Cindy Trimm - When Kingdoms Clash: Strategies for Prayer in the Heat of Battle

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WHEN KINGDOMS CLASH by Cindy Trimm
Published by Charisma House
Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group
600 Rinehart Road
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
www.charismahouse.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NAS are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked THE MESSAGE are from The Message: The Bible in Contemporary English, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Copyright 2012 by Cindy Trimm
All rights reserved

Cover design by Justin Evans
Design Director: Bill Johnson
Manuscript preparation: Rick Killian, www.killiancreative.com

Visit the authors website at www.trimminternational.org.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Trimm, Cindy.
When kingdoms clash / Cindy Trimm. -- 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-61638-948-2 (casebound) -- ISBN 978-1-62136-014-8 (international trade pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-61638-949-9 (ebook)
1. Prayer--Christianity. I. Title.
BV210.3.T77 2012
248.32--dc23

2012020415

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

First edition

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Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to... save many people alive.

GENESIS 50:20

I T GETS SURPRISINGLY cold in the desert at night. Theres no electricity, and oil lamps can only just fight off the darkness; once they are out, that darkness carries the cold right to your soulespecially when you have nothing to lean against except the stone walls of a jail cell.

Jo was a political prisoner in Egypt. He wasnt there because of the recent uprisings but because he had fallen into a power struggle between one of the military leaders and the mans wife. As an aide overseeing the affairs of the generals home and business interests, the generals wife had taken an interest in Jo that was more than cursory. Amongst Egypts Desperate Housewives, bored in her pampered lifestyle and neglected by her ambitious husband, she was attracted to Jos youth, unflappable spirit and gift for making things prosper. If her husband wasnt working him so hard, he would have been a catch for any woman in Egypt, but instead he spent all his waking hours slaving away in her household and on their estate. She thought she could use his ambition to exploit what she wanted from hima little afternoon distraction from her gilded cagebut it was not to be. It turned out that Jo had more character than ambition. He wasnt going to touch his bosss wife. When he rejected her advances, she told her husband he had tried to rape her and contrived to have Jo thrown into prison without a trial.

The years had not been kind to Jo overall, despite an auspicious beginning. He was born to a rich family in the north, but jealousy persuaded his brothers to try to kill him, and he had to flee for his life. Finding work with the general had first seemed like a godsend, but then even that turned against him, and he wound up in one of the poorest, dirtiest prison systems in the world, seemingly forsaken and forgotten.

But Jo wasnt alone.

Jo was a man of faith in the one true God. Although all he once had of wealth, position, and success was now stripped from him, Jo still had what he treasured mosthis relationship with God. Rather than bemoan his horrible luck, he turned his hours of idle time to prayer. He prayed for his family who had abused him. He prayed for the government whose corrupt systems allowed for an innocent man to be locked up in prison for life without so much as a phone call to a lawyer. But most of all he prayed in pursuit of knowing God and His mysteriesof understanding the dream God had put into Jos heart as a teenager. With nothing to call his own in the physical world, he sought spiritual treasure. As a result, God began to give him insight into dreams and visions. As he could, Jo helped other prisoners understand the messages from heaven God was trying to give them while they slept. Some were helped by it; others ignored his interpretations to their own demise.

For nearly half of his life now, Jo had been a fugitive and prisoner. Coming up on what should be the best days of his life, the cold stone on his back reminded him that the future held no promise of family or career for him. All he had was the moment he lived inhe had now. Now was all he may ever possess. So rather than despair, he invested his moments in eternity. God answered, not with prosperity, promotion, or deliverance as most would ask for, but with Himself. Not only did Jo find that comforting, but he also felt it was a greater blessing than being king of the world.

Jo clung to the stories of God his father had told him as a boy. He had no Bible to read, so he spent hours imagining the scenes of Abraham in the desert and Jacob wrestling with God. Despite his circumstances, he thought long and hard on the promises God had made to his father and his fathers fathers before him, and what they might mean to him. Since he was in prison with no hope of ever getting out, he wondered if those promises belonged to him as much as thembut he knew if God could save Isaac from being sacrificed on the hilltop, God could intervene for him too. He also asked God about the dream in his heart almost every daywhat had it meant? Was it still to come about? How was he going to go from inmate to being the leader he saw himself becoming? It seemed too much to imagine. Was it really possible he would go from the prison to the palace? What strange and wonderful set of events would have to happen to bring that about?

Joseph!

The voice pulled him from his prayerful thoughts, and suddenly the stone walls and bars were back. A shiver ran up his spine. He turned to the door and saw it was the warden.

Sir? Jo asked as if waking from sleep. What on earth was the warden doing in the prison at this time of night? he wondered.

Joseph, the strangest thing has just happened. The president is calling for you. I am to have you washed, given new clothes, and in his counsel chambers within the hour.