When The Church Must Stop Praying- Part 1

It is the first day of a brand new month, a new and fresh beginning and we have been privileged to be strategically stationed where the Church is. Let me preface all that is to come by reminding you that the Church is you, me and all who are in Christ Jesus, all true believers.

As a young child, in what was then called, Sunday school, we were taught, through visual teaching aids, some of which were ingeniously mobile, about who the Church was. I remember the teacher using Bristol board charts to show the word, CHURCH, and having the letters UR, as the middle of the word church. She, our teacher, firmly showed us and told us that ‘UR’ church, read as, ‘you are’. It was engraved on our minds that each one of us, little children, was the Church. Indeed, as a believer, you are the Church. It is with this understanding of Church, that I share this experience with you.

I have just completed a class and I am hot, tired, thirsty and hungry. As I pack up and prepare to leave, I am told by the Holy Spirit that there is evil, a lot of evil in the place. As soon as I am told this, an officer and leader in that place, a strong believer in God, as she tells me, invites me into her office, all the while speaking about the evil and what is taking place in the institution. I enter the office and am offered a choice of either a hot drink or a cold drink, anything I wish. I ask for a glass of water. I listen to how the believer is obviously taken over by this evil, while I make some indistinct grunts at strategic places. I am seeing and listening to a believer who is showing the fear of evil and does not show the power and authority of Jesus, in that evil. I am shown all the different inspirational and devotional material that’s being read and the Bible that’s seated on her desk.

Something in that place has struck me as being very odd and it is not the evil of which I was being told. What I see before me is a person who is a believer, with a Bible on her desk and another book on top of it. She is speaking about praying, showing and telling me of inspirational writings in that visible book, covering the Bible, the Living Word of God, where paragraphs and sentences have been highlighted. O how I was taught the truth about myself, as the church, where I too have other things covering prayer and the Word of God. Was it not time to stop in her praying and follow the Holy Spirit in His works of casting out evil?

I have been taken back to recent talks where evil has become the topic of many in the country. This has been especially targeted to the youth, where evidence of the works of evil is highlighted and showcased. Even in the Church to which I belong, evil has become the topic of teaching, preaching, praying, discussions and more. Special teaching sessions targeting evil, evil spirits and evil powers have been organized for all who wish to learn more about evil. Where are we today as Church, collectively and individually, where our praying is concerned? Are we following the mind of the world or the Mind of Jesus?

We are all being called to pray more, learn more and be more aware of the evil in our midst, which is being viewed in the light of the wicked, treacherous and vile actions of people. But who is praying? I am being taught so differently, I know this is our Lord speaking directly on this wave of evil all right, but evil that has many deceived. Instead of bending low in prayer, and having prayer vigils and prayer fasts, the Church is being called, in this precise moment, to rise from our prayer positions, stand up and do as the Spirit is leading and guiding.

Are you and I being encouraged and motivated to hear and see by faith, what is our Lord’s Mind for His Church in this time of evil? Do we, by faith, believe that our Lord is speaking directly on this wave of evil, taking place all around us? However, do we accept and believe that the evil of which He is speaking, is the evil which has many a believer deceived? Frankly, do we, the Church, know our Lord's will in these times?

It is Jesus, He who is Spirit, who brings us, His Church, to our right minds and to our senses. It is He who leads us in this time of attack. The attacker has many of God’s people afraid. Prayer is being advocated and prayer is good, but prayer is also harmful, when it is used as a way and ploy of the deceiver. Are you aware that the evil one encourages and leads many a person to pray, because he has already set his sure trap to catch all who take prayer and make it as of man? Prayer is of God and not of man. As soon as prayer becomes a way to be manipulated and used by people against the Lord God, prayer becomes the way of evil. Here are some unmovable facts.

Prayer is used by the evil one to deceive many a worshipper of God, manipulating it to his own advantage. Prayer is surreptitiously injected and adulterated by the deceiver in so many ways, even the most intelligent minds cannot detect it. This is very frightening and the only way to ensure that prayer in you is not contaminated, is to be surrendered to Jesus, all the time, so that your praying is by and through His Spirit.