Chapter 9, Part 4

Many Christians look at God as some giant Santa Claus in the sky who they come to with long shopping lists of desires for themselves. God if you just give me a beautiful wife, a beautiful home, or a new car I will serve you. God is not Wal-Mart. The only purpose of prayer should be to develop a closer relationship to God. If you walk close enough to God He will know your needs. If you find God, you will find all of your needs and desires there. Instead of seeking goals and wants, we should be seeking God. It is only in finding God that all those things I seek will be found. He will keep you from the evil one. What happens to your prayer life when God does not provide you with these things you seek? A common mistake made today is that material well being is being interpreted as a blessing or closeness to God. Nowhere is this attitude supported in the scriptures. On the contrary Jesus Christ said, “blessed is the poor.”[1] But again the modern Church has translated this teaching differently. If all my wants are met when will I seek God? Your only goal in prayer should be to seek God and the well-being of others.

What is prayer? Very little teaching is done in the Church concerning this most vital aspect of the Christians life. There are a number of Christians who do not even know what or how to pray. Other than the example Christ gave to us and his disciples they do not have a clue. But in that example is everything we need to know about prayer. The key to all we want to accomplish as a people, as a nation is in prayer. Many in their egotistical foolishness think that the key to resolving the problems of the world are in activities or in technology. As if we need to do for God what He cannot do for Himself. Any work we get to do for God is not for God, it is for our instruction and development. It is to prepare us for Him and His Kingdom. Prayer is coming before the presence of God in humility, not to receive anything. It is the transforming of our will to His will. It is the coming before God with nothing and expecting nothing. There is a reason Christ said, “He knows the things you need before you even ask.”[2] If you do ask, it is in the asking that you are drawn closer to Him. Most of us would be apprehensive to ask a stranger for anything, but would be comfortable asking a friend or family member. God wants that type of relationship with us. This type of relationship can only happen when we allow ourselves to be known by our Creator.

There have been many volumes written about how Christ taught us to pray and in this short space I would not even begin to attempt to cover all the nuances of it. However, I think it is important to notice that nowhere in His example does it mention me! Where is there in the prayer the part where we pray only for ourselves? Throughout the prayer it is us and we, the Lord is giving us instructions to pray for others. Even in the final hours of His earthly ministry Christ prayed for the Fathers will to be done. It was always the Fathers will in prayer. It was through prayer that He and the Father became one. Our goal should be to gain that oneness with the Father.[3]

“Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one
another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent
prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
James 5:16

The scriptures tell us that our prayers are worth much. The action of prayer does not prepare us for greater works; it is in fact the greater works itself. Time spent in prayer is not wasted. It is saying through our actions that we cannot God, but You can. Not only can You, but we are going to let You. The passage speaks of action following our prayers but with no timetable attached. This has caused many a Christian to fall, their impatience. Instead of spending so much time in conferences and meetings about fornication and sin, we should be spending more time in prayer. Fornication is a sin against God as well as man and to alleviate it from our midst will require God's intervention. Prayer brings God into the equation and that changes any equation. The world may not see the benefit of bringing God into any situation, but we believers should have no problem with that fact. We can preach and have rallies from now until Christ returns and not make the problem any better. In fact we would probably make the situation worse. God and only God can turn this sinful epidemic around and break this viscous cycle that we find ourselves in. Prayer is our way of highlighting the problem, of saying to God; yes God we also see the evil in this and want it removed. Remember the work is the Lords, people who are in a state of sin are not fighting against me, they are fighting against God. The battle is the Lords not mine. I am merely a hired hand who has chosen work in the fields. We should not be like the world and take credit for what God has done. It is the labor of prayer by the saints of God that gets results. Prayer is labor. Labor is not about excitement, it is about accomplishing the job. God needs warriors, prayer warriors. Our people requires saints praying day and night for our redemption as a people.

---

[1] Luke 6:21

[2] Matthew 6:8

[3] John 14:2

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.

---

[1] Luke 18:7,8

[2] Luke 22:39

[3] Genesis 20:17

[4] Acts 2:42

[5] Philippians 4:11

Chapter 9, Part 1 How Do We Break The Cycle?

How Do We Break The Cycle?

So how do we as a people begin the process of reversing this epidemic that has caused so much destruction and devastation in our communities? Can we stop what seems to be an insurmountable problem? Do we want to stop it? We in and of ourselves can not stem the tide of this epidemic, it will only be arrested by the supernatural power of God.

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds
on the things of the flesh, but those who live according
to the spirit, the things of the spirit.”
Romans 8:5

We who have been living after the flesh, how shall we now live in the spirit? We can not, without the power of the Spirit of God born in us through the death of our old nature or old man. It is this power of the redemptive work of Christ that frees us from the death sentence that we deserve. So what shall we do? We can begin to incorporate a few principals in our lives that can lead to change. A change that will not only benefit us, but more importantly our children. I pray that you will consider these principles with an open mind and begin to instruct others in their application. They are all spiritually based and come directly from the Word of God. I hope that they will help our people and our nation to turn back from the edge of the abyss that we seem intent on going over. If we want to live after the spirit there is work we need to be doing. Here are ten principals to developing a more spiritual way of life and hopefully a closer relationship with God.

1) Relationship with Christ

2) Prayer Life

3) Confession of Sin

4) Repent of Sin

5) The Word of God

6) Live in the Spirit

7) Change Thoughts

8) Resist Temptation

9) Fellowship with Believers

10) Marriage

I believe that if we as a people began to use these ten principals, we will not only stop this epidemic of fornication, but also the lawlessness that now permeates our communities. The time for doing nothing has passed for too long we have turned our backs pretending this was not a problem or a problem others had to fix. I once read somewhere, “How can one man lynch another man?” He cannot without the silence of other “so-called” good men. We can no longer be silent to this destruction. Our children’s very lives are at stake. Let us put aside our petty differences and come together with one voice to cry out against this tragedy.

Relationship With Christ
“But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in
that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8

Every time I read or say this verse my heart is overwhelmed with gratitude and conviction. When I could care less about God, when we were in the midst of our fornication, drug/alcohol abusing, adultery, lying, cheating, stealing, coveting, envying, murdering, and any of our other sinfulness, Jesus Christ died for us. This is the essence and beginning of our new relationship with the living God. We love Him because He first loved us.[1] All that we read, hear, and know about God is designed for one purpose. That purpose is to develop a relationship with God. Our purpose on this earth was and continues to be to fellowship with God. Did God need man to help the earth produce fruit? I think not, God wanted a species that He could commune with. It is no accident that we are the only species that aspires to know God. If evolution is true then show me the link between humans and the other animals. There should be some species that connects us to the rest of the animal world. As much as they try, the best they can come up with is the primates and they are a giant leap from man. Conveniently, of course there is not one, it has vanished.

Why is our relationship with God so important? The scriptures reveal that it is this relationship with God that gives us the power we need to overcome our sinful natures.[2] When Adam sinned, he not only broke his fellowship with God, but ours as well. We are born into sin and only God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ can overcome that sin nature. We can never do it ourselves. If we could there would be no need for the ultimate sacrifice. How many times do we tell ourselves we are not going to continue in a particular sin only to find ourselves doing it again. And it seems that the harder we try to stop doing it by our own power the more we do it. The apostle Paul says, “That what I want to do I cannot do and what I do not want to do that is what I do.”[3] Our Lord understood this by His being fully human and suffering temptation. Through His own temptation He is our supporter before God, the Father. That is why He said that the Father would send a Helper with power. If God has the power to raise the dead, does He also have the power to keep us from stealing, lying, and fornicating? Of course He does. So if He has the power why do we continue to live in this sinful state?

---

[1] 1 John 4:19

[2] Luke 24:49

[3] Romans 7:19