TUNED IN # 4 AM – 28 JULY 2013 Why would men pray?
PRAY FOR THE CHURCH KNEELING DOWN – ASK FOR THEIR EYES TO BE OPENED
I want you to imagine a scenario…
Our land is invaded. From the north, hundreds of thousands of troops are flooding in.
They take over all infrastructure, electricity, water, gas, hospitals an schools.
Our army is overthrown quickly by sheer numbers. Our police are vastly outnumbered. There is a new rulership – a new law has come in.
You can’t move around anywhere you want. Roads are blocked. There’s no flights. Communications are cut there’s no internet. All phones are down. Television is commandeered, only propaganda is televised. No newspapers are printed. Coastlines are patrolled no boats are getting out. The nation is locked down.
Some people still try and go to work just like they used to, desperately clinging to some form of normal existence. Others resist! What would you do?
Who will take up arms? Who will fight? Who loves their nation enough to fight for it?
I’ve got news for you…
It’s already happened!
Our nation is taken over spiritually by an enemy.
2Co 10:3 For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons.
2Co 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds,
While church attendance is dropping all over Australia we see society disintegrating and suffering with people struggling to find answers.
Our political leaders are known for deceit and lying.
Domestic Violence is tearing families apart with the result that violence is the leading cause of death, disability and illness in women and has an economic impact in 2009 of $13 Billion to the Australian economy.(1)
With binge drinking in our high school age youth reaching alarming levels A study by La Trobe University found that for year 12 females having five or six drinks in a day. The percentage increased from 16.9% of year 12 female students in 2002, to 32.1% by 2008.(2)
Police, doctors and nurses in Hospital casualty wards and ambulance drivers are routinely attacked by drunken youths who create mayhem every weekend in our city.
Teachers are leaving the profession in droves because they cannot cope with the violence and disrespect in the classroom. Nearly two-thirds of Australian teachers are considering quitting their jobs for a new career. Principals experience violence in the workplace at a rate six time higher than in the general workforce. (3)
In Australia, the number of children who do not reach the age of 15 in an intact family with both of their biological parents has almost doubled within a generation. While the chances of a marriage ending in divorce have been increasing in the last 25 years, the increase in children experiencing parental separation is largely a consequence of the rapid rise in the numbers of children born into de facto relationships, which subsequently break down. There has also been an increase in the number of women giving birth to a child without having a cohabiting partner. In 2009, 35% of all births were outside marriage. (2)
Overall, 40 per cent of young people 16-24 years have experienced a mental disorder at some point in their lives. (2)
Mental illness is in epidemic proportions in our nation Beyond Blue reports that one in five Australians will suffer from Depression at some point in their life. (4)
It took me 30 minutes to compile these figures with complete references. I could go on to say so much more. But what does all this mean to you, to me?
Are we more than alarmed by these results?
While the church struggles to address some of the symptoms of these broken and hurting people, who is attacking the cause?
Our enemy is spiritual. The enemy is the forces of darkness, demonic influences in the world. Where godlessness and spiritual apathy prevails the devil has a heyday.
Eph 6:12 For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.
The church is asleep. While our nation falls apart morally and socially, we the church put up with the decline as inevitable. Has unbelief so robbed us of a clear perspective that we consider that this great decline in health of our people is expected, unchangeable, or worse; not our problem?
What does Jesus say?
Mat 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
God’s view of the church is an overcoming power. This is spiritual power and its released in prayer! This kind of prayer does not list out to God our personal needs only but declares and demands the Kingdom Come the Lord’s will be done as He has taught us to pray.
It’s time to wake up the mighty men!
It’s time to pray! How much this real scenario affects us is directly proportional to the light we have spiritually, the revelation of truth concerning the gospel and how lost people without Jesus truly are.
Rom 13:11 Besides this you know what [a critical] hour this is, how it is high time now for you to wake up out of your sleep (rouse to reality). For salvation (final deliverance) is nearer to us now than when we first believed (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on Christ, the Messiah).
What moves you? If our nation was invaded by a military force as I described earlier how would you react? Will you now be like the frog in the kettle that slowly adjusts to the changing climate of our age and accepts the vast decline in godliness and health as normal. That’s just life?
Or will we pray? Will we call upon God?
2Ch 7:14 If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
Don’t think this is a quick fix. This will take years. But shall we do nothing? Shall we continue to act as if we are powerless and have no obligation?
Let me read to you what happened in Scotland when a few in number prayed and reacted against the ungodliness of their society.
This story is about the revival in the Hebrides in 1948-52.
When William Booth started the Salvation Army in 1865 he was not asleep but he saw that warfare was called for due to the plight of the society he lived in. this is what he said:
“While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight. While little children go hungry, as they do now, I’ll fight While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight. While there is a drunkard left, While there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, While there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight-I’ll fight to the very end!”
His weapon was he Gospel and so well did he preach it that most converts to the Salvation Army who were often come out of prison, drunkards, prostitutes and criminals were totally transformed and went on the serve God for their whole lives. (5)
Is the world of Melbourne any different to the town of Stornaway in Scotland? Do we carry the same burden for the ungodliness of our generation? Can we affect a change as great as they did simply by praying?
The answer to this lies only in your own heart.
For me, I will pray. I will seek God every morning here at 6am, at pre-service prayer meetings, at HUB prayer meeting once a month and within our Urban Connect groups.
If anyone is willing to pray consistently at any other time- I will join you. Every church has an opportunity to change its community. Every church can be a catalyst for change if they put their trust in God an call upon His name humbling their hearts before Him.
What shall we do? How shall we respond? Instead of a huge blast of commitment for a few days and then back to normal life as if nothing happened; can we gradually build up prayer in our personal prayer lives and in our corporate prayer lives so that over the next few years we see a great weight of prayer poured out for our city?
Make no mistake this can never be carried by a prayerless church and this can never be carried by personal prayer alone; it must include corporate prayer.
References
- Preventing Violence Against Women – Short course – Vic Health
- For Kids Sake – Research Report – Prof. Patrick Parkinson AM, Uni. Of Sydney
- http://www.badapplebullies.com/research.htm
- http://www.beyondblue.org.au/
- The General Next to God – Collier – Penguin press.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Does the scenario of an invasion of Australia by a military force have any similarities with the spiritual decline and ill health of our nation? Discuss.
2. What things do you see in Australia that cause you deep concern for our nation?
3. How effective is the faith filled prayers of God’s people?
4. How shall we pray to make a difference?
5. When and where can we pray as individuals and as a corporate group?
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