Prayer Works Morning Devotion November 3, 2025

Thus Says The Lord-Who God Says He Is, His Commandments and Promises

Ezekiel 2:6-8 "And You, Son Of Man, Do Not Be Afraid Of Them Nor Be Afraid Of Their Words, Though Briers And Thorns Are With You And You Dwell Among Scorpions; Do Not Be Afraid Of Their Words Or Dismayed By Their Looks, Though They Are A Rebellious House"

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Good morning, family. Welcome to the Prayer Works Morning Devotion. Thank you for joining us this day. I pray that you had a restful and peaceful weekend, and that this day is the day that the Lord has made, that we all will be glad and rejoice in as we go through it. 

Pray your family is blessed, and pray the works of your hands are blessed. and that you are ready to face the challenges that you may face undoubtedly this day and in the coming days. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.  

Heavenly Father, we come before you and give you thanks for this day, thanking you for your grace and mercy in our lives. We thank you, Father, because you have been and always are so merciful and so graceful to us.  

We thank you for your sacrifice of your Son, Jesus, our Lord and Savior on our behalf. And we pray for our hearts and minds, Father, to be attuned with you and to look to you and only you and not the things in this world, because we know the things in this world are passing away.  

So we pray, Father, for your grace in our lives this day, that you lead us this day and make our crooked roads straight. We pray now and ask You to descend on this prayer call as we devote this time to You and Your Word.  

And we ask You, Father, in humbleness to be here. Send the Holy Spirit here to speak through me and that I don't speak the words that You don't want me to speak, Father. I pray that these words that You've given me will touch those that hear them and become applicable in their lives so that they too can walk in faith and not by sight.  

I thank you, Father, for this day again. We give you all praise and honor because you alone are worthy. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen, family today we start in a new book, and it is the book of Ezekiel. And just a few quick facts.  

Ezekiel was prophet of God that grew out of captivity in Babylon. Ezekiel, whose name means strengthened by God, grew up in Jerusalem, where he was trained to be a priest in the temple.  

He was among the second group of captives, if you recall, there were two times that King Nebuchadnezzar entered and pillaged, if you will, Jerusalem. And Ezekiel was of the second group.  

And that occurred in approximately 597 B.C. The first group of captives that was taken in 605 B.C., where King Jehoiakim was first forced into submission because of what the scriptures refer to as being a vassal to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  

It was during this time that Nebuchadnezzar took many of the finest and brightest young men from each city in Judea, in Judah rather, and he took them captive, and these included Daniel, Hananiah, or Shadrach, and Mishael, or Meshach, and Azariah, or Abednego.  

So, Ezekiel was of the second group that was taken. And while Ezekiel was in Babylon, it was then he became a prophet of God. And of course, he is the author of the book that bears his name, Ezekiel.  

Our verse for today comes from chapter 2:6-8, and I'll read it, and it says, And you son of man, do not be afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words. Though briers and thorns are with you, and you dwell among scorpions, do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house.  

You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like the rebellious house.  

Open your mouth and eat what I give you. So, we got a few things going on here in this scripture. Um, first of all, we know that as Christians and believers, we are always up against opposition.  

And in verse six, God proceeds to speak to Ezekiel by stating that even though he is going through briers and thorns, and that he dwells among scorpions, well, what is he talking about here?  

He's talking about the challenges that Ezekiel will face in completing the mission that God is sending him to complete. He is referring to briers and thorns. If you've ever worked in a thorn bush, if you've ever gone into the garden and had to walk past thorns. 

I did recently, and so I can relate to this, those thorns tend to pull at you and tug at you and keep you from getting to where you need to go in the garden. Sometimes they may even rip your clothes.  

Sometimes they may even cut you. So, by comparison, this is what God is telling Ezekiel he will face. In addition to that, he's saying that he dwells among scorpions. Now, we know scorpions, you know, you may not have ever seen a scorpion, but if you've seen a crab. 

You kind of have already seen a scorpion because I believe that the crab and the scorpion almost are of the same family type. They have claws and they sting, they can cut, they can pinch, and in some cases it might even be deadly because they may be poisonous scorpions.  

Don't quote me on that, but I know that scorpions are not to be played with. And so, God is telling Ezekiel here that here, I'm sending you into what would appear to be a tough situation, briers and thorns, and that in the midst of all of that, you will be dwelling among scorpions.  

But he goes on to say here, do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house. So, we automatically know that in addition to the trials and tribulations that Ezekiel is going to face speaking to this crowd, they're not going to listen in most cases, and they are going to reject what he has to say.  

But God says in verse seven, You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse. Again, why? Because they are rebellious. He says, But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house.  

Open your mouth and eat what I give you. Now, another question I have here is, why does God refer to Ezekiel as son of man? Wasn't that what Jesus was referred to? So, it's true, yes. Jesus was referred to the Son of Man in the New Testament.  

As a matter of fact, in doing some research for this, it shows that in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to the Son of Man 88 times, and the term Son of Man, also found in the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel is himself called the son of man over 90 times.  

Thus, both Jesus and Ezekiel can rightly be called Son of Man, but there's something a little different about the way the title is applied to Jesus. In the Gospels, Jesus often refers to Himself as Son of Man, and you can look that up.  

The instances are in Matthew 16:27, Mark verse 14 through 21, Luke verse 7 through 34, and John verse 3 through 13. Jesus' use of the title links Him to the prophecy in Daniel 7:13-14. 

It's a passage that is describing the coming Messiah and it goes on to say therefore before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven he was given authority glory and sovereign power all peoples nations and men of every language worshiped him. 

His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. The teachers of the law during this time when Jesus walked the earth would have readily understood Jesus's meaning when he applied the title Son of Man to himself.  

Jesus's use of the phrase points to His exalted state as a person of the Godhead and the fact that He will fulfill Daniel's prophecy. Further, only in the Gospels do we find the term Son of Man associated with the definite article.  

Now, for those that know English, and speak English, or I shouldn't say speak it, study English in terms of verbs, adjectives, and such. The article the Jesus always used this. He always called himself the Son of Man, as in the only one there is.  

Now, in using this definite article as brings out. Jesus contrasts himself with other personalities in the Bible associated with the same term. If you look at Ezekiel, it's never called Ezekiel the son of man.  

He is always just a son of man, as in one of many. In our verse for today, Ezekiel is tasked with an assignment. And I took it from the ESV translation because I like the way it reads. And it goes on, I'm going to go back a couple of verses because our verse for today is 68.  

But I'm going to go back to verse 3. And in verse 3, it says, and he said to me, this is God speaking to Ezekiel, Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me.  

They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants also are impudent and stubborn. I send you to them, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord God.  

And whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house, they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words.  

Though briers and thorns are with you, and you sit on scorpions, be not afraid, but their words, be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.  

Ezekiel delivered God's messages, as we know, with straightforward language that everyone could understand. Whether they listened or not, as it says in verse seven, Ezekiel himself was called to be a watchman.  

And God warned him in following chapters that if he did not faithfully warn the punishment for not following God, he would be held accountable for the blood of those who died in their sins.  

Ezekiel, he did not hesitate in his mission and steadfastly followed God's instruction. Ezekiel had a passionate view of judgment and hope, and he reflected God's own sorrow over the people's sins.  

So the question is, are we as passionate about holy things of God? Do we believe that we have the same, do we rather as believers have the same view of judgment and hope that Ezekiel demonstrated in his calling?  

Do we reflect God's sorrow over the sins of the people of this world? Family, this is a tough book because we know, if we've read it, the outcomes, but we also know that the promises that God are faithful and true.  

And we need to believe in the Holy One. We need to believe in the Almighty One. No matter what we see around us today, there are so many things that are meant to distract us, that are meant to kick us off of where God has us walking.  

We pray for God to make our crooked roads straight and He does. He shows us to no uncertain terms who we are. And I was having a discussion the other day where someone is in fear of all that they are seeing, that they have never in their history seen the things that are going on in this country.  

And we know that these are things that God is allowing to happen because there are a new heaven and a new earth that are going to be brought forth. And the only way that that new heaven and new earth can be brought forth is if the old one is pushed aside and destroyed. 

So, what we're seeing now is a precursor to the things that are to come. Again, the Book of Daniel is pretty clear about what Daniel saw. And if you look in Revelations, you can see the things that are destined to become fact.  

And so, we as Christians have to be obedient to God's call on our lives. God told Ezekiel to groan with a broken heart and bitter grief for the coming judgment. And through his dramatic book, Ezekiel tells us the same thing. Judgment is coming.  

It will surely take place, declares the sovereign Lord. So we, like Ezekiel, can warn others and we can also share with them the good news of salvation in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's pray.  

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this word. We thank you for bringing us the knowledge and wisdom that can only come from you. Father, we know that this world is passing away and so are the things in it and why would we want to partake in it?  

Why would we want to corrupt ourselves with this corruptible environment? We know that sin has taken hold of this world. And we know, Father, that Your Word says that we are not a part of this world, so we should not partake in its corruption.  

We should look to You and praise Your holy name and give thanks for the breath that you breathe into us each and every moment of the day. That we should look to you and depend on you as did Ezekiel as he fulfilled his mission.  

So we should fulfill ours. Your word says that we need to preach this word to all the inhabited earth, standing firm in the belief that Jesus says to love one another, and that we love one another by telling those that judgment is coming. 

And that you need to be on the right side, that hell and heaven do exist, and that hell is eternal. And as the pastor that we love to watch says, Eternity is too long to be wrong.  

So we pray, Father, that we are not wrong, that we are not caught up in judgment, because we know that even though you forgive our sins, we are just a step away. And so we thank you, Father, that you love us, that you cover us in the blood. 

That you have sanctified us in your spirit. So we thank you and give you all praise, honor, and glory. Now, Father, as we go through this day, we ask you to bless those that are on this call.  

Bless their families, bless their children, especially as the children go to school. Keep them safe. Cover their eyes and their ears from the things that you do not want them to see, hear, or become a part of or be influenced by.  

We pray for their safety. Get them to school and back home safely. We pray for the parents as they go to work. We ask you to cover them in the blood, get them where they're going safely, back home safely.  

We pray, Father, for those that may be ill, those that are in need of healing, heal them. Whatever it is, heal them, Father, because we know that you can. You are our author, you have created us and nothing is impossible for you. 

So thank you Father for the confidence that you give us in knowing that you go before us and make our crooked road straight. Now as we leave this call we pray not to leave your presence this day and ask that you lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. 

For yours is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever in Jesus name we pray, Amen. Amen family I pray that this word has touched you and enlightened you in some way uh and that God has opened your mind and your heart to know that he does go before you.  

That he is with you every moment of the day and that every moment that we have is a testament to God's grace and that we give Him thanks and praise Him each and every moment of the day that we can.  

Whether we are walking on the roads, whether we are driving in our cars, whether we are sitting in the bathroom, whether we are laying in the bed, every waking moment we should give God praise, honor, and glory because He alone is worthy and Jesus is our Savior.  

Thank you, family, for joining in this day. We look forward to seeing you again tomorrow and we pray that you go in peace and let God love on you and lead you this day. God bless you, family.