Not too late! Go and be heard!
Voting Guides:
Dennis Prager’s Election Voter guide
God’s People Prayed- A Day of Thanksgiving
“The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure, and disappointment, let us answer God’s standing challenge, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not!’” — J. Hudson Taylor
“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” —Samuel Chadwick
“What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use— men of prayer, men mighty in prayer” —E.M. Bounds
“Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.” —The Gospel story of Luke, Chapter 6, verse12 NKJV
“Ask Me during our conversations, have faith and you will receive from Me” —Jesus
By now we have seen that the power of prayer is a mighty thing. Election Night 2016 is now in the history books. Whether you voted for the Republican or the Democrat, the results are in, and we have a change in Washington that is unheard of. The people have spoken But more than this, God’s people have spoken. They spoke from the small towns in rural America. They spoke in the large cosmopolitan suburbs. They spoke in the mountaintops, they spoke in their prayer closets. They heard the loud praise in Time Square and just outside of our Capital. God’s people gathered in Jerusalem and throughout the world at the same time, and God heard all of us.
It wasn’t Donald Trump nor the political machines that won the election. It wasn’t the silent-behind-the-scenes-rich-power-brokers through their wheeling and dealing.
It was the power of God’s Spirit working through His people. The power of the praying people which set off the loudest Trumpet call to their God, and He heard our prayers.
You see, whatever affiliation you found yourself at on November 8, 2016, you have to ask yourself this question- “What just happened?”
What happened was that God’s people woke up from their slumber. They woke up with a roar, a mighty shout to the heavens which sounded like a sweet smelling aroma to the One sitting on His throne.
God’s people woke up and said—enough is enough!
What I am saying is this, the power of prayer is able to move mountains. It is able to dethrone principalities. It is able to flow through to God’s saints and stir our hearts into unity. I am not just speaking about the winning party’s Christian supporters. I am also addressing the ones that voted for the Democratic nominee.
You see, the Spirit of God knows no borders or party affiliation nor political ideologies. The Spirit of God moves with such force and power through His people that it will cause an incredible tidal wave movement that can sweep anyone and anything off its foundations.
The Spirit of God has spoken. No, not because the Republican won but because God moved and stopped a wave of anti-Christian and religious sentiment sweeping this nation and around the globe. The mighty power of God is at hand, and I would hate to be against it.
But before you accuse me of saying that God loves Republicans and hates Democrats, let me stop you there. God loves people so much that He sent His only Son to die a horrible death for humanity. God does not take sides in petty arguments of political party affiliations. He does not side with social issues that divide. His Son came into this world about two thousand years ago to prove that point.
What I am saying is this, God’s sovereign power will always be, period. Humanity can go against His will or pretend that He is not here or that He does not exist. But just ask all the Pollsters in charge of the voting movement throughout last Tuesday. The Democratic nominee was winning until the prayers of the saints from all over the world started resounding to the heavens. At the very moment that millions of people humbled themselves and prayed for America’s future, including Christians from other countries who were praying for the most Christian nation on earth, God moved within His people and heard their prayers. The surge was not because the Republican nominee is a Christian or a moral person.
God moved because His people humbly and contritely called out to Him with an act of unselfishness and love. They lifted America up not because it’s perfect but because it is one of the last great beacons of hope to share the gospel with the world. Christians in other countries were lifting up a nation that has sent so many missionaries to the ends of the earth. They were lifting up a land that has stood by Israel since the rebirth of the Jewish state after the Great War.
Christians in Jerusalem and throughout the world were praying for America because it is hurting. A nation that is at its wits end with division and strife. A country that has seen better days and a people that have seen their land ripped in half by power hungry foreign and domestic despots who don’t understand the culture but want to suck up its wealth without caring one cent about the people.
At the very moment when God’s people were praying for this country, the defenseless babies that have been slaughtered for the sake of convenience, and the freedom to worship without having first to explain or give a full account of pastoral sermons, God intervened and said— Enough is enough. It is not through a man that I will build my people. It is not through this man’s power or might. It will be by My Spirit!
Long live the God of the universe! May His name continue to be praised and spoken throughout this grateful nation. We will never forget You nor Your mighty works.
You can either be a Lighthouse Christian or an Alley Light Christian
The world is not Christian, they don’t have our values. We can’t shove our morals up their throats. We must first point them to Christ by the lives we live and the example we show…then they will crave the sweet smelling roma of Christ.
8 “For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, 9 for the fruit that the light produces consists of every form of goodness, righteousness, and truth.”
Paul to the Church in Ephesus Chapter 5 verses 8 & 9 ISV
When I was a teenager, I had been indoctrinated to be a full-blown card-carrying Democrat. I was told that conservatives were racist and anti-immigrant. I was in a private school full of conservative kids. I was a sophomore in High School when I heard President Ronald Reagan was shot. My first reaction was to smirk. Good for the country, that racist jerk has been shot, I thought to myself. Now when I think of that very moment, I cringe at the words that left my mouth during that tragic event.
Today, we have a country ripped and divided. The Christians are in one corner, the anti-christian community is on the other. The other factions are on the other corners.
Why am I writing all this?
To explain why we in America, specially Christians, have to change the culture. Fascism, Communism, Socialism and moral decay start when the true Church of Christ rescinds on everything worldly or what I call the Church imploding from within.
We, the Church, should be the ones helping the poor and destitute. We should be the ones actively seeking the lost and needy. Is this being done by the church right now? To a small extent, it is.
I have heard Christians say that they are there to preach and not be a social activist church. They are afraid that they will concentrate on only the social aspects of Christianity and forget the word and the Gospel. I understand the catch-twenty-two of getting stuck in an always-helping-out-the-poor-and-needy vortex which will suck up any church budget. But that is not why we are here.
We are not here for the long-term security of buildings. We are here to feed the hungry(Matthew 25), help the widows and orphans (Psalm 68) and visit the sick and jailed (Matthew 25).
In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul explains that we are to be like Jesus. We are to be a sweet-smelling aroma. One that people smell and crave. Yet, we have not been smelling very rosy lately. Instead, we focus on one or two things that are wrong in this country and beat it down until they give up to our way of thinking. Instead of concentrating on one thing that can change society, we have shifted our thoughts like the world to force change through the political arena. This doesn’t mean we stop voting on things.
It just means that this way is only temporary. It only patches up what’s wrong with the moral fiber of this country instead of focusing on the real issue, which is moral decay.
We have forgotten that the world is dark and ignorant and just like me, as a sophomore in high school, my thoughts were dark and ignorant. I was not changed by Christians ranting and raving, waving Turn or Burn signs at street corners. When I saw this, I laughed at them. I thought to myself, who wants to be angry like those weirdos.
What changed me was a sweet-smelling aroma of a family who took their time to see past my hard exterior. I was a cocky athlete. I was in the streets, hanging out with guys that were fluffing their feathers and parading themselves like peacocks. Chests up, arms out, and bad thoughts running through our minds, always scanning for trouble. I did not do drugs or alcohol like the others because I wanted to be in control of every situation. I thought of situations and then countered them with more dark ways to beat them. I was selfish and proud.
Some of my friends, were always hiding from the cops. When squad cars would pass by and shine their Alley Lights on us, my neighborhood friends would get angry at them. But I thought to myself that they were only doing their job. I knew some of the cops because they were coaches in the city park leagues I belonged to. They knew that I was not a troublemaker and they warned me about hanging out with he wrong group of kids. I knew they were right but it took me a while to figure it out.
It wasn’t until I met a goofy Christian. He was nothing I wanted to be. His family was different. He and his brothers were immature, and socially awkward.
One day they invited me to dinner. I was curious. I went to his house and really met his family. I went to his house a second time and a third time. Something was different about his family. No they were not perfect but they had something I wanted.
They had unity, and love and harmony. My family was crazy and loud and all of us were like Tasmanian Devil characters. Where we went, their was chaos, laughter and put downs. We would go at each other with street put downs until we saw anger or the beginning of tears from our siblings.
My friend’s family was also loud and obnoxious. But it was different. The loudness was the Hispanic culture of talking in above normal decibels and with our hands. Their was laughter I heard which was different from ours. We laughed at off-color jokes. They laughed because there was joy.
I wanted this joy. I wanted this unity. It was different from our unity. Outside of our home, anyone that would hurt any of us would have the whole family at them because we were all angry.
At my friend’s house the unity was different. They loved each other with respect. I craved this Godly respect and peace. It was years later when I found this peace and passed it on to my wife and kids. It’s the same peace that I pass along to others in my Bible studies.
I realize that only through Jesus the One they call The Christ, can someone change their minds and their hearts.By changing their hearts and pointing them to Christ, we change the culture one person at a time. This is where true and lasting change happens.
It is not politics. It is not condemnation that will get people to change. It is the love of Christ when He showed that dying on the cross for their sins was why He came into this world.
It is the sweet-smelling love and lifestyle He showed to all those that fell short in life. It is the people he fed and gave hope to. He was the Light of the world. He came to take our sins away. We are to be like Jesus. Let’s not be remembered by what we don’t do but by what we do for the world.
Instead of getting fixated on the wrongs of people. Let’s get fixated on saving lives for Christ. Throw the lifesavers out and bring them into the lighthouse of God.
Let’s go and shine ourselves unto this dark world. But not with a Police Alley lights that blind and anger people but with Lighthouse Lights pointing our country back to God, one person at time. This is the only way many hearts and minds will change morally.
A sheep walks into a den of wolves…
16 “Pay attention, now! I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So be as cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves.
Jesus’ Words written by Matthew Chapter 10 verse 16 ISV
I had my second installment of the Marriage challenge all set to go but am writing this instead. The next post will be the Marriage #2 Challenge.
Why am I changing my blog post? Because of the severity and priority of what is at stake in our country.
As Christians, we are to test all things and hold fast to what is good (Letter to the Thessalonian church, chapter 5 verse 21). We are also being sent out into the world as sheep among wolves and as shrewd as snakes, yet Jesus wants us to be innocent as doves(above quoted verse)…
What does the above mean? I n this case, it means as the elections get nearer:
1. We are to represent Christ still as His sheep. He tells us that His sheep hear His voice and obey or follow (John 10 verse 27). We follow His lead of not trusting the world because the world doesn’t know its Savior. (John 1 verses 9 & 10). We must stand with Christ alone. We must not get into the world’s affairs as the world.
Wait, what are you saying? That we can’t be part of this election process?!
What is wrong with you? We need to be in the world and not of the world!
No, that is not, I repeat, that is not what I am saying. But as Christians, we must be above the world. Not in the holier than thou mentality but in the< I am pointing people to Christ attitude>.
2. We are watching this country divided. We cannot be part of this division and contention because we know who the author of confusion, contention and lies is. Most of us know who we are voting for and watching two people rip each other apart on a national and worldwide stage is not going to change our minds. The debate is on a Sunday night when Christians should be coming together in fellowship. Why are Christians not being shrewd as serpents and changing the world instead of following it? Why should the world dictate when to watch instead of us dictating that we will not be moved on our stance that Sundays are for God and family and not two dubious people bickering like kindergartners?
Remember, we are not to conform to this world but transform ourselves to our renewing of our minds. Why? So that we prove what is good and what is acceptable to God’s will (Romans 12:2).
3. What if instead of viewing that runaway train(Presidential Debate), we got on our knees and started praying for those two candidates to really come to know Christ in an intimate and relational way? What if we all in one accord stopped posting stuff on social media on who burned the other and started asking God to forgive our country for its sins? Including ours? And to bring back leaders that will listen to His Godly moral truths and commandments?
I ask you today to come alongside those of us that have decided enough is enough. We want a united country which does not look at the color of the skin but the sincere heart of an individual.
We want leaders that will not divide but repair this flatlining country. We want the only One that can take these dead bones and revive them like He did Israel after two thousand years of wandering from country to country.
I want back the country I grew up in when I was a kid. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still following Godly principles.
Stand with me, pray like never before. We can’t do it alone. We need the Lord and Savior of the world to come and breath life and more abundantly to us. Jesus is the only One that can change this generation of leadership which has lost its way so far from Him.
Whether you are liberal or conservative, you know what I am saying is true. Forget the party affiliation lines, meet me halfway and make a commitment to pray for our country, the future leaders, and for us to come together as a nation. Not divided along ethnic or political or demographics…
