As we approach the month of August, we are coming upon another one of our designated prayer-watch months.
During each prayer-watch, we ask you to join us in a 31-day prayer pledge.
What is a 31-Day prayer pledge, you ask?
It is 31 days of committing to seek God in a very specific and united way.
As you already know, we’re going to be part of a national prayer gathering at the Hershey Giant Center on Saturday, August 16th, but for Urban Life, it’s more than just one day. We are dedicating the entire month of August to prayer.
We want to invite you to join us on a 31-Day Prayer Pledge. Take the challenge and let's anticipate God's intervention in our hearts and homes.
We want you to take the prayer guide that we gave you last week, called ‘For Such a Time As This’ and starting with Day-One of the guide, let’s get united in prayer.
The prayer guide provides a daily scripture and prayer for our country’s government leaders, businesses, educators, media, churches, military, and families. We're asking you to take some time each day to read the prayer for that day. Then spend a few minutes in prayer about what you read.
On Wednesdays, we're asking you to fast at least one meal that day. During that meal time, please read the prayer guide, spend some time in prayer or log onto our Urban Life Weekly Post Blog page to receive encouraging words from the video clips that we will post throughout the day. Every Wednesday we will fill the Blog site with encouraging video clips from special teaching moments at Urban Life.
If you take the pledge you are declaring that:
1. You will daily read and follow the 'For Such a Time As This' prayer guide.
2. You will kneel in prayer daily, reminding yourself that you are under authority.
3. You will commit to fasting, every Wednesday in August, for the healing of our city, state and nation.
4. You will daily worship the Lord Jesus who saved you.
5. You will daily recommit your life to God and His Kingdom assignment for your life.
The reason we are asking you to join us in this prayer pledge is simply because we believe that this is the best thing we can do for our community, state, region and country.
The state of our nation is so desperate that there is nothing humanly possible that can be done to save us. Kids are romping through the streets, randomly attacking people. Shootings and violence are out of the control of law enforcers. Efforts are being made to make America a police state. Strong efforts are being made to subjugate and convert this nation by very powerful social, religious and political groups. Our economy’s total collapse is a matter of WHEN and not IF it will happen. Disease, plagues, famine, and pestilence are now in the news, right here in America.
We will either sink into chaos and anarchy or some powerful movement will sweep in to take over this nation. We are praying for a move of God because if it’s anything else that takes over, we believe we are in for one of the darkest periods in the history of the United States.
What can one small band of Believers do in the face of all of this? We can pray. We can unite with other Believers and pray. And we will pray.
Starting this Friday, August 1st, we will begin praying together using our prayer guide and our Weekly Blog to keep us united.
Are you ready? Let’s answer the call to pray!
Part of the tragedy of many Church-goers today is that they don’t understand they are not living in the will of God. Due to very poor teaching that is pumped through several of today’s Christian television broadcast, podcast and webcast, many have been led to feel validated merely because God has answered their prayers.
Today, we want to show you that answered prayers are not always a validation from God. Did you know that you can insist on having your way with so much intensity and defiance that God will give in to your demands?
Here’s proof!
When the Psalmist recalled a couple of incidents where God’s own people made demands of Him, we clearly see that He met their demands, but He also added something else.
Psalm 106: 13-15 reads: "They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul."
Could it be that a huge reason why the Church is so week in America is because God has sent leanness into our souls? A lean soul is a heart, mind and spirit that are never satisfied. They’re never content, never at peace or resting in divine security. A lean soul is always longing for a something new, something special, or something more, but it never obtains what it craves.
So the lean soul searches beyond the boundaries of God for fulfillment and satisfaction. A lean soul cannot provide help and depth to others in their journey. A lean soul cannot offer wisdom from the word of God. It can offer personal experience and that experience is basically a shallow relationship with God that gets depressed and quits on God when things go wrong. It throws a temper tantrum and quotes scriptures to demand blessings from God. It threatens to leave the faith if he or she does not get their way.
Here’s the worse part, many of today’s preachers teach that this kind of lifestyle is a Godly lifestyle. Lean-souled preachers tell lean-souled Believers that all they have to do is quote scriptures when they are in trouble and demand that God perform His Word.
Now there are thousands of Believers who have no idea what it means to live under the commands and constraining love of God. They have no depth of wisdom and peace within them and they feel justified in their rebellious and compromising lifestyle simply because every time they get themselves in trouble, God always bails them out.
They don’t understand that with every bail out, their soul becomes even more lean, even more malnourished, even more dry, even more hardened against the will and purpose of God. That’s why we have thousands and maybe even millions of Believers who have bought into the world system and world’s views on social, economic and political issues.
We don’t claim to have all the answers and we don’t claim to be perfect in our journey. But we do declare that we refuse to teach that every time God answers your prayers, it is a sign of His approval of your lifestyle and choices.
While it remains true that God loves us and will do anything for us, the true mark of a son or daughter of God is that they strive to love God unconditionally, too. They strive to please HIM and not just please themselves. While they realize God will always be there for them, they also start living in such a way as to show God that they will be there for Him, too. True followers of Christ have longing souls instead of lean souls. They have a desire for God that goes beyond their own desires.
So what are we doing to stem the tide?
We are trying to obey the strategy the Lord gave us for this ministry. He told us to return to the pattern of the early church in the second chapter of Acts: We are giving ourselves to apostolic teaching and fellowship, to breaking of bread and to prayer.
We’re not avoiding the tough issues of life and we’re making every effort to hold everything, including our personal opinions and views, to the standard of God’s word. We want you to be like the Bereans of Acts 17 and check out the scriptures for yourself to see if what we are teaching is really what the Bible says and if it’s what the Bible really means.
Let’s continue on this journey together.
Psalm 107:9 assures us, “…He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.”
If you plunge a frog into boiling water, it will try to jump out. But if you place the frog into cool water and slowly heat it to boiling, the frog won’t notice and will slowly cook to death. Even though this is a myth, the thought behind it is what many are attempting to communicate to a nation that is right now boiling in debilitating bliss.
While millions of Christian Believers remain focused on the latest reality TV shows and the personal pursuit of prosperity, the world is falling apart around them. Like the clueless frog, they don’t seem to notice or care. They live under the delusion that none of these things will affect them.
When they see the 12 seconds video bytes on the news, they conclude that they are observing the problems of THOSE people, in THOSE countries and none of that will have any effect on them.
However, the reality is that the Islamic Jihads are already taking place right here in America. Numerous cases have already been buried as attacks on Christians by Muslims are hidden away by the police and the media.
The gay agenda has done a great job of masking their agenda behind human rights and acceptance, but even the people who have escaped from the gay lifestyle have come out and spoken boldly that the gay agenda is not about civil rights or acceptance. Their goal is to completely take over society and the best way to do that is to take over media, education and politics. They have done all three.
Did you know they have a manifesto? It was written and published back in the late 1980’s.
Before someone assumes that I might be homophobic, here’s a direct quote from their published agenda:
“We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lives. We shall seduce him in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, sports arenas, seminaries, truck stops, male clubs, and in your Houses of Congress.
Wherever men are with men together, your sons shall become our minions and do our bidding.They will be re-cast in OUR image. They will come to crave and adore us.
All laws banning homosexuality will be revoked. If you dare cry "homo", "fairy", or "queer" at us, we will stab you in your cowardly hearts.
All churches who condemn us will be closed. Our only gods are handsome young men.
We shall be victorious because we are fueled with the ferocious bitterness of the oppressed.
We too, are capable of firing guns and manning the barricades of ultimate revolution.”
Wow! If a church came out with a threat to even take up guns to advance their cause, the pastor would be jailed immediately.
However, the one person they won’t confront is the Muslim. Even though they know Islamic law condemns homosexuality and even penalizes it with death, they won’t dare speak out against Islamic nations are people. Why? Well, because the people behind the radical gay agenda are bullies. Everyone knows that bullies pick on the people they feel are the easiest ones to intimidate. They obviously think Christians are an easy target.
So as more Christians are moved out of power and influence and as more Muslims and Gays are moved into power and influence, these two sides are headed for a major collision.
This is just one aspect of why the waters are boiling in America and why God is awakening His true Church.
So what is the response from you and your family today? Carol and I won’t be like the boiling frog, that’s for sure.
God has given us an assignment to rebuild, restore and renew hearts and homes. In the midst of these ideological, philosophical and moral wars, there will be casualties of war and we must be ready, like today’s first-responders, to go into the fire and rescue the wounded.
So let’s stay on course, stay united in prayer, and stay united in purpose.
