Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting

October 29, 2024
The judgments of God, postmodernism in American evangelical church

Five ways the church gets God’s judgments wrong

  Napoleon stands out as perhaps the ultimate example of a tyrant who, when brought to justice, has the opportunity to reflect on life and eternity. Napoleon in exile on St. Helena observed of Christ, “What a conqueror! A conqueror who…wins to Himself not only one nation, but the whole human race. What a marvel! He attaches to Himself the human soul with all its energies. And how? By a miracle which surpasses all others. He claims the love of men – that is to say, the most difficult thing in the world to obtain…..He claims it; He requires it absolutely and undividedly….Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal, Lous X!V strove in vain to secure this…He kindles the flame of a love which causes a man’s self love to die.”
September 25, 2024
East Wind, wind of the Lord, God''s judgments, Red Sea parting

Praying for God’s judgments?

Many Christians and secularists alike tend to think of God’s judgments as undesirable or even cruel. Some suppose that judgment is synonymous with hail, lightening, earthquakes, and floods. The scriptural pattern of God’s judgments often involved His people being invaded by foreigners who did not share their customs, took over their resources, and oppressed them. We cannot ignore that Peter told the church that “Judgment begins with the household of faith” (1 Peter 4:17).
June 26, 2024
cynicism, idealism and fatalism

Hell’s trifecta trap: Cynicism, Idealism, and Fatalism

Without fervent prayer, God's will is largely held back from what He purposes to do in the earth. As Chip Brogden stated, "“If God will do whatever He wishes, regardless of whether we pray or not, then we do not need to pray at all, and the Lord’s instructions on praying for the Kingdom and His will are superfluous. . .Apart from Him, we can do nothing. Apart from us, He will do nothing.”
March 28, 2024
praying in tongues, praying in the Spirit, Holy Spirit prayer, travail

How praying in the Spirit changed a tense situation

Please pray!" came the quick whisper through the phone. "Pray in the Spirit, would you? And I'll be praying here." A friend of mine is staff for a political representative. I was just wrapping up morning devotions with my children when she called to tell me that the meet-and-greet the rep was hosting had been overwhelmed by constituents from the opposing party, and that they'd come loaded for bear.
February 19, 2024
foundations destroyed, what shall righteous do

“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

Few may argue the West's destructive course, but what does the final outworking of a disintegrated culture look like? Can even widespread revival pull a culture back from the precipice? As a Christian, I see the world simultaneously through two lenses. The one is observing the horrors of life in post-modern America, with its fearful velocity in recent years of lawlessness - infanticide, polygamy, pedophilia, trafficking, misogyny, suicide, crime, institutional corruption, and child mutilation; at the same time, I'm scrutinizing these trends against the backdrop of history, from ancient to present, and the fate of parallel civilizations. The other lens sees the influence of the praying church on history, from Peter's supernatural deliverance from Herod's imprisonment, all the way up to the fall of the Soviet Union and pivotal World War Two victories such as Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain. The latter lens keeps me from despair. The former begs the question, "At what cost will we see Divine Liberation?"
July 1, 2021
freedom comes from Christ

“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land”: freedom as the nature and theme of God’s word

Don't let them neuter you. Many generations of men gave everything they had so you could walk about in civic freedom. Christ gave the splendor of Heaven and then laid down his life to a cruel death so you could partake of spiritual freedom and the liberty out of which came the civic. No more complacency. It's our time to give it all we have.