Good
Monday morning (1-10-11),
It can be a challenge at times to stay encouraged to
pray when it seems like our prayers are ineffective, like they don’t matter.
After all, I’ve thought in times past, can I really move God to change a nation
through my prayer? I’ve dealt with these thoughts at times, and they often
resulted in a tangible lack of enthusiasm to pray, especially when there are so
many other things I could be doing.
I knew that if I really believed that my requests
would be answered, and I mean really believed it, spending quality time in
prayer would one of the first things on my “to do” list. In fact, prayer would
be fun and exciting.
However, a day came when a scripture in 2nd
Thessalonians popped right off the page for me. The revelation I got from this
chapter encouraged me, and I began to get very motivated in my prayer life.
Paul wrote to the church about the mystery of
lawlessness, which is right now at work in the world, and the role the church
plays in restraining it. This “lawlessness” is everything which exalts itself
against God and His law. It’s a real spiritual force and is actively opposing
God’s law, which is of course the Law of Love.
God is love. God is light. In Him is no darkness at
all. The nature of our Heavenly Father is to give all good things to those who
ask. It’s also His nature to abundantly provide for our every need. The Good
news about His Kingdom is that every provision in every area of our life is made
ready for us. All we have to do is fight for it.
Our position as the Church, and individually as
Christians, is such that we are to establish and enforce the law of love. This
is our divine commission, and we have every weapon needed to make sure that the
will of God is done in this earth. Our primary weapon is prayer. Not just any
kind of prayer, but binding and loosing prayer. When we “bind,” we hinder and
restrain satan’s work.
This may sound controversial, but America has been
and is blessed because the hand of God has both protected and prospered her.
It’s not that God is especially in love with this particular continental land
mass. Well, he does love all His creation, but America has been particularly
favored because of the presence of an obedient Church who has hindered the
power of lawlessness through its prayer. At least that has been case.
Any country who’s God is the Lord Jehovah will be
favored because the power of lawlessness is restrained through prayer. Prayer hinders
the worker of lawlessness and his concoctions of disaster and misery. No prayer
equals much disaster and misery.
I’m not saying that Christian nations don’t suffer
disasters, because they obviously do. But I am saying that Christians within
any nation who pray will limit wickedness by fulfilling what is written in 2
Thessalonians 2:7, “The mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who
now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.”
He who is restraining is the power of a praying
Christian. We’re in a great battle, the good fight of faith. As much as the
world hates our testimony, it has no clue as to how fortunate it is for them
that we’re here among their nations. Hate us or not, it had better prepare for
the coming day when the Church will be taken away, for then Hell will truly
make earth its throne!
Believe me, prayer is the only thing which keeps satan from turning our earth into
a real life version of the movie Terminator: The Rise of the Machines. Our
prayers restrain and hinder lawlessness, or in other words, our prayers
restrain and hinder everything which opposes God’s highest law, The Law of
Love.
We mustn’t adopt the mindset that all is lost, so why
bother praying?
When we as a nation pray for our leaders, or for whatever
else, God will move in our behalf. What an annoying thing when I hear apostasy
echoed in ministers who disqualify 2nd Chronicles 7:14 as nothing
more than old covenant history for the Jew only.
What rubbish!
This wonderful scripture, known by the suffering
Church fathers, was obediently quoted and believed, and certainly must have
emboldened them. Their faithful obedience to 2nd Chronicles 7:14s call
is what eventually collapsed the brutal, sadistic cultures which once ruled
supreme across the whole earth.
“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.”
It was the Church of Jesus Christ, and the authority
and pressure of its consistent prayer, which eventually brought a measure of
civility to the nations of the earth.
The Church must now maintain and further assert its
authority against the worker of lawlessness. We do make a difference! Start to
remember that each time you kneel to pray, your prayer of faith is restraining
everything which opposes the law of love.
Sickness is against the law of love; its lawlessness
against the body. Poverty is against the law of love; its lawlessness against our
wellbeing. Anything which opposes love is seeking to dethrone the Kingdom of
God, and it must be hindered and restrained and destroyed through the power of
intercession.
It can and does seem overwhelming, the current
situation of society and all its problems. Drug abuse, violence, economic woes,
wars and rumors of wars, economic doom and gloom, and on and on.
But then again, I walk in hope when I ponder
promises like these, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,”
and, “I am more than a conqueror through Him who loved us.”
I remember that even if the lawless one is working,
I have all power and authority to hinder and restrain him, and so I do when I
pray in faith.
Hinder and restrain the power of lawlessness in your
families, in your neighborhood, at your job, in our nation, and finally, around
the world. Then truly will come to pass the words of the Lord’s
prayer, “Your will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.”
Wayne
Witcher
If
my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and
seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven,
and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2nd
Chronicles 7:14