A Call to Repentance - 33

REPENTANCE FOR SIN IN THE CHURCH:

CONFRONTING THE SPIRIT OF RELIGION:
Awakening Prophetic Prayer Warriors to Pray for Church and State

Published by The Voice Magazine, May 12th, 2008 in Prophetic Life.

By Jennifer LeClaire


God is calling His prophets to watch and pray. Are you on your post?

Are you building walls of religion or towers of prayer? Your answer could denote the difference between a woe-filled fate and a fulfilled destiny.

Prophets obsessed by the fear of man or unholy desires will not fulfill God's ultimate plan. We must be careful, then, not to prophesy according to the party line in order to establish and preserve popularity in ministry circuits. If we fall into this trap we find ourselves in danger of perverting the gift of God by building walls of religion.

True prophets are not always the most popular five- fold ministry gift on the block because they are bold enough to release a word of the Lord that deals with sin or that warns the local church of potentially unpleasant circumstances coming down the proverbial pike. In order to properly carry this mantle, genuine prophets must build towers of prayer.

False prophets build walls of religion that lead people astray with fabricated edification, misleading exhortation and counterfeit comfort. "These evil prophets deceive my people saying, 'All is peaceful!' when there is no peace at all! It's as if the people have built a flimsy wall, and these prophets are trying to hold it together by covering it with whitewash! Tell these whitewashers that their wall will soon fall down" (Ezekiel 13:10 NLT).

Verily, verily, the whitewashed walls of religion are going to come tumbling down in a heap of self- righteous rubble and the false prophets are coming down right along with them. Let's not forget that Jesus pronounced woe on the Pharisaical hypocrites, calling them whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean (Matthew 23:27).

You can't whitewash sin. You can't whitewash religion. And you certainly can't whitewash false prophecy. We must guard our hearts in order to maintain a pure prophetic flow and a life of prayer that will wash away the plans of the enemy instead of fortifying his deception by watering down the truth for the sake of acceptance.

True prophets may not always have the flare, charisma or appeal of their false twins, but who said they are supposed to? Jeremiah wasn't the most popular prophet in his time, nor was Ezekiel in his day. John the Baptist had his head served up on a silver platter for warning the people of the looming decision between everlasting life and eternal hellfire. But they were the unadulterated mouthpieces of God. And so it should be.

PRAYER: THE KEY THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

One of the key disparities between the true and the false prophet is prayer. The Bible says the foolish prophets discussed in the 13th Chapter of Ezekiel did not stand in the gap or make up a hedge for the house of Israel so that it could endure the battle. These diviners did not intercede in prayer to protect God's people.

True prophets, by contrast, may not win any popularity contests in the local church, but they will sacrifice to make intercession. Instead of building walls of religion, they build towers of prayer; watchtowers in the spirit that allow them to see the assignments coming against the local church. They take that revelation and use it as spiritual mortar to make up a hedge in prayer.

You can't separate a prophet from prayer any more than you can separate an evangelist from preaching the Gospel. The very first time you ever see the word "prophet" in the Bible, it is connected to prayer. In the Book of Genesis when Abimelech took Abraham's wife, the Lord said, "Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live." (Genesis 20:7). So while not every intercessor is a prophet, every prophet is an intercessor.

Consider the prophets of old. They were often called watchmen. Scripture reveals three types of prophetic sentinels whose mission is to stand guard, keep watch and report what they see. We find Old Testament prophets on the walls, walking in the streets of the city and in the countryside.

"I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence." (Isaiah 62:6) Watchmen on the walls are positioned to see far distances in the spirit and discern whether friend or foe is approaching. The watchman gives word to those in authority so they can decide whether to sound an alarm of welcome or an alarm of war. In today's local church, these watchmen help protect against enemy attacks. Every prophet is called to this post.

"They surround Jerusalem like watchmen surrounding a field, for my people have rebelled against me, says the Lord," (Jeremiah 4:17 NLT). This relates to the prophets in the harvest fields. Prophets have a clear role in evangelism as watchmen who protect Gospel-preaching efforts against the destructive work of principalities and powers that keep the lost from hearing the truth. Prophets should be deployed on local church outreaches and international missions to watch, guard, pull down and destroy opposition to the Good News.

"The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city" (Song of Solomon 3:3; 5:7 NIV). In today's times, this watchman is assigned to stand guard over the Body of Christ to see emerging problems. This is a larger responsibility that carries with it a heavier prayer burden and greater implications for the Church at large.

The point is anyone who stands in the five-fold function of prophet should keep their spiritual binoculars around their neck and watch. But not just watch - watch and pray always. Anyone carrying a prophetic mantle needs to closely examine the fruit of his or her ministry. If we have prophesied peace unto popularity, then we need to repent. We need to trade in our whitewash for some substantive mortar and start building towers of prayer that will bring genuine edification, authentic exhortation and legitimate comfort to God's people.

Let us not be foolish prophets who build our ministries on the sands of seduction for the sake of acceptance because Jehovah promises that rain will pour from the heavens, hailstones will come hurtling down and violent winds will burst forth against those whitewashed walls and expose them (Ezekiel 13:11- 12).

Instead, let us build our ministries on the Rock and prophesy the mind of Christ so that when the hurricanes of religion come against the local church and when Jezebel hurls her spiritual sleet at the sanctuary and when the winds of witchcraft blow against the walls, the foundation of our ministries and our local churches will be fortified to stand and withstand in the day of battle.

[Please note: Most of last week's teachings on the subject of the False Prophet and the Foolilsh Prophet were taken both from the source above, and from a teaching by Ida Ullrich, President of "Woman Rise Up Ministry" in Houston, Texas.]

REPENTANCE FOR THE SINS OF THE NATION:

PORNOGRAPHY


"Availability of Pornography Should Not Be Confused with Community Acceptance"
Aug 30th, 2006
By Robert Peters

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Robert Peters is president of Morality in Media, a national nonprofit organization based in New York City that works to curb traffic in obscene materials and uphold standards of decency in the media.]

There are two things that keep me going in the war against pornography. The first is my belief that with God all things are possible and that God is not "on the side" of individuals who exploit and debase sex for crass commercial purposes. The second is my belief that given a choice, most Americans would rather live in a decent and safe society rather than in a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah.

With the explosive increase in the availability of pornography, the second ground of my "confidence" has been tested! But while I fear the "good guys" in this war may be losing ground, I have not abandoned my belief that most Americans are not pleased with the proliferation of hardcore pornography via "adult businesses," mainstream video stores, pay TV channels, the Internet, and now cell phones. ...

The porn defenders overlook at least four factors:

-- 1. Much if not most pornography is consumed by a relatively small percentage of males who are hooked on it.
-- 2. Just because a person, whether out of curiosity or at a weak moment or for a period of time, views pornography does not mean he has become a devotee of it. This is especially true when Internet pornographers use aggressive and unscrupulous means to bring people to their websites, including porn spam, using innocent sounding domain names and common misspellings of websites, buying up expired domain names, manipulating search engine results, and "mouse trapping."
-- 3. Even among long-term users, not all approve of their own behavior. Many addicts hate what they do.
-- 4. The primary reason that we have so much pornography today is because federal and state obscenity laws have not been vigorously enforced. A variety of prosecutorial explanations (excuses) have been given for not doing so; but to my knowledge, no prosecutor has ever stated publicly that he or she does not enforce obscenity laws because his or her community does not want these laws enforced.

ACTION STEPS:

One action step is to make complaints to federal prosecutors if you or your children are exposed to pornography on the Internet or to ads for pornography (porn spam). In 2002, Morality in Media (MIM) launched www.obscenitycrimes.org to enable citizens to report possible violations of federal Internet obscenity laws. MIM forwards complaints to the Justice Department in Washington and to each local U.S. Attorney where a complaint originated. MIM has also retained the services of two retired law enforcement agents who prepare their own investigative reports that describe the content of websites that citizens have complained about. Justice Department spokespersons have expressed appreciation for the website. Congress has also appropriated funds to help operate it. We need more citizen complaints!

Another action step is to educate your community about the pornography problem and solutions. Morality in Media is just one of many national, state and local organizations that can provide literature or a speaker or help organize a workshop to educate your community or church.

CONCLUSION:

I do not say that that the war against pornography will be won easily. I do think there is still time to reverse the floodtide of obscenity pouring into our nation's communities and homes; but at the rate our youth are following in the path of the Destroyer, it's hard to know how much longer we have!

The English poet Alexander Pope once wrote: "Vice is a monster of so frightful face, as to be hated needs but to be seen; but seen too often, familiar with her face, we first endure, then tolerate, then embrace." As I see it, most Americans are still at the hate and endurance stages when it comes to pornography, but among our nation's cultural elite and young adults, many now tolerate and even embrace pornography.

Prayer of repentance:

"Father God, in the Name of Jesus, we ask You to forgive us as a nation for allowing the sin of pornography to thrive in our culture, without penalty. We repent for those in the church, especially, who have been ensnared by Satan into this web of debauchery, and who spend hours in this pursuit in the "secret place" of the internet. Holy God, we cry out to You, asking for Your mercy and forgiveness for these ones, for they know not what they do. Father God, we CRY OUT that they might be set free by a mighty work of deliverance from Your throne of Grace, from the sin of hidden sexual pursuits."

"Holy God, for those who have violated the holy covenant of matrimony, and been found in adulterous relationships, we ask for their forgiveness-even as You forgave King David for his own sin of adultery. We ask for healing to come, both for those who have committed this sin, and for their wives (or husbands) with whom relationships must be restored."

"And Lord, let us not forget the children. Father God, child abuse comes in many, many forms, but each story bears the wounds of a child's heart hardened through abuse, and the guilt, shame, despair and hopelessness that remains in both the abused and the abuser. Holy God, once again, we thank YOU that nothing is too difficult for You, and we cry out for our little ones, that You might visit each one and bring the precious healing touch that can only come from the hem of Your garment."

We ask all of this in Jesus' Mighty Name, amen.

· "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6)

[The article above is an excerpt; to read this in its entirety, go here.]

PRAYERS FOR ISRAEL:

ALIYAH FROM THE NORTH

- "Therefore, behold, the days come, says LORD, that it shall no more be said, LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of...Egypt; But, LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands where He had driven them. And I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, says LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them." (Jeremiah 16:14-16)

- Lord, wake up the Jews in all of the former Soviet Union that now is the time to flee.

- Bring back all the Jews from the nation of Georgia.

- Open up highways for them to come home to Israel.

- Do not let them get stuck in any other nation - but bring them home.

- Give aid to all Christian organizations that are trying to help Your people return.

- Remove all barriers in Israel proper from the return of any and every Jew - regardless of color or religious persuasion.

- Turn the hearts of the Jews in South Africa towards home.

- Bring back all the remaining Ethiopian Jews.

- Prepare the Messianic Jews to return.

- Marry Your redeemed remnant to this land. "You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall Your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah: for LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you: and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." (Isaiah 62:4-5)

- Since every Jew who returns results in You receiving glory, therefore with much boldness we ask for a tremendous increase in global aliyah (Ezekiel 36:22- 24).

(Source: Intercessors for Israel)

NEARER, MY GOD, TO THEE

"He saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to Heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it." (Genesis 28:11-12)


Words: Sar­ah F. Adams (1841)
Music: Low­ell Ma­son (1856)

One night, some­time af­ter ly­ing awake in the dark, eyes wide open, through the still­ness in the house the mel­o­dy came to me, and the next morn­ing I wrote down the notes. (Bethany Mason)

BACKGROUND:

This hymn is sung at the end of the 1936 mo­vie San Fran­cis­co, which was nom­in­at­ed for sev­er­al Acad­e­my Awards. It is al­so played by the ship's band in Ti­tan­ic, win­ner of the Acad­e­my Award for best pic­ture of 1997.

There are al­so ma­ny in­spir­ing true life stor­ies as­so­ci­ at­ed with this hymn. Some Ti­tan­ic sur­viv­ors said it was played by the ship's or­ches­tra as the ocean lin­er went down . . .

Another story con­cerns the death of Amer­i­can pre­si­ dent Wil­liam Mc­Kin­ley, as­sass­in­at­ed in 1901. Dr. Mann, the at­tend­ing phy­si­cian, re­port­ed that among Mc­Kin­ley's last words were "'Near­er, my God, to Thee, e'en though it be a cross,' has been my con­stant pray­ er." On the af­ter­noon of Sep­tem­ber 13, 1901, af­ter five min­utes of si­lence across the na­tion, bands in Un­ion and Mad­i­son Squares in New York Ci­ty played the hymn in hon­or of the fall­en pre­si­dent. It was al­so played at a me­mor­i­al ser­vice for him in West­min­ster Ab­bey, Lon­don.

The hymn was al­so played as the bo­dy of as­sas­sin­at­ ed Amer­i­can Pre­sid­ent James Gar­field was in­terred at Lake­view Cem­e­te­ry in Cleve­land, Ohio.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!
E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me,
Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.

Refrain

Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!

Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
Darkness be over me, my rest a stone.
Yet in my dreams I'd be nearer, my God to Thee.

Refrain

There let the way appear, steps unto Heav'n;
All that Thou sendest me, in mercy given;
Angels to beckon me nearer, my God, to Thee.

Refrain

(To view all of this classic hymn, go here.)