"Do you...?" In the movie, "Gettysburg," I was particularly fascinated by the Southern Scout of General Longstreet. Sarah said, "Maybe because he is like you." Could it be something like "out there, probing, watching?" Whatever "similarity" there may be, I pray that we all consider our text as a "word" from the Lord Jesus Christ to us in these days, "Do you know why I have come to you?" What is our Lord Jesus saying to you to be "about."
It was about 18 years ago I started to pray for a "clear 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court of the United States of America." Included in that was a prayer for the "overturn of Roe v. Wade." At the time, it came to me that it was fulfilling the command of Isaiah 7 in praying, "let it be deep as Sheol, or high as heaven," (ESV), or, "deepest depths or highest heights," (NIV). This is how the Church of Jesus should be praying in these days. I remember asking then Senator Brownback's prayer group at the time I prayed this, Are we ready for the kind of backlash that would come if the "Roe" prayer were answered? I can tell you without hesitation that the backlash would be as violent as any modern America has seen.
"Radical praying" will have radical results, not only if the prayers are answered, but also the response of the Ephesians 6, "the rulers of the darkness of this age." I had three Bibles open to the following passages while I was praying over the last couple of weeks, Revelation 12:11, Ephesians 6:12, and Daniel 10:20, 21. I submit them to you for consideration as you pray in these days.
"Do you know why I have come to you?" And I can emphasize, "to you"! Don't just do what others whom you may admire are doing. Jesus teaches us emphatically that we are, "many members, yet one body." Every cell and, "members," of Jesus' Church has a call. Most of "the call" is common to the, "many members," e.g., "Go into all the world and make disciples," etc. But there is within the "commission," the commands of Jesus considering the work of the Church and how we are to live our daily lives, a calling to take our "place" in the Church, "the Army of God." (1 Ch. 12:22)
"Do you know why I have come to you?"
Father, in Jesus' Name, help me to walk in Your Answer to this. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
