Our Prayers Are Working

[HKHaugan]

Principles 8

Our Prayers Are Working

Look at the spiritual context not the world context. It’s what we are praying for in the long haul that counts. The spiritual context is much larger than our personal life on this planet. We are not limited by our political or social context. It’s about the ongoing moral and spiritual war that is being waged on a battlefield you can’t see except with spiritual eyes.

In a recent survey (the name and source eludes my memory) it was reported that if you combine the revenues of the three major professional sports, football, baseball and basketball, more money is spent on pornography than what those three together earn. Add to that the constant spewing of TV, movies and literature done Hollywood-style, blend in the vulnerable ‘I-want-what-I-want-now’ nature and combustion is inevitable.

The fire of God’s wrath will descend.

History forgotten is history repeated. Greece, Rome, the Dark Ages, the wars and hostilities of the Middle Ages, the rise and fall of the Nazis, Communism, Socialism in Europe and now again the immorality and denial of God at the bottom of it all. When leadership, at the highest levels in our social, political, educational and religious institutions, openly condones immorality it ruptures the fabric that holds society together.

It is never an overnight happening. Rome started its fall even before the 1st Century and was dethroned centuries later. It is a series of seemingly unconnected events that erode the core of what really holds a society together---an election, storms, cyclical recessions, endless wars, earthquakes, moral breakdown, all signs that point to a spiritual consequence to come. One has to have a spiritual world view to see it.

As far as the present is concerned, two scourges await us, China as an economic population volcano and Islam as a dark spiritual sword masquerading as a religion. The first is an institutionally visible Godless dictatorship and the other a rambling invisible anarchy with no central authority. Neither of these can be appeased since appeasement in their eyes is a sign of weakness. We can prepare for them now.

Add to these the spiritual blindness in the hearts of individuals wrapped in self-indulgence and self-justification. When major spiritual issues like the approval of abortion, homosexuality, redefining marriage and unrestricted sexual behavior are promoted and accepted as spiritual progress and social evolution by our elected leaders, God becomes simply an historically outdated concept and an embarrassment to avoid in public discourse. Yet what is true remains, …”what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal (2Cor.4:18).” Hold that thought.

God will not be mocked. The Lord God will act as He has always done. But the call is not to the general population. It is to His people.

Those who believe in Jesus, trust in His presence and have faith in His working within, they are the true disciples. They may find themselves as a remnant people like the Jews in their history. But it is always a minority hardened by persecution and rejection that persevere and change the world. Gideon and his 300 defeated an entire nation. So the calling is now on us. “…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land (2Chron.7:14).” It may not happen in this generation but it will happen and we are called to pave the way just like the prophets of old. Remember, it is God’s timing not ours.