An obligatory post to maintain my readership.
Intercession is real. It is more real than voting, politics, or public policy.
Recently, I’ve been reading up on a lot of foreign policy books (mostly related to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the last 50 years or so). What I’ve realized is that though people spend their entire lives trying to figure out nations, government, and ways of acheiving peace and safety - the people in charge are really just guessing.
You can’t predict the rise of al-Queda - you can’t forsee 9/11 - you can only ‘push and pull’ other nations back and forth with economic sanctions, covert ops, and the threat of military invasion. Every situation is ‘win-lose’. The strong prevail over the weak. There is no justice in international affairs.
So, who is really calling the shots? People like Daniel - those who stare into eternity. Those like the apostle John who are invited into the counsel of the Lord.
I’m learning to pray for my enemies: Mahmoud Ahmidinajad and Kim Jong-il. I’m asking that God would raise up prophets who would speak the word that would break the back of the strongholds destroying their people and blinding them to truth.
I’m also praying for the leaders in this nation. We need grace.
But the good news is that we can shift nations. We can bring (in a limited sense) justice to bear and haste the coming of the one who will finally rule with true justice. We are doing the most significant work in the earth. Prayer is the center. We are changing nations.
Hear, hear!
PS - you’ll always maintain my readership no matter what.
Here’s one for you: is Mahmoud my enemy? Are the enemies of America my enemies? Or just the enemies of the Gospel?
And who’s my neighbor again?
Here’s one for you: is Mahmoud my enemy? Are the enemies of America my enemies? Or just the enemies of the Gospel?
And who’s my neighbor again?
He is definately MY enemy simply b/c I’m a citizen of this nation and Iran vocally hates the US and what it stands for - He is also a vocal enemy of Israel - which definately makes Iran my polemical opposite (this is a country that had a conference to prove the holocaust never happened…c’mon.)
i would say the good samaritan story is simply jesus ‘parable’ version of the principle of loving your enemies - same principle as I’m talking about I think.
So we should definitely love Iran if they are bleeding and helpless in the middle of a street and left for dead.
PS: I love your avatar (and Molly’s). Half-head says, “there’s more to me than my blog post.” Mine’s taken somewhere in Utah.
my avatar sort of implies there might not be more to me than my beard however…
I certainly don’t think that you are saying that prayer is the ONLY vehicle with which God is moving in the earth (but it often sounds that way from “us” IHOPers). There are many men and women around the globe doing the stuff of the kingdom in business, politics, sociology, the sciences, etc. None of them are perfect and the system in which they work is corrupt by nature, but the Kingdom of God is breaking in at every level and has been since the first coming of Christ. So, I want to really challenge those of us who pray for a living to be very aware of the language we use and be careful not to make broad stroke statements.
You said in your post that “there is no justice in international affairs” and I have to whole-heartedly disagree with you. Just as Jesus breaks through in every other avenue in this world, He also breaks in through international affairs. I’m not saying that it happens often. But it certainly not in every case. And the really sad part is, that often, justice is accomplished by the children of this world, because the church is sleeping and not doing our job.
Kyle,
this has really been on my heart this week. Here in Az, God has been breaking in with the message of governmental intercession. it IS the most significant work we can do. we lay on His chest and hear His heart and declare/pray that out.
speaking forth the declarations of the King, surely that is the most significant thing.
we all can do that whatever ‘arena’ we are in.
carry on!
tom: when i say there is no justice - i’m talking about an ‘ultimate’ sense. it’s like dividing the number 1 by one hundred trillion when comparing God’s justice with man’s attempts at justice. it is so close to zero (.000000000000001) that you may as well call it zero.
of course, i appreciate your sentiment that this doesn’t mean we will succeed. the problem is we’ve actually overestimated our ability to achieve justice on the earth by underestimating the depravity of man.
that is why the holocaust was such a shock to the human psyche. people couldn’t (and still can’t) comprehend how or why a ‘civilized’ nation like Germany could commit such heinous acts.
do we continue to stand against injustice? yes. but if it comes down to them either voting or praying - they should error on the side of prayer in my opinion.
it isn’t the only thing we can(or should) do - but it is the most effective thing we can do.
I agree, yet disagree with you. I don’t think taking an either/or option is a choice we have. In fact, at the end of this age Jesus will gather the nations and judge them by whether or not they clothed, fed, gave drink or help to those in need. Sounds like we need to pray and act.
I just saw Amazing Grace last night and I see a man who had a passion for God, which caused him to have a passion for justice. I’m not saying we are all William Wilberforces, but I do think God will ask “But what did you DO?” That’s why I’m developing a site called prayerandaction.com. It’s not anywhere near to be actually published on the web, but I want a resource for Christians to hear about what is going on, what can be done, and how we can pray for justice. For those of us called to pray, it will be a resource for knowing how to specifically pray and also get involved in our area. For those called to action it will be a resource to find people to back them up with prayer. This is a real passion of mine.
More obligatory posts, please!
Tom–
The real danger, as I see it, is encapsulated in the term (from T. Dubay) feverish activism. This is the pressure to address injustice in human, tangible terms.
Now granted, touching needs is a gospel mandate. We just gotta do it. But if we don’t go real heavy on the prayer end, we end up subsuming Christianity into some “larger” cause. I’m thinking here of Bono’s call to lay aside our differences with other religions for the higher cause of reaching the poor.
God’s glory is the highest cause, not the poor and afflicted of the earth. I look forward to your new website.
(and yes, more posts please).
Good post, I need to pray more.
Bret, it’s a touchy dance. Our prayer team’s focus today was on James 2:14-17; the faith without works dealy-doo. You can’t have one without the other. But what I’m finding is, some of us are more naturally wired to do, while others are more naturally wired to be (Annas). Neither is better than the other and both are legitimate expressions of the same Spirit. Actually, a nice combination of both is maturity, but we will still lean in one direction more than the other.
My temperament is one which sees injustice and has to do something about it. Hence, the reason I ran for office even though I had little chance to win. But I can’t do those things without prayer. I just think we need to be careful how we present things by implying that prayer is the better thing. I think we each have unique callings (all of should pray), but one is not greater than the other.