Monday, July 15, 2013

Signs of the times.

  Being a lover of Jesus means being a lover of truth.   It means desiring truth to be shouted from the rooftops. It means that you despise deception.  It's not just limited to any focus or area of the life of a mature believer, but in every area a mature follower of Christ looks, truth is evident and truth is a major focus.  Straight facts.  The bible says this over and over and over and over.   Throughout the New Testament, Paul urged and applauded the early church to search out the truth in all matters.

In the life of a mature believer, it can not be contained at all.   The love for truth over spills into everything that we do say or hear.  When we speak something, we speak the facts that we know.  When we hear something, we want to get to the facts.  We desire truth in the circumstance and will dig to get to it.   From conflict resolution to just reading up on current events, the need for truth is needed and craved in the life of the believer.   We desire for true justice to be shown.  We can not settle for one side of a story.  

 I'm obviously not talking about every little issue here.  I'm not saying we need to look at every item in our home that says "made in china" and question it.   I'm not saying that mature Christians would looks it up and only be satisfied when they knew the exact town, time, and date when the item was made.   I'm talking about major deals here.   I'm talking about major events that are happening and I'm talking about the scriptures.   I'm talking about just accepting what a pastor says over the bible, and I'm also venting about how our nation accepts lies from the media on a daily basis.

In the circles that I am in, many Christians do not want to be "political" and I want to confront this mindset head on right now.   You may not be called to be a politician, but you ARE called to intercede for your nation, and you are called to intercede for the leaders of your nation.  You are called to pray for, and sometimes against certain things.  You have to be informed in what you pray about.   I'm not going into the whole theology of why you can't just say "God take it all" and that be that. You can't do that for a few reasons, but one is that God gave human kind dominion over the earth and told us to subdue and labor over it.   Not striving or growing weary, but work was part of the garden. It's not the kind of work that we have today, it's a whole different mind set.   Weariness, striving, and those kinds of things are a result of the fall.  But effort is not.  Effort is not a starting place, but it is a result.   The Bible says that Faith without works is DEATH.   DEATH.   That means you can not just have FAITH and pray "God take it all"   Some things you've got to labor over.   You've got to put effort into them to get the breakthrough.  And that goes for us on a personal and national level.

The disciples even  asked Jesus one day "why did these demons not go out for us as they did for you?"
Jesus replied " Because some can only go out with prayer and fasting"  

This means to me that there are times where more effort is needed or required to get to the point.  I am not works based at all, but effort it just part of the kingdom.  I know a lot of people who would like me to just talk about how we don't need effort at all, but all birthing requires a painful push or two.

Now, as I mentioned before, many of us are not political at all and are not called to be, AT ALL.  God did not create us to be, and that's just who we are.  Others ARE created to be like that and love is that's just who they are.  However, all of us are called to pray.  That's not an option, and praying for a nation and it's leaders is a scriptural mandate. So even if you are not called into politics in any ways, who are still called to pray for them.    Since "works"  is the fruit, lets look at two things that would water or enable the fruit of intercession in our lives.

A passion for Jesus.   That would cause any of us to prayer and intercede.  Our love for the Father and becoming one with that love causes us to pour that love back out to other through prayer.

Knowledge.   Sometimes knowing something allows us to pray for something that we would not be aware of otherwise. If a friend of yours has a sick relative that you have no clue even exist, it's doubtful you would spend any time praying over that sick relative.  However, if your friend shares this need with you, the knowledge of the sick relative brings you to prayer.

 This is crucial to understand our times and events.  It does not mean that you have to be political and posting about your opinions.  It does not even mean that you have to have too many opinions, but it does mean you and I need a basic knowledge of true events in our nation so we can point our prayers.   I have turned on the news and began praying for something right then and there because I was just made aware of something.
  However, the need for truth is needed there also.   I will dig for the truth so I can point my prayers more accurately.  There are controversial issues that I wouldn't post on facebook, but I did research and approach because it was a major event in our nation.  If I had just taken the word of the media, my prayers would have been pointed in the wrong direction, but once my the truth was discovered, I was able to pray more accurately and effectively.

 Some of these issues are things like Obamacare, the recent Zimmerman trials, and a whole slew of nonsense coming out of the White House these days.   I agree with the christians out there who do not want to offend anyone with politics, and I do not plan on posting my opinions on some of these issues because it would OFFEND.  My prayers are the only requirement scripture makes as far as the political side of things.   On a personal level, God may lay it on your heart to post or share about things, and you might offend people.  That's ok!  Not everyone is called to get on a soap box about everything, but everyone is called to pray.

With the recent Zimmerman trials, I want to share this.   Our nation accepted everything the media spit out. Twisted manipulated half truths were vomited out on us, and we just thought what we were told to think.   Prayers were and are needed because this has a lot of tension in the air around the black community, at least where I live.  Also the need for truth.  I could not settle for just hearing the media's side of things, I had to dig deeper in the issue, just like I do with everything else, and my prayers were more pointed as a result.  

  There is a lot of darkness in the White House, and as Christians, it's our job to pray the light back in. It's our job to know the signs of the times we live in Jesus rebuke the pharisees, calling them wicked because they did not know the signs of the age they were living in.  In out times, we have to know the signs of the times. We need to be aware of things, and we need to know the truth.   It's a sign of the times that our generation will embrace  deception the way they do, but it's a sign of revival that we, as Christians don't.

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