Chapter 9, Part 3

Prayer

“Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always
ought to pray and not lose heart.”
Luke 18:1

The next tool to overcome this epidemic is prayer. For some reason many in the modern church and many modern Christians feel that praying is doing nothing. The value of prayer is no longer recognized nor is its power. We have lost faith in its effect on our lives and on the world. Our Lord said men ought to pray always and gave a parable to illustrate the point. He spoke of a woman who cried out for justice from an unjust judge and because of her constant pleas he granted her request. He goes on to say, “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes will He really find faith on the earth.”[1]

So we are to pray continuously. We are to put our case for others before God day and night. This is part of our surrender to God that we do not rely on our own efforts. We should allow God to fix this fallen world and not think that our efforts will succeed without the guidance of God. We should not think that our wisdom and our ways are better than the wisdom and ways of God. God has a plan for this world and our job is to not attempt to substitute our plan for God’s, but to follow God’s plan. The problem for many is that God moves too slow for them. They require speedy results. The parable speaks of God bearing long with us or being patient with us. The thing is that we do not have patience to see God work. If God does not work on our timetable, we go with plan B. We have already discussed earlier how our plan B’s have worked out for us. For an example let us look at the abortion question, there are those who feel they have a right to bomb clinics and kill innocents. Where does God say that we have the right to kill to save? The people doing the violence proclaim to be born again Christians. They have replaced the Word of God with the passion of man. Is it wrong to abort a fetus? In my opinion, the answer is yes. God says to pray for them not to kill them.

One of the main reasons prayer has lost its power is because we have lost our faith in prayer. Our Lord was continuously in prayer.[2] The Bible speaks of Abraham who prayed and a whole family was healed.[3] Not only have many lost their faith in prayer, many no longer have the obedience to pray. So many today believe that Christ did not have any commandments, so there is no need for obedience. Many in the modern church should realize that there is power in obedience. We can do all the things that Christ said we would be able to do if we could only learn to obey. The reason Christ was able to accomplish all He did was that He obeyed the Father in all He did. He only did what the Father commanded Him to do. Today because of our “so-called” medical and social professionals, many have diluted the Word of God. There is now this “easy gospel” where if you do not agree with the Word of God keep shopping until you find a church that says what you want to hear. The pitfall of creating your own religion is you can make it anyway you want it to be. Prayer has become the lost gift of the church. In the beginning everything was done by prayer. The scriptures say that, “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.[4] So we see that the earliest believers were steadfast in prayer and following the teachings of Christ through the apostles. Why do many today think it will be any different for us. I do not think we can overestimate the power of prayer for changing not just the world, but our hearts and minds.

Prayers most important work is not to change the world, although it does that. Its most important work is changing us. It is to bring our thoughts and hearts into the will of God, that we may serve Him and not the other way around. Many prayers today are not for us to be of service to God, but to have God be of service to us. Oh God we need this or that, we need a miracle or some blessing. The apostle Paul did not pray for wants he said, “…whatever state I am in I need to be content.”[5] Do not change the world God, change me. How many of us pray in this fashion? And we wonder why we do not have any power.

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[1] Luke 18:7,8

[2] Luke 22:39

[3] Genesis 20:17

[4] Acts 2:42

[5] Philippians 4:11

Chapter 5 Part 1 Men

Chapter 5 - Men

“But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ,
The head of every woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.”
1 Corinthians 11:3

In God’s perfect will and plan for male and female relationships there is a hierarchy. Just as there is a hierarchy in heaven so there is one on the earth. In this hierarchy everyone is under authority, everyone! Because men are the head of the woman, I am going to start with the men. I can already hear the feminist and the humanist rage. In addition, of course there will be others who will object to this hierarchy for various reasons. However it is not my hierarchy, it is God’s. Please forward all complaints to 1-800-CALLGOD and you can argue with God. In our zeal to be politically correct, we have tried to ignore it, but it is to our peril if we do. In God’s perfect plan, the hierarchy is as follows:

GOD
Christ Jesus
Holy Spirit
Man
Woman

Child

This will undoubtedly set off a firestorm of controversy. In this society, anyone who questions the status of women or questions the right of a woman to have everything her way is immediately labeled a chauvinist male. The thing about God and His word is that our belief is not required. God’s divine plan continues whether I believe it or not. Because of our position, the bulk of responsibility falls on the man for this deadly sin of fornication.

In the last few generations, many black men in our communities have been fornicators. Many have chosen to lie down with anybody and everybody without concern for the consequences. It has not only been the poor, uneducated, drug/alcohol addicted practicing this awful sin. It has been lawyers, bankers, and police officers. Also included in this are politicians, community and church leaders, as well as professional athletes and entertainers. It seems that no one professional or otherwise is immune to this epidemic. Why has this been such a large-scale problem? Is it because of our background of slavery in this country? Some say it’s our heritage of polygamy carried over from Africa. Which is false, because Africa has had a rich heritage of Christian teaching and life. In my opinion, it is our deliberate and rebellious sin against God; plain and simple. For whatever reason many have decided, they are no longer under God’s authority. Many of our people have lost their fear of God. Many have chosen to go their own way, no longer being concerned with what God says.

“There is no fear of God before his eyes, when
he finds Out his iniquity and when he hates.

For he flatters Himself in his own eyes.”

Psalm 36:1,2

We have flattered ourselves with how slick and cool we are. However, it has not always been this way. There was a time in our history when men were leading the way, when men had a healthy fear of God. What does it mean to fear God? The fear in the Bible has been translated to mean to be in “awe” or “respect”. How can we not be in awe of God? How can any man look around and not recognize what God has done. I would rather believe in a dream (there is a God) than what I know is a lie (I am God). Who among us can add one inch to his height? Let alone create mountains, oceans, or make the sun rise and set. I am in awe of God for what He has done. It is amazing to me how we have no trouble acknowledging the fear we have of other men, but fear God! It seems that when our plight in this country was at its worst our men cried out to God and He answered.

There was no place else to turn then. Our “so called” Christian brothers were enslaving us and refusing to acknowledge our humanity. What they did not understand or accept is that in God’s hierarchy no man is more human than another man. In theology, two terms help us to distinguish the authority of things versus order of things. These words are nature and order. We humans are all the same nature. We all possess what Paul referred to as the “flesh of men”. However, we do not share the same order. The president of a company has authority over the vice-president, but they share the same nature. The one is not the president because he is more human than the vice-president. Therefore, no man is better than the woman, but his order is different. It is amazing that as our plight in this country has improved, our reliance on God has decreased. As we have become more affluent in this society, we have grown further away from God. The less we had the more we relied on God. This is not just the black man’s plight; it is this way with our society as a whole. This is not to say that we have achieved parity with the majority society, on the contrary. It just shows how little it took us to be drawn away from God, by Satan. In a short period, we have seen some black men rise to great heights in the business, sports, political, and entertainment worlds. There is still a long way to go, but if after these small gains, we have forgotten God how much more do you think God will be willing to allow.

“Better is a little with the fear of the Lord,
than great treasure with trouble.”
Psalms 15:16

We are more materially prosperous than at any point in our history in this country. Yet, in our prosperity, we have lost something. We have lost our spirituality. There are those who would say that we are still poor in this society, but even the poor in our society enjoy many things the poor in other countries dream about. Christ Jesus told us in the “beatitudes”, blessed are the poor in spirit. The problem with most of our “so called” Christians is they do not believe that being poor is a blessing. They say, “That’s really not what He meant.” It seems straightforward to me that is what He said. It is a fact the more abundant our resources the less we depend on God. The Bible speaks about the difficulty of the rich getting into the kingdom of heaven. The problem with most of us is that we look at our wealth in relation to those around us. We see so much conspicuous consumption in our society from the television that we think we are poor. However, if you were to look at the poor in say South America, Central America, or Africa, that is real poverty. We have “so called poor in our country wearing a hundred dollar sneakers. The fact is we are not poor; we just do not have all we desire. When your very survival is a day-to-day ordeal, you rely on God. You know that it is only by His grace that you make it another day. The old saints knew not only where their eternal salvation came from, but also their daily bread. This generation of man has decided that relying on God is no longer necessary. Let the women go to church. Let the women raise the children alone with no support, financial or otherwise. What we do not realize is that by not submitting ourselves to God, we are throwing the whole hierarchy of God out of balance. The first list illustrates God’s hierarchy and the second list is how we have corrupted that hierarchy.

GOD
Christ Jesus
Holy Spirit
Man
Woman
Child

Man
GOD
Christ Jesus
Holy Spirit
Woman
Child

By having our women go to church alone, we have left women and children under God’s authority. They are under God’s authority, but not under the covering of a man as God intended. I was recnetly engaged to be married and I told my fiancé that I needed to cover her and she did not understand what I meant. After I put the ring on her finger, she realized what I was saying. The ring said more to other people than she ever could. By me giving her that ring, it showed the world that she had a man that loved her enough to make a commitment for life to her. Many people have no respect for the sanctity of relationships, let alone marriage. By covering the woman I love, I send the men who would not respect our relationship a loud and clear message that she is loved. Not only the woman should be covered but the children as well. Most predators are looking for an easy target; just the physical presence of a man can deter a lot of this behavior. We are the ones outside of God’s authority. Notice the only ones who have the same position in both diagrams are the women and children. God will not allow anyone authority over anyone or anything who is not under authority themselves.

“You could have no power against Me unless
it had been given you from above.”
John 19:11

Therefore, we see that God gives the authority even in this world. Here is the key; God loves those women and children just as much as He loves you. He will not allow us authority over them when we are running around engulfed in sin. That is why we have no authority in our homes and our women refuse to submit to us. Why should they? Who in their right mind would submit to a lost little boy? The way we have been living has not been as men, but as little boys. Little boys only care about themselves and their own selfish pleasures. The world taught me that a man was: a drinker, drug addict, fornicator, an adulterer, stays out all night, and answered to no one. What I have since learned is that I was being a fool. Two marriages and countless relationships later, it finally dawned on me how foolish I was. Today I know that a man takes care of his responsibilities. He gets a job, wakes up and goes to that job. A man loves and takes care of his family, especially his children. A man not only makes babies, but he raises them as well. How can we claim to love our children and yet we do not provide for their needs? We have not behaved as men, and now we are reaping the fruit of that childish behavior.