:: Art Katz on Morning Devotions ::

Art Katz:

"Just a thought that this issue of personal morning devotion before the commencement of the day; it might be more significant that anyone knows, and it might be the actual factor of Israel’s hope of deliverance. For this, I use the text of Mark, chapter nine, of the young man who was thrown into the fire by a demonic spirit. “How long has this been going on?” Jesus asked the father. “Since childhood” (v. 21), since infancy, since the inception of his life, so that, prophetically, I am thinking, “What is being represented here? This is not just a child being molested, harassed. This is a child that is the particular object of demonic fury seeking to kill him.” This must represent Israel itself. The disciples, being unable to cast this out, asked Jesus, and He answered, “This kind [this ultimate kind] cometh not out but by fasting and by prayer” (v. 29).

The way that I have been given to understand that in the light of my own experience is that it is a prayer beyond petition. It is that communion with God where we linger and wait in His presence, because He is God and not because of anything that we would receive of utilitarian kind, that imbues us with something of Himself, so that when we have to confront Last Days’ demonic activity, we bring that reality, which is the accumulation of the daily times with God, that is greater than the visible reality of their power. What we obtain in that early morning communion will be critical in the Last Days for Israel’s deliverance. It is not heroics; it is devotion."

"I would just encourage those who are reading this interview to be inspired to not neglect the commencement of the day with the Lord, not just for the issue of their petition or reading of an obligatory chapter, in order that they have done their religious duty, but to spend sufficient time in the Lord’s presence, even when it is not felt, so that something is given of what is God Himself, ultimate reality. In the Last Days, we will defeat and move and deliver a victimized Israel from the clutches of those dark powers. That would be a last encouragement that I would like to express."

Art Katz Biographical Interview