“For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the holy spirit.”
-2 Peter 1:21
Oh, this is one of those places in the Bible that tells us how we got the Bible. It tells us how we got God’s word in a 2 Timothy 3:16 kind of way. All scripture is God-breathed.
Just think about when you hold the Bible in your hands when you read the Bible, when you hear the Bible read, you are hearing, you’re reading, you are receiving the word of God breathed out by God. Those who wrote this, those who spoke these things did so as they were, listen to this phrase, carried along by the holy spirit. Oh, what a beautiful picture. From the wonder we have in God’s word, this is spoken by people whom God chose to carry along by His spirit in such a way that what they would speak, what they would write would come straight from Him to us, even just the mercy and the grace of God and the revelation He gives us in His word.
2 Peter 1:21 Reminds Us God Doesn’t Leave Us in the Dark
He’s not left us in the dark about who He is, about how He works, about how you and I can experience life to the full now and forever. All of this and the spirit breathed, supernatural word of God. Oh, I want just to encourage you in a fresh way today and to love the word, to spend time in it, to digest it, to memorize it, to meditate on it day and night. Oh, I just want to pray.
According to 2 Peter 1:21, God help us to love your word more. God, we pray that you would help us to love it. God, we pray that you would help us to grow in our desire for it. Oh God, your word is so good. It is so good. It is water to my soul every morning. Your word is water for a weary soul every morning. It’s food, it sustains me. It sustains us. Your word is like daily bread. It’s more important than daily bread.
We need your word. We delight in your word. Lord, we treasure your word and we praise you for giving us your word, for carrying along people by your spirit that they might proclaim your word and write it down so that we could have this truth before us so that we could walk through it and pray according to it.
2 Peter 1:21 Praises God for His Word
Oh God, we praise you for your word and we pray for the spread of your word. We pray for the spread of your word through our lives. Help us to speak it. Not in the same way as Spirit-inspired scripture, but help us to proclaim what you have said to others in the power of your spirit. God, help us not to be silent with your word today. Help us to speak your word to others today in the power of your spirit that they might be saved, that they might experience its supernatural power. God, please keep us from being silent with this word.
This Verse Leads Us to Pray for Afghans
God, we pray this over our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. As we’re praying for them this month especially, God, we pray that you would help them to proclaim your word and that you would show the power of the gospel to save. God, we pray that you would show the power of the gospel to save Taliban leaders.
God, we pray that they would find Bibles, that they would come across Christians, maybe even those whom they are persecuting in, that they would hear your word spoken and you would do what you did in Saul’s life. You would open their eyes and their hearts, that they might turn to you and trust in you. Jesus, they might see your love for them and they might trust in you as Lord of their lives, that you would use them then to influence others, just like you did with Saul.
We are Led to Pray for Saul-like Conversion
God, we pray for Saul, Paul like conversions in Taliban leaders. God, we know your word has power to do that. We pray that you would show the power of your word in Afghanistan during these days and in our lives and our families and our churches during these days, this word spoken by men carried along by your spirit. God, we love your word. We praise you for it. We pray that you would draw us closer to you through it, and draw others closer to you through our proclamation of it. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
