Greetings,
"Therefore it is come to pass, that as He cried, and they would not hear, so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts." Zechariah 7:13
What an awful verse! Are we headed here due to our prayer lives? I was never taught about the sin of prayerlessness, nor did I know of its existence. But in that time period where God was dealing with me about my prayer life, I was reading Andrew Murray and found within was a sermon/chapter on 'The Sin of Prayerlessness." Great conviction and great sorrow on learning of this high, priestly role of prayer among the church and for our Lord's kingdom and yet failing in it. Yet, it was revealed that the sin of the church for 2000 years has largely been the neglect of the secret closet and of the church being a house of prayer. Needless to say, the Spirit came upon me to turn around my prayer life and make it pleasing unto Him and to be used for Him and His kingdom. Prayer is the means by which God impacts and influences this world and the events of it. History is determined and set by prayers of the saints or the neglect of the prayers of the saints.
Now brethren, we are in a day, that I believe, most in the church knows this truth of the great need of prevailing prayer. Prayers are offered continually by many false religions, they pray devoutly. Many are guilty of simply having mental thoughts about people, circumstances and moments without ever truly addressing the Lord God in communication - these are just thoughts, not prayers. Prayer is that Divine communication between God and man. It is our great privilege to be a part of this; and not guilty of missing this. Prevailing prayers is beyond simply 'mentioning' that subject, person, or event to the Lord, but rather wrestling over it with the motive, "I will not be denied". Prevailing prayer is beyond 'saying prayers'. And it has the needed traits commanded of praying saints - urgency, fervency and emergency. Knowing what is at stake for eternity compels the soul to pray and to pray so as to prevail for the Lord's Name, kingdom and will.
And yet, when we have a discussion on the prayer life, there is much of conviction, and examination of our failure in this. Yea, in our first Broken Before the Throne, came the confessions of many pastors of the sin of their prayerlessness that was recognized, some for the first time, and others knowing but never disciplining themselves to have a healthy, spiritual prayer life. Many churches, and entities of the church recognize, 'we are not praying as we should.' The personal confession - "I need to do better and become a man or woman of prayer." Now that confession may have the slight of humanism, but it is still recognized that there is failure and the need to fulfill His will in prayer.
Now recently I have been given the opportunity to communicate among prayer leaders among SBC in discussions and plans to help in the prayer life of the SBC. We came to the realization of the great sin of prayerlessness among every aspect of the church; except for the rmenant. From the secret closet of the pastor and laymen, to the church, to states, to national entities; prayer was recognized as missing among them. And yet, when these alarming numbers have been presented, they have all but been excused or passed over. There is no great lamentation, no sorrow, no pleas for change or urgency of our great sin against our Lord's kingdom. Complacency, acceptable, and continuous is the status of the prayer life.
"when evil comes in like a flood, God raises up a standard bearer' to pray to push back and stay the flood waters of evil. The rise in evil in our nation and world is largely due to the lack of prevailing prayer among the church. Prayers offered by most churches are largely 90% and higher of physical needs and wants; all the while, less than 10% of prayer is given to the spiritual kingdom, souls and 'pushing back the tide of evil' - spiritual warfare. This is the norm of the prayer life of the North American church. We would rather pray for what we want, rather than for what God wants. This is not acceptable in the oracles of God's throne. This is not a sweet smelling savour in His nostrils of the incense of the golden censer offered with the prayers of the saints. This is not the will of the Lord.
Where is the outcry for such a great sin as the sin of prayerlessness? Why is the leadership not addressing this, warning of this? Where is the 'take heed' sermons to the church on the prayer life of the individual and the corporate? We cannot continue like this! God will not allow it. In 30 years of ministry, and especially the last 18 years of this century, we have seen the ramping up of great judgements against our nation, homes/families, streets and upon our very future. I stand baffled that the leadership would know these truths and permit and allow its continuance. And even if they disagree, where is the discussion on it? so accepting of less than 15% of churches having corporate prayer meetings and to allow over 85 % to not pray is sin.
do you understand that if leadership would seek to turn around the prayer life of the church and make 85% houses of prayer we would see revival; we would finish the task of the great commission; we would greatly obstruct and hinder the work of hell. We would take back the ground we have forfeited to Satan. But there must be a recognition of this sin, an ownership to it and a change immediately done.
Because leadership has neglected these facts and our reality, I am more prone now to see God removing our nation and the churches possibility when revival comes world wide. ( How the next revival will come and look like has been a discussion and thought process for me) I do believe world wide revival is coming; this is God's grace and mercy to the nations. One more last reaping of souls, before one more last shaking of the nations . A prominent preacher in America recently said, in explanation of why US not mentioned in bible end times, was that we would be raptured out. what I see, is that God is going to judge our nation and especially the American church for our great sins, starting with the sin of prayerlessness. For out of this sin, all others proceed and multiply. God is going to remove our candlestick as He threatened Ephesus, Rev. 2. Time has been given, opportunity of great judgements to shake us and call us back to Him, have all been but dismissed. And now He called to us and we would not hear; now we will call to Him and He will not hear. Woe unto us!
The Ugandan man shared with American Christians years ago, when there was great persecution and killings in his nation. 'We did not pray in desperation before the persecution and killings; but when they started to butcher us, we prayed out of desperation. If the American church does not learn to pray out of desperation now; you will learn to pray in desperation in times of catastrophe." Why must we wait for this to be our epitaph!!
EPIDEMICS:
1. Drugs; NJ deaths have risen; but stats are revealing what I have told you, that OD deaths are lowering than last year. I expect for this to continue. Canada just legalized recreational drug use. This is will be our future if there is not a prohibition on it. Every where, every body, and among too many in church and out on drug addiction. Death may lessen, but drug use is record highs.
2. Cancer; continued battles, surgeries, Still holding with around a dozen lifting up in prayer as this goes forth. Simply waiting for my time, or my family member to be the next.
3. Great Evil - 1 NC police officer gunned down this week; another murder-suicide near us here; Crimean school shooting in Russia that killed 18 people; "out of the heart proceeds these evils" heart and minds evil affecting - herein is the prayer battle
4. LGBT - planned parenthood; legislation; overturning of judicial and legal edicts; next generation all but consumed with acceptance of these evils;
5. Children - sex trade - 'Do you hear that little 12 yr old girl, chained and drugged? Used and abused? crying out to a God, "does anybody care? will this ever end?" Praying the heart of God for HE sees and hears their cries.
6. Natural Disasters - Hurricane Michael; famine in Yemen - over 1 million to be impacted due to war;
Possible #7 EPIDEMIC coming: plagues; disease has always been rampant and occasional increases and scares; But looking now at the most horrific possibilities that may take countless 1000's recent headlines are pointing to pestilence; I've shared about Congo and
--AFM in US affecting children; mystery cause having affected 100's;
--STD - due to the adultery, fornication, sexual perversion HIV and STD are hitting new strides of 'record' and 'historical' numbers;
--Ebola in Africa continues in Democratic Congo;
--continued food poisoning and loss of food in Salmonella and other diseases;
UPDATES:
--sermons from my youtube page from Sunday uploaded;
--A Word - finally got back this week to a few; Isiah 56, need to finish this chapter, only 12 verses;
--trying to finish and send, not one reply or engagement on this; truly leaves me wondering, I just don't get it!! sending out to state execs and hope for a reply by at least 1
https://danbiser.blogspot.com/2018/09/prayer-life-of-sbc.html
--The ACtivity of God - Joshua; nearing the end, up through chapter 22;
--SErmoniindex Conference - Greg has uploaded sermons from conference; no answers on why my sermon last 20 minutes was cut off; their SD card shut off at 5, but the feed was supposed to record till I was done. That's the reason you see, on youtube sermon 52 minutes, but I actually preached 75 - 80 minutes;
Untill,
dan
No comments:
Post a Comment