] great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses. 15 And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work. 16 And it came to pass from that time forth, [that] the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers [were] behind all the house of Judah. 17 They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, [every one] with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other [hand] held a weapon."

GOD WANTS TO BUILD SOMETHING HERE. HE WANTS YOU TO BE PRAYERFUL AND CATCH THE VISION FROM THE MINISTRY OF THE MEN AND WOMEN OF GOD THAT HE HAS SENT TO YOU. THE HOLY SPIRIT MAKES THE WORD OF GOD COME ALIVE AND GIVES US A VISION FOR WORK.

Be willing not only to build, but to fight the good fight of faith. And just don't get in a mind set of just fighting the devil. We must build up that which God wishes to build up at the same time and work together.

Our leaders must pray for the vision and fast and pray to keep the vision alive, but as God feeds them, we must be willing to receive what God is giving through them.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1 "Be ye followers of me, even as I also [am] of Christ."

We will never be able to build without the willingness to fight as well. God has sent us the VISION through his ‘Nehemiahs’, and we must be willing to listen and HEAR so that we too can catch the VISION. But we must realize without fighting the forces that oppose us, we will never get built what God would have us build... praying and fasting and putting on the whole armor of God.

GOD HAS A BUILDING PROGRAM GOING ON... “THE BUILDING OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD”.

Ephesians 2:19-22 "19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner [stone]; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

1 Peter 2:5-6 " 5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. {are: or, be ye} 6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded."

We are living stones in this spiritual house that God is building where Jesus Christ is that chief corner stone.

1. God has sent the WORD

2. Catch the VISION

3. Pray and Fast

4. Put on your Spiritual Armor

5. Build