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by Katie Erickson

“Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him, he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites. The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim; Israel was in great distress.” (Judges 10:6-9)

After spending many weeks looking at the stories of Gideon and his son Abimelech in the book of Judges, we’re moving on toward the story of Jephthah. In Judges 10:1-5, we see a couple minor judges named Tola and Jair, but they were not significant enough to have much of their legacy recorded in Scripture.

So in this week’s passage, we’re back to the repeating pattern of the people of Israel in the era of the judges: sin, slavery, supplication, salvation, and silence. In this passage, Israel had against strayed from worshiping the one true God, and they were instead worshiping a whole bunch of other gods. In verse 6 we read, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him.”

This list of other gods that the Israelites worshiped is the most extensive list throughout Judges. The Baals Ashtoreths were worshipped by most of the nations mentioned in this passage, who surrounded Israel’s territory. Just to give you some further background, the Moabites’ god was named Chemosh (Numbers 21:29), the Ammonites’ god was named Molek (1 Kings 11:5), and the Philistines’ god was named Dagon (Judges 16:23).

When Israel doesn’t serve the one true God, God gets angry with them for blatantly disobeying His commandments. Exodus 20:3 seems pretty clear: “You shall have no other gods before me.” That seems like a pretty easy one to remember, but we always forget that today too. While I don’t worship a god by name like Dagon or Molek, I have times in my life where I put other people and things before God, thus making them little gods in my life. I would guess you’ve done that too, if you take an honest look at your life.

So when Israel turns away from God (again), He allows them to be enslaved and oppressed by their enemies (verses 7-8). This particular incident happened around the year 1096 BC. Previously, during Gideon’s time, the Israelites were badly oppressed by the Midianites. Now, however, the oppression was even worse. Now it was both the Ammonites and Philistines oppressing them, and they were just as evil as the Midianites if not more so.

The recurring theme in the book of Judges is that you will reap what you sow. Israel was often sowing disobedience to God by worshiping other gods, and therefore they were reaping the consequences of their actions. While God will continue to forgive them when they are finally sorry for their actions, that doesn’t mean He’ll lessen the punishment. In fact, He seems to be increasing the harshness of the punishment as they continue to not learn their lesson.

What are you doing in your life where you may be repeating the same sin over and over again? What do you need to repent from, and finally learn the lesson that God is trying to teach you - before the consequences get even worse?

Stayed tuned next week as we see what happened with the Israelites in their current oppressive situation.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Ami Samuels

As Thanksgiving approaches, I had this thought: why are we so quick to call and complain when we are frustrated or angry with poor service, but when people go out of their way to help or they do something nice, we often forget or neglect to make that phone call or send a note?

My sister and one of her employees went above and beyond to help a customer receive their passports in time for their upcoming trip. The client needed to expedite the process. The proper paperwork was filed, and fees were paid and sent. However, there was an unforeseen issue with the process. Through numerous phone calls and faxing more paperwork, her office was able to ensure that the passports came in before the customer was leaving the country.

They went above and beyond to make sure the passports came in on time. They could have called the client and said I’m sorry but there is no way we can get the passports in time, which was what the office they were dealing with was telling them. Instead they went the extra mile, making the extra phone calls, talking to the right people, and faxing more information.

A few days later my sister received an e-mail from the client, thanking her and her office for everything they had done to help her. She mentioned that without their help their trip would have been ruined. That note of encouragement meant so much to my sister and her employees.

As Americans, we are so blessed. This Thanksgiving, let’s take some time to think about our blessings and be grateful for what we have and show our gratitude to those around us. I would like to encourage us to make those phone calls and send those e-mails and thank you notes when people do a good job and go above and beyond to help us.

I would like to ask you to go a step further and not only tell the person thank you, but go above them and tell their boss, too.

And be thankful.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Nathan Buck

Long before the election was over, I heard hopeful people praying and talking about how they hope we as a nation can all live together and recover some sort of unity, especially among followers of Jesus.

The truth is, UNITY is experienced under pressure, forged in sacrifice, and galvanized in pain. What we have seen in our nation and in the Church in the last two years is the true state of our division. The fractures not only appeared under pressure, but they became more pronounced and clear. Everyone has sorted themselves out quite nicely. It is much easier to see who had their own specialized agenda (whether personal, social, cultural, political, racial, economic, financial, humanist, global, religious, or non-religious) ahead of God.

When we one day stand before Him, I can only imagine how many will cringe as He flips through their Facebook post history and the rest of their words spoken, especially considering Matthew 12:36.

We must realize that any motive that comes before our devotion to God will not accomplish what we desire, and it will bring further division and discord. And we must also realize that any appearance of unity when pressure or tension is low is more likely be a mask - hiding the cracks for personal comfort rather than living in true unity.

Read Ephesians 4:1-6. Notice the emphasis on "unity of the Spirit" through the bond of peace? Notice also the emphasis on "one-ness." Paul, the writer of this letter to the Ephesians, is reminding the early church that Jesus is not divided against himself, and He is not confused about what is good or right. Therefore, Jesus' Spirit (the Holy Spirit) is likewise not confused or divided. Unity is already present in Jesus and through His Spirit. So, why are we divided?

We have not kept the bond of peace. Peace is not the absence of conflict, but it is the willing surrender of self-centered thoughts and agendas for a greater one. If we are not unified, it is because we have our own agendas inserted between us and God, and between each other.

I believe God can bring us together. It will take a shift the western 'popular' church is not willing to make. It will be painful, and we will find that there are many who enjoy the moralism of 'cultural' Christianity more than Jesus. The religious 'pick and choose' menu of cultural Christianity is really just humanism with religious clothing on. It is not Jesus, no matter how much "theologizing" people do to try and make Him fit. There has to be an intentional surrender of our religious comforts and selective obedience.

When we are dedicated to Him, His unity is already present by His Spirit, and we live it out through the bond of peace. This is possible for followers of Jesus. It is possible for our nation as well. But it will require a surrender of our masks and our agendas, a dedication to Truth, and a recognition that God is who we trust. Apart from that shift occurring, any signs of peace or unity will be window dressing.

So, what about you? What is coming between you and God, and you and others? Do you want unity and peace? Or more of what we experienced through the elections? Will you work for true peace to gain true unity through Jesus?

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

[This blog post is part of a series. The previous post is here, and the next post is here.]

Spiritual warfare is a topic I have written on and spoken about for a number of years. However, my problem has been very similar to what I have realized throughout this series: knowing the theory but not knowing how to actually use it. In my whole prayer series, I feel like God is taking apart my whole understanding of Christianity and rebuilding it from scratch. In dealing with the topic of spiritual warfare and seeing prayer as the primary weapon, this is another example.

As Christians, we no longer fight our battles with swords and spears as David and his Mighty Men did. We are to fight spiritual battles. However, our battles we fight in the spiritual are not limited to having mere spiritual effects. In The Art of War, Sun-Tzu makes a key point: war is a means to an end and it is usually political. Likewise, all our spiritual battles are a means to an end and that end is either for God’s Kingdom or against it.

The spiritual battles we fight are about ownership of territory, not just physical territory but spiritual territory. God is not just interested in having ownership of a home or a church or a city, he also wants ownership of areas of our lives: our thought life, our social life, our finances, our education, our career, and more. Prayer is the weapon we use to fight for God’s Kingdom in each of these areas. Jesus said, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Part of the Lord’s Prayer is calling down what God initiates and seeks to establish it here in our reality. Eric Ludy describes prayer as a grappling hook. We throw it up to heaven and we pull and pull and pull. When we feel tension, that is when the hook is caught and there is resistance in pulling it down. The concept of “Praying Through” is praying until what is asked for it achieved. What does this look like?

Elijah was a man of prayer. He prayed that it would not rain and it did not rain for 3 ½ years. Then it took seven times to pray until the rain came back. He fought his battles on his knees. Jesus fought the greatest spiritual battle ever fought in the Garden of Gethsemane. The prayer was so intense that Jesus sweated blood (which by the way is a sign that your heart is ready to burst). John “Praying Hyde” Hyde is reported to have prayed for weeks on end with such intensity that his heart literally shifted from one side of his rib cage to the other (which led to his death). Some may say that he wasted his life, but in reality, he could not have fulfilled it better.

As I read the testimony of Rees Howells, he spent many years of his life learning about the art of intercession. That topic is important enough to warrant a separate post next week. However, near the end of his life as he ran a Bible college, World War II was in action. He set to pray for the events of the war in prayer, and prayed as though he was one of the soldiers on the field, willing to die for the cause. He would pray over specific battles and the miracle rescue of Dunkirk and “somehow,” against impossible odds, the battles were won. Howells even prayed in some cases for Hitler to get distracted by other fronts including invading Russia or to make unusually foolish military decisions. And he did. Prayer proved to be a powerful weapon. Now, Howells NEVER boasted about how his prayers affected World War II, but God used mighty men like him to turn the outcomes of the war.

Friends, we do not have the kind of vision of prayer that we need. Eric Ludy in Wrestling Prayer (pages 17-18) says this in regards to how we normally tend to think of prayer: “‘That's not prayer,’ God seemed to say, ‘That's spiritual sounding chitter chatter.’ … Spiritual-sounding chitter chatter tends to be self-centric in its banter, begging for comforts to be protected, deadlines to be met, surgeon's hands to be guided, tests to be passed, and food to be blessed. It's always about us.”

We are not praying as we should, and then we wonder why our prayers seem so powerless. God wants us to pray powerful prayers and to see victory in our lives. To get that, we need to pray God’s way. That is what I have been seeking in this series: to learn what praying God’s way is, to pray God’s prayers and in his style and manner. Ludy, also in Wrestling Prayer, suggests God wants to raise a great generation of heroes, prayer warriors that have not been seen since the days of the Apostles. Numerous pastors here in the southwest are calling for a final revival that will precede the events of the end times.

In all our talk about political banter, we tend to call for political reform, movie reform, books reform, every kind of reform except spiritual reform. We want to see an end to the bars, the gangs, the drugs, the porn, the sexualization of our youth, and so on. Do you want to know what it will take to shut them all down? It’s not any city ordinance or executive order. It is revival, brought and sustained through prayer. How do I know? Look at Acts 19. Paul spent a couple years in Ephesus preaching the Gospel and revival fell, to the point where people stopped doing business with all the merchants that sold idols and sacrificial meat to idols. They got so mad they cause a riot. If you want to do real prayer business, you will encounter an enemy that is going to fight back. He is not going to let you conquer his territory without a fight. If the enemy is not fighting against you, it is most likely because you aren’t a threat to him, because you are not taking your faith as serious as you should. I’m talking to myself on this too.

I’ll close this post with this thought. Are you known in hell? Leonard Ravenhill made this proclamation: “I want to be on Satan’s Most Wanted List.” And he was. So was Paul. Go back to Acts 19. The Seven Sons of Sceva tried to ride on Paul’s coattails. “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I cast you out.” The demon replied: “Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are you?” Are you known in hell where the demons tremble when you walk into the scene? If you are known in hell, that means you also know that it is not YOU that they tremble before but the Lord Jesus Christ in you who is able to act in and through you. Satan and his minions dread any man yielded to the will of God.

Are you a prayer warrior, praying God’s prayers God’s way, and obedient to the call? You cannot be such a person without experiencing war. That is why God arms us and equips us with his weapons, with prayer being our primary one. I have experienced battles and I know I have been on Satan’s Most Wanted List because he tried to kill me as a child. He realized God has a calling on my life, but am I living to see that through? Am I the threat to him now that God knew I could be? Am I praying God’s Kingdom into my life? Am I in position to not merely talk about the battles and train others about the battles, but to engage in the battles? I received a lesson in humility by reading the stories of a local youth pastor here in El Paso and I realized I am not the “expert” on spiritual warfare that I have been used to being due to being one of the few to actually engage in it. He showed me how little I actually knew. I am grateful to see other warriors on the field, but we are few. We need you. We need you praying and we need you fighting. If you are not willing to do this, stop complaining about the status of our world.

Next week, I’ll dig even deeper into this as I address Intercession.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Katie Erickson

“Next Abimelech went to Thebez and besieged it and captured it. Inside the city, however, was a strong tower, to which all the men and women—all the people of the city—had fled. They had locked themselves in and climbed up on the tower roof. Abimelech went to the tower and attacked it. But as he approached the entrance to the tower to set it on fire, a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull.
Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, ‘Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can’t say, ‘A woman killed him.’’ So his servant ran him through, and he died. When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they went home. Thus God repaid the wickedness that Abimelech had done to his father by murdering his seventy brothers. God also made the people of Shechem pay for all their wickedness. The curse of Jotham son of Jerub-Baal came on them.” (Judges 9:50-57)

Look back a couple weeks ago at where we last left Abimelech in his story (here). Essentially, Abimelech and his army has just decimated the town of Shechem. Now, they’re headed to the next town of Thebez to capture it as well. We don’t know why Abimelech felt the need to take the town of Thebez as well, except for the fact of him being power hungry.

The town of Thebez was around 10 miles to the northeast of Shechem, but word apparently travels fast. The inhabitants of Thebez had heard what happened at Shechem, so they were as prepared as they could be. They all went up to the roof of their strong tower so they could potentially fight back against Abimelech and his army.

The story takes an unexpected twist when a woman drops an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head. An upper millstone was around 10” long, and it would go back and forth over the lower millstone, which was larger, as the grain was crushed in the process of milling. So at 10” long, this was not a huge stone, and perhaps the woman had it nearby and figured it could be a good weapon.

With factors such as wind and the height from which it was dropped, it would have been nearly impossible for the women to hit Abimelech square on the head except for pure luck - or God’s intervention. This had to be an act of divine retribution, of God’s judgment against Abimelech’s evil deeds.

Being killed by a woman was considered incredibly disgraceful, and power-hungry and image-conscious Abimelech definitely didn’t want that! Since he wasn’t dead yet from the impact of the stone, he had his armor bearer actually finish him off with his sword. But, that ended up being essentially irrelevant. The story of Abimelech being killed by a woman was what lived on, and it was even referenced later in Scripture, in 2 Samuel 11:21.

So now that their leader Abimelech was dead, Israel’s army had no purpose to stay there, so as it says in verse 55, they simply went home. They had no hard feelings against the people of Thebez; they were only there to follow their leader’s desire for power.

So remember way back in Judges 9:1-21 how Abimelech’s half-brother, Jotham, warned Israel how they would be cursed through Abimelech if they let him be their leader? That had finally come true, and it was fulfilled in multiple ways. The city of Shechem was destroyed when Abimelech set it on fire, and that fire was likely fed by thorn bushes in the city. In Jotham’s curse, he spoke of thorn bushes to represent Abimelech. It all came full circle now, with God providing this judgment up Abimelech for all the evil he had done.

There are always consequences for our actions, both good and bad, and sometimes it takes a while before we see them. The people of Israel allowed Abimelech to become their leader, even though they had already seen the evil he was capable of when he killed 68 of his half brothers so that he could be the one in charge. Because of this, the town of Shechem and all its inhabitants were completely destroyed. The town of Thebez fared a bit better, and only the buildings of the town and not its people were destroyed. They allowed a man who had already shown his evil character to become their leader, and they paid for it with the consequences later. Abimelech himself reaped the consequences of what he sowed. By killing many, many people, he was killed himself, and in a very disgraceful way.

What are you doing in your life that could lead to negative consequences later on? Take a look at your actions and attitudes today, and make whatever changes you need to so that you’ll have positive consequences later on.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Nathan Buck

I remember when I realized I have no control over what people choose to think about me. It was the same season I realized that I didn't have to take it personal if someone disagreed with or disliked me. It was also when I stopped trying to justify myself to others, stopped trying to 'win' arguments, and started listening for more important things.

To be fair, it was a very long season. It's been a process of maturing and letting my own skin 'thicken' so that I could see the world from a less defensive, less self-centered perspective. I have NOT arrived. I recognize how far I have to go when I interact with mature seniors, and how far I've come when I talk with teens and twenty-somethings. For all of us, maturity is a perpetual work in progress. And one essential benefit of maturity is having a thicker skin.

What do I mean by that? Well, maybe another way of saying it is being less REACTIVE and more RESPONSIVE. Someone who is reactive always seems to have a level 10 reaction to a level 1 event. Yes, this can be a stress management issue or an insecurity issue, but reactive people almost always have a maturity issue - from a traumatic wound, a 'blind spot' in our character, or for any number of reasons.

Reactive people are immature and do not last long under personal critique or pressure. They see others as an obstacle to their desires, and most opportunities through potential personal gain. Reactive people are the first ones to use controlling tactics, and they are the last ones to grow personally, especially if that growth is from negative feedback.

Responsive people tend to be mature enough to separate their worth from their experience. These people are not ignited by conflict, but rather curious about its cause. They seek to discern how the situation came to be, and then how to maximize the benefits. These are the people who value feedback, even negative feedback, and know how to use it to grow and become stronger. These are also people who know their maturity is essential to helping others grow and for communities to be healthy.

How do we cultivate maturity, and have a thicker skin for the abrasive nature of life? It starts with what we hold as important in our hearts. Read 1 Peter 3:8-22.

Notice in verse 15 that Peter tells us the key to maturity. He says, "Do not fear as they [the world] does, but sanctify Jesus Christ as Lord in your heart, always being ready to give a reason for the hope that you have." That word sanctify, from the Greek, means to 'dedicate' or to 'honor as holy.' Everything else Peter encourages us to do in these verses hangs on this question: is Jesus Lord of our life? And Peter doesn't just leave it as a question of Jesus being in charge. He's not talking about some "Jesus club" where we just pledge allegiance to Jesus in order to maintain our membership. Peter makes it clear that our maturity starts with dedicating ourselves to follow Jesus - making Jesus the most sacred voice we hear in every decision and situation.

Once Jesus replaces our self-protection, our desires, and our fears, we can become mature. We can have a thick skin and be responsive in even the most threatening situations. We gain perspective by recognizing that God is bigger, we gain patience and peace by recognizing He is in control, and we give a healthy response focused on His good instead of our gain.

So how thick is your skin? Do you have a gentle and well-measured answer to offenses, or do you fly off the handle at anything that seems like it’s directed at you? If you find yourself having level 10 reactions to level 1 situations, maybe it’s time to do a heart check and see what you are holding there as sacred and holy. It's probably not Jesus, and He is likely being pushed aside by other concerns that have control over your life.

It’s time to take stock in what you really believe, and to get your heart and life lined up with the only one who can help you become fully mature. One practical situation we can hold up a mirror and reflect on is this upcoming election. This election season has demonstrated the immaturity, ignorance, and self-righteous attitudes we have in America. It has revealed those who follow Jesus, and those who follow other religious, social, cultural, political, etc. agendas first. It has shown the exaggerated reactiveness of those who tearfully cry foul about "hombres" and "emails." It has shown the hypocrisy of those who cry “racism,” “sexism,” and then vote primarily to achieve a racial or sexual milestone in political history. It has shown the frailty of a Christianized social culture that bears nothing of the power and unity of the Spirit of Christ (a form of godliness, but denying His power).

America is immature. It’s not because we are a young nation, but because our republic is being torn apart by REACTIVE people who are demanding their rights and abdicating their responsibilities. You have to be RESPONSIVE to truly be responsible, you must be thick skinned to find opportunity in adversity, and you must be dedicated to Jesus as Lord, from the core of your being, to be fully mature.

I invite you to reflect again on 1 Peter 3:8-22, and I invite you to consider your personal and spiritual maturity. Where and how might God be wanting to strengthen and grow you? (Hint: If you feel like ranting all over my comments section right now, it could be a clue to some areas for thicker skin growth by trusting and listening to Jesus.)

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

[This blog post is part of a series. The previous post is here, and the next one is here.]

Election Day is Tuesday. I am quite sure most of you will be glad for it to be over, as will I. With a title of “Pray for your leaders” right before the Election, the first impression you may have could be that this will be a political post about how to pray and support whoever wins, but that’s not what I am going to write about. There is the Romans 13:1-7 passage about how to honor and respect your political leaders, because it is the position God instilled regardless of who is holding it. However, there is a bigger issue that the Christians in America the last few months have largely completely forgotten.

Where is your hope and trust found? Where is your faith located? That is a question we have been asking here with Worldview Warriors this week. A while back, I posted on my Facebook page a political rant, directing it at Christians. For much of the election cycle, my feed has been filled with political comments, most of which I agree with on that topic and some that I don’t. However, if you took all of the comments and put them together, very few gave any real hint of trusting the Lord Jesus Christ in the situation. I sense that many place their hope in their choice of candidate or the Supreme Court or the Cabinet or anything except with Christ. There is nothing wrong with being knowledgeable about the elections or making a wise decision in how you vote, or even exposing problems with politics, however is Trump or Clinton or a third party candidate the answer? I had quite a few likes on that post but the ironic thing is that a number of those who liked it were the very people I was addressing. In this season, I have said very little about the election on my social media, and in anything I have said I sought to point people to the real solution to this madness: Jesus Christ.

During the Christmas Advent season last year, my pastor gave a message about peace and the key theme he preached was that we will not have peace unless Christ is on the throne. Is Christ on the “throne” of America? Absolutely not. Is he still sovereign over the whole situation? Absolutely. But Christ’s authority is not recognized in this nation today. Why should we expect peace when the nation no longer honors and respects his command? What’s more is that America is actually turned to directly defy God, like they are daring God to do something.

But America is not the only nation to have turned on God. Rome was always a secular nation that tolerated the initial Christians but soon began to directly persecute them. Roman Emperor Nero was insane and blamed the burning of Rome on the Christians while he played the fiddle. Many of the Kings of Israel and Judah were also wicked. Few stand out more than Saul in today’s context. In 1 Samuel 8, Israel asked God for a king because they wanted to be like everyone else and did not want God to directly rule over them (sounds very familiar to today, doesn’t it?). So God gave them the king they all wanted: Saul.

Saul was head and shoulders above everyone else. He looked the part, but for most of his reign he did not act the part. But there’s one very interesting thing about Saul. The prophet Samuel loved him and constantly prayed over him until God explicitly told him to stop praying. This did not come until roughly 27 years into Saul’s reign. Samuel constantly prayed for Saul. Paul told us in Romans 13 (see above) to pray for our leaders. Nero was the Emperor, and not a godly man.

In Jeremiah 29, we see a letter to the captives to build homes, marry, plant fields, and bless their captors, because if Babylon prospered, so would the Jews. Not exactly the picture that most think of when citing Jeremiah 29:11. Joseph, Nehemiah, and Daniel were prime ministers and advisors to great kings - secular, mostly Godless kings. They honored, respected, and prayed for their kings. Even in defiance of an order, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego still respected Nebuchadnezzar. What are we doing?

It gets worse. How many of us pray and support our Godly leaders? Countless pastors reveal they need the prayers of their congregation more than we could ever imagine. If we are to be praying and supporting the godless leaders, how much more should we be supporting the Godly leaders? Where are the Aarons and Hurs who lifted up Moses’ arms when Joshua fought with Amalek? Read this by Jonathan Edwards:

"If some Christians that have been complaining of their ministers had said and acted less before men and had applied themselves with all their might to cry to God for their ministers--had, as it were, risen and stormed heaven with their humble, fervent, and incessant prayers for them--they would have been much more in the way of success." ~Jonathan Edwards, quoted in The Complete Works of E.M Bounds, page 44

We have all heard the stories of pastors who have fallen into error, both doctrinally and morally. I wonder how many of them would have fallen if their congregation had spent more time praying for them. I speak to myself as well. How often do I pray for my pastor, my administrators, and our American leaders? Honestly, I don’t do it as much as I ought.

Some may say that, “Who am I to be able to pray for our nation?” Or, “We need to keep religion out of politics.” There have been many world leaders that have feared the prayers of God’s mighty men. Queen Elizabeth is claimed to have made this proclamation: “I fear the prayers of Edmund Burke more than I fear the full might of the Spanish Armada.” I read of Rees Howells, a true prayer warrior of Wales who prayed specifically for battles throughout World War II in which victory for the allies made no sense, unless men like Howells were praying. Burke and Howells were not super special men. They were just ordinary men who learned the power of prayer, as I have been learning about but not yet fully grasped.

Too many of us have a pathetic image of what prayer can do, and yet as I read more of the testimonies of the great missionaries, their prayers were not merely for victory of tiny things that we generally pray for: help on a test, guidance for a surgeon’s hands, a peaceful day at work, etc; their prayers were nation- and world-impacting prayers. We may have wicked leaders and God may very well use this election to bring America to its due judgement for our nationwide sins. But instead of continuing the political banter I keep seeing, we need to be getting to our knees and praying that God’s will be done, even if it means judgment. Keep in mind: the US does not have a promise of restoration that Israel got in Jeremiah 29. We need to pray that God shows himself mighty in these dark times. We need to pray, pray, pray. If we want to see changes in this nation, we as the Bride of Christ need to change, to be purified. And it will mean we will need to go to battle on our knees.

Next week, I’ll address how prayer is the weapon we wield in the real battles going on in the spiritual realms.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.