Goal Number 27

I was blessed by listening to a church pastor the other day on the Internet telling us he loves to pray and that, “I can’t live without prayer.”  He told us there was no way he would know what to do or know what people are thinking if he didn’t pray.  More, “you have to pray without ceasing to keep your mind clear and be able to rise to every challenge that besets you.” I paused the video at that point to give some thought to not just what he was saying, but also to the passion with which he was expressing it.  He wasn’t a shouter strutting back and forth across his stage like so many of them, he was sitting down speaking softly, but urgently.

This is not happening in the church as I know it.  Too many churches don’t know what to do, they don’t know what people are thinking and they are not rising to the challenges that have beset them.  The pastor then went on to tell us that Jesus has sent us the Holy Spirit and He will lead us and guide us into all truth, “you want the truth, you don’t want to lie,” he said. That statement brought to mind a comment I heard on another Internet program recently whereby a well-known leader making all sorts of excuses and justifications for his ungodly church-control was told, “It’s not your beliefs I’m challenging, it’s your practice.”

I love that statement!  Many there are in the church who can tell us what they believe about the Holy Spirit and truth, but it is their practice of same that gives witness to the authenticity of it all.  The Internet pastor said something else that I have found to be true in life – church life included.  He said the more you pray, the more you create enemies, “I have discovered a strong prayer life will create a whole lot of enemies for you, because the Holy Spirit starts leading you in truth and you won’t fool around with lies.”  Again, “you won’t get down with the get-down crowd that lies – and conniving and schemes and games….and everybody is going to hate you.”

Christians need to come to terms with the reality of this business of being hated for truth – on an individual basis as well as corporate.  There can be no walking away from the fact that Jesus has told us if they hate you, it is because they hated Him first John 15:18.  Yes, He’s speaking of the world (world system), but it is this system so ingrained within us that He has overcome and defeated.  As a result, it is now our solemn obligation to yield to the Holy Spirit on a daily basis and allow His truth to cast lies from ourselves, then through diligent, committed prayer, cast lies out of the church wherever they seek to raise their ugly heads.

Let’s take political correctness for example.  This lie has raised its ugly head in the church in all forms, shapes and sizes and Christians, for the most part, haven’t got a clue what to do about it.  If they were living with prayer they would have a clue, because the One sent to lead us into all truth John 16:13 would reveal to them the lie that political correctness is.  I heard a minister recently talking on the radio about the ‘visually impaired’ and the ‘hearing impaired.’  Why couldn’t he use the words of Jesus, “the blind….the deaf” Matthew 11:5 ? Because, he was a religious man who can live without prayer but he cannot live without the approval of man.  His use of politically correct gobbledy-gook had trapped him to the point of unreality.

Goal number 27 of Current Communist Goals reads: Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion.  Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a religious crutch.  The word ‘Communist’ is rarely used these days which means most Christians, along with most people, have got no idea of what today’s Marxist-Leninist people are thinking … and their thinking has never changed!  They are as committed to this goal as much as Karl Marx was away back in the beginning, in the 1840’s.  It repulses me to observe Christian leaders trying to act cool so as to impress these heathens that Jesus too, is “quite a cool guy and so are we His followers, come and join us.”

So many Christian leaders today are hell-bent on telling the world that Jesus isn’t really who the Bible says He is.  They are portraying our Lord as nothing more than some kind of a social justice activist.  I read something the other day that stated true Christian theology as a, “theology of love and solidarity with the oppressed, a call to justice and equality among peoples.”  That’s the kind of Marxist-Leninist nonsense the church is being seduced into accepting and the people are lapping it up every bit as much as the outside world.  No mention of true Christian theology being a theology of love and redemption … no mention of a call to repentance from sin, get washed in the blood of Jesus … no mention of receive salvation by grace through faith.

The biblical Lord Jesus Christ was no social justice activist.  He refused to be a part of any group.  He had no interest for any type of solidarity, except that with which He had with God the Father.  At all times Jesus Christ stood alone and the “get-down crowd” hated Him for it.  Nobody likes to be hated … I don’t believe there are too many people in the world who would willingly go out of their way to be hated, but that most certainly will be the natural outcome for anyone who makes the choice to go out of their way for Jesus.  One of the questions we Christians should be asking ourselves is, “how much am I hated?”  Why?  It could be an indication of how strong our prayer life is.

Some Christians are daunted by the thought of having to, “pray without ceasing” 1 Thessalonians 5:17 but the good news is, it doesn’t mean we are to be locked away in a room on our knees every waking moment.  The Holy Spirit is not a religious cult leader or taskmaster … He leads us into all truth, we are not driven into it.  But as we continue yielding to His leading it’s not too long before we come to understand that we are dependent upon God for every good thing and that without Him we can do nothing.  As our knowledge of that dependence increases, we sense the Holy Spirit imparting to us a spirit of prayer and, as we experience this spirit we will frequently find ourselves in the exercise of prayer.

In a practical sense for me, that means when I’m walking past a home, I will bless it if that comes to mind.  The other day a young mother came out of her front door giving a smile and hello as she put the kids in the car. Prior to that event I’ve seen her walk out that door frowning.  In my regular 40-minute walk around the streets I have the pleasure of encountering secondary-school kids on their way to school.  I started blessing and praying for some them and it was not too long before they approached with a smile and a greeting – some in groups of two and three.  Same goes for people walking to work or driving.  It’s truly amazing how many motorists stop and give way to me crossing the street when they’re not required by law to do so.

If I come in contact with a baby or toddler I put my hand on their head, bless them and claim them for the Lord Jesus.  Nobody but the Lord knows what I’ve done.  I praise God for showing us how to pray and for the power and authority granted to us.  I don’t go looking for danger but I bind every demon in hell and on earth and render them powerless in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ when I have to face it or walk through it.  That’s not possible without prayer.  The other day I jammed my finger in a door and the first thing I said was, “I bless you in the name of Jesus, I bless you.”  That was the Holy Spirit speaking.  I know it wasn’t me because the pain went away almost immediately.  If it was me I’d have cursed and the pain would still be with me!

One of the puzzling aspects for me regarding Christians and prayer is that there are not many among us who can’t identify with at least something of what I’ve written in the previous two paragraphs.  Certainly they can give their own testimonies.  So this being the case, how is it that when it comes to the corporate prayer meeting it is always the least attended of any church meeting?  Why are our very powerful experiences and answers to individual prayer not the catalyst to coming together and petitioning God on the things He’s placed on  our hearts re people, truth, church, community and society?  None of us likes to think of ourselves as selfish, yet this is where it shows up that we are!

We point the finger at the decadence in our community, the liars and deceivers in government and big business, we criticize but kowtow to every manipulator and intimidator imaginable, we turn our backs on the suffering and oppressed, we look the other way when faced with the reality of abortion and perverted sex being the greatest of ills to society … and yet, we still say, “Jesus is Lord.”  Speaking of liars and deceivers in government, our present day world governments accommodate the very worst of them – a more morally sick and injurious bunch one could never hope to encounter, yet apart from the odd lone voice in the wilderness what is the church saying about it?  I don’t know, but it’s not praying about it!

People ask how come Communism and Nazism had such a foothold in Europe in the 1930’s – 40’s?  They had it in exactly the same way as these devil-inspired criminals have Marxist-Leninist-Collectivist footholds everywhere today.  Communists and Nazis took nothing from the so-called Church of the day, but rather, the spiritually asleep people calling themselves Christians back then simply relinquished the Bible truths they once stood for – just as the non-praying church crowd is reliquishing Bible truths in exchange for political correctness, globalism, globalization, global warming etc, today.  Talk about, “being able to rise to every challenge that besets you” – those who can live without prayer haven’t a hope in hell of rising to this challenge.

It is true that the world (system) is, by God’s design, under the ruler-ship of Satan the devil and he remains ruler 2 Corinthians 4:4 until God decides otherwise, so I am not suggesting corporate church prayer to rid the world of these evils.  But God, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the Ruler of His church and as such He calls His people to corporate prayer – primarily for unbelievers to be saved through the gospel and to honor God, but also to rid the church of evil … including the evils of Marxism-Leninism etc. “Let no one deceive you with empty (vain) words, for because of those things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers of them” Ephesians 5:6-7. “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” Colossians 2:6.