A Prayer in the Storm: The Reality of the Power of Prayer – Part 2
This article is the conclusion of a story that began in my previous post. You can read part one of that story here. I now pick up where I left off.
I hate to admit it, but it is an unfortunate reality that Christians, myself included, only start “serious” prayer in times of crisis. Once the crisis passes the tendency is to not give much thought to it afterwards. I don’t think that necessarily means we have an unthankful heart. Perhaps it is the way we are naturally wired to just keep on living life as normal. Once God answered my prayer dealing with my own personal crisis, I didn’t give much thought about it either after that…until the very next day.
My concession trailer with the mechanic’s shop in the background
Ashley, Ohio is a small village of about 1,200 people, located about 30 miles north of Columbus. At the time of that storm in 2013, I was operating my concession trailer in front of a mechanic’s shop. The mechanic shared the building with his son who operated a tattoo shop. It was not unusual for me to serve lunch on a regular basis to the guys who worked there.
If you recall from part one of my story, I had prayed something very specific the night before:
“With your mighty hand right now, please reach down and move this tornado away to a safe area where it won’t bring any destruction to anyone.”
Thursday afternoon the guys in the tattoo shop came out to get lunch, and naturally we were talking about the storm from the pervious night. It had been a slow evening for them that night, so they had been outside taking a break and watching the storm as it approached. They saw those same ominous clouds I had seen, and those same clouds were now coming straight towards them. The one who was recalling the events to me said they were just getting ready to head for cover inside the building when something happened. He said that all of a sudden the cloud stopped moving towards them, changed direction, and then headed north and went around Ashley. He told me, “It was as if someone had reached down and moved it.”
Those were his exact words!
I was incredulous. The man from the tattoo shop had used the very same words to describe what had happened that I had used when I prayed to God the night before. Not only did God answer my prayer, but He answered it specifically as I had asked! I stood there dumbfounded. I had never had a prayer answered in this manner before. Immediately I thanked God for not only answering prayer but also for the way that He did it.
To this day I still do not know what to make of all this. How many times have we as believers prayed and asked God for things only to not have them work out favorably, if He even answers at all, whether it be healing for a sickness, financial situation, a choice of career, or some other life-changing event? To me, after having an experience such as the one I’ve just told you, I think it raises more questions than it answers.
We are coming out of a Protestant dark age. What we know about prayer is limited to only what we have been told according to orthodoxy. We read in our New Testaments about the great and mighty works accomplished by the apostles and others and how mightily their prayers were answered, and one should ask the question, “Why don’t those things still happen today?” Is it because, as we are told by pastors and elders, that was just a special time in church history? That God doesn’t work that way any more? Or is it because that we have bought into the notion that asking for such things is “selfish” and outside of the realm of “God’s will”.
With much boldness I will stand and pose this question here and now: Why is it so presumptuous of us to simply ask God for the things we want?
If, as Protestantism asserts, the metaphysical assumption of reality is a deterministic construct, then I will state right now that prayer is pointless, regardless of how much preaching on the power of prayer is done from the pulpit. But what if, as I believe, reality is not deterministic? What if our understanding of what is meant by “God’s will” is not what Protestant orthodoxy has told us? What if we have much more power at our disposal than we realize? What if it is as simple as the apostle James says, “you have not because you ask not?”
Does a loved one have to die of cancer simply because we were never bold enough to ask God, in the name of Jesus, to take away their cancer? Does a close friend have to suffer the remainder of his life with diminished mental capacity due to a traumatic brain injury suffered in a fall? Why do we always couch our prayers with, “…if it be Your will”? Will God actually NOT answer the desires of our heart simply because we didn’t ask for them? Do we limit the potential blessings that could be ours simply because we think it’s wrong to even ask? Are our prayers ineffective because we fail to make them specific and with the boldness of an expectation of getting what we ask for? What about the apostle Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”? Doesn’t God sometimes want us to rely on the “sufficiency of His grace?”
These are very hard questions, and unfortunately I don’t have the answers. I do, however, believe that the answers are knowable, but it is going to take the collective effort of all of God’s people set free from the slavery of religious institutionalism who set out on a journey of discovering the answers for themselves and sharing with others what they have learned. Each one is a piece to the puzzle.
What have I learned? I know that as God’s own righteous offspring, we have a Father who wants to give good gifts to His children. I know that if we ask God for a piece of bread, He won’t give us a stone. I know that if we ask God for a fish, He won’t give us a serpent. He will give us specifically what we ask for. O that we may have the courage to ask it! Amen.
~ Andy
A Prayer in the Storm: The Reality of the Power of Prayer – Part 1
To this day I’m still not quite sure what to make of the events that transpired almost 4 years ago. Perhaps that I’m committing it to words is simply my way of trying to make sense of it all. There is nothing dogmatic in what I am about to tell you. I can only share with you what my own experience was. But I think there is a lesson to be learned in it all.
It was late spring of 2013. My wife and children were spending the week in Pennsylvania visiting family. This had been an annual occurrence for us since our oldest had been a toddler. The church in which my wife grew up held vacation Bible school each year at this time, and the kids looked forward to it every year. I, however, had to stay home alone for the week since I had a business to run. For the self-employed there are no such luxuries like vacations and “sick days”.
Of course this was also before we had made the decision to leave the institutional church once and for all. Having left a church in Columbus that had been taken over by New Calvinists, we were currently attending a small country church about 20 minutes from our house. Granted, it was half-pregnant with authentic Protestantism (yes, I borrowed that expression from Paul), but it seemed to us to be a reasonable alternative at the time.
Like most loyal church-goers, we tried to be there any time the doors were open, and that included the mid-week prayer meeting. On this particular Wednesday evening in June the forecast called for unstable weather. When you live in the mid-west that translates to severe thunderstorms and the risk of tornadoes. It’s a reality you learn to live with, and so you just go about your life without giving much thought to it. Skipping prayer meeting that night never crossed my mind as an option.
The “service” started out pretty uneventful, but around 7:30 when we broke up into groups for prayer it began storming heavily outside. By the time we were dismissed around 8, the storminess and heavy rain had passed, and it looked like it was starting to clear up. But that was just the beginning.
I am an avid listener of talk radio, and consequently the radio in my car is permanently tuned to the local Columbus conservative radio station. I started my car, and as the radio came to life, since I usually just leave it on all the time, I immediately heard the repeating beeping tone every 5 seconds over the broadcast. That meant only one thing: a serious weather warning was in effect.
When the national weather service issues a “tornado warning” that means an actual tornado has been spotted. So when I heard the radio announcer say that a tornado was spotted near Ashley, Ohio, my heart must have stopped twice. Not only was Ashley about ten minutes from my house, but Ashley was where I operated my business, and my concession trailer was currently parked there. All in one instance both my home and my livelihood were at risk of destruction! It was the most helpless feeling in the world. What can you do in a situation like that where everything is completely out of your control?
I did the only thing anyone can do in that situation: I prayed…HARD!
That twenty-minute drive home was probably the longest twenty minutes ever. As I listened intently to the radio report, I kept one eye on the road and one eye to the sky straining to see through breaks in the trees for any signs of a funnel cloud in the general direction of home. Unfortunately, the skies in that direction did not look promising. But I remembered a promise that Jesus gave to His disciples during His ministry on earth.
“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” ~ John 14:13-14
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” ~ Matthew 7:7-11
The reality of those words had a powerful impact on me. As a little child I would never have hesitated to ask my dad for something I wanted, and unless my dad decided that it was not something that was good for me, he would not have hesitated to give me what I asked so long as it was in his power to provide it.
As a child of the Heavenly Father, why would it be any different?
So I claimed those promises right then and there. As the radio blared, I prayed out loud:
“Father, you have promised us in your word that you would give us anything that we asked for in Jesus’ name. I claim that promise right now. I ask in Jesus’ name that you would please help to spare my house and spare my business from damage. With your mighty hand right now, please reach down and move this tornado away to a safe area where it won’t bring any destruction to anyone.”
I emphasized that last sentence because it will become important later.
The view across the road from my house, June 12, 2013
As I got closer to home I could tell that my house was not in the path of the ominous clouds I had seen on the horizon. As my home came into view I gave thanks to God that everything there was safe. I still wasn’t sure about my business in Ashley. I turned my gaze in that direction and saw those same ominous clouds on the horizon. At right is a picture I took from my front porch. Watching that cloud move on, I thought about people I knew who lived in that direction or who might be in the path of that storm. I prayed for them as well, claiming the same promises as before and asking in Jesus’ name that our Father please protect them and their property from harm.
Yet I still had unanswered questions. What had happened in Ashley? Was there any damage there? Do I still have a business left? The nagging uncertainty prompted me to get back into my car and drive to Ashley to survey the aftermath.
As I headed to Ashley I remember asking God to help me to be at peace with whatever damage there might be. I asked Him to help me trust Him to provide for us as He always had, to help us get through picking up the pieces and finding a way to start over. I remember noticing on the way how little damage there actually was, not so much as a tree limb fallen. Driving through the village I saw that all looked the same as it had. The power was even on still. And there was my trailer safe and sound, not a scratch on it.
I praised God right then and there for His answer to my prayer! But that is not yet the end of my story, for HOW God answered my prayer is even more incredible.
~ Andy
Protestantism Re-Crucifies Christ Daily and Holds Him Up to Open Contempt
However you want to organize the “5 great religions of the world,” Protestantism is one of the 5 and like all 5 is false. These false religions all have one thing in common; human mediators who claim coregency with Christ or some other god of one’s choosing. In contrast, true faith in God holds to one authority and one mediator between God and man; Christ.
But wouldn’t such individualism lead to chaos? Sure it would, and we call that, “church.” Let me explain. When you have a claim of human sub-mediation or under-shepherds, various and sundry “authoritative” claims follow. Said another way; Christ never spoke or attended any church council.
So, what do we have? A mega-smorgasbord of coregency to choose from; viz, an “authority” that suits the individual’s itching ears. And since religious institutions need money to support infrastructure, and they supposedly speak for God, convictions may be adjusted from time to time.
It’s backdoor individualism. Don’t let anybody fool you; individualism is one of the major pillars of metaphysics. In world religion, being under an “authority” of anybody’s choosing becomes the gospel; and a whole bunch of folks are in for an unspeakable tragic surprise on judgment day.
Since individualism is unavoidable and judgment by God is individual, the Bible emphasizes a collective individual agreement to achieve particular goals. This is far from impossible since that’s how it really works in reality and each believer is indwelled by the Spirit who will “lead you in all truth.”
This boils down to home fellowships that operate like families because God’s family is a literal family and therefore functions like one. The family member’s gift and natural abilities are exercised and drives the agenda. The apostle Paul compared it to how a human body functions with Christ being the one head, or the body operating according to the “one mind of Christ.” Therefore, home fellowships strive to “be of the same mind.” The Bible details in various places how that is to be brought to bear.
In the first century, the assembly of Christ suffered an onslaught from several different institutional religions; particularly, Old Covenant Judaism, or what the apostle Paul referred to as the “Judaizers.” Simply stated, this made the Old Covenant an institutional authority of human priests that the New Covenant replaced. There is no new thing under the sun; this institution claimed to have authority over people’s salvation.
Hence, those who initially followed “the way” were being intimidated into turning back to the Judaizers via confiscation of property and prison; you know, because authoritative collectivism has so much more to offer than individual collectivism. Authorities that know best only burn you at the stake or take away your salvation to convince you that God has indeed given them His authority because they say he did which of course in somewhat undocumented or confirmed. The book of Hebrews was written by the apostles to address this problem.
One of the favorite verses twisted by demonic Protestant scholars is Hebrews 7:25.
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
“See! See! Christ still intercedes for us in heaven because we don’t keep the law perfectly. This is why you need to be a member of a local church where you can get ongoing forgiveness for imperfect law keeping!”
This is not one iota different from what the Hebrew authors were protesting against with bone-chilling verbiage. In context, the contrast is between earthly priests who cannot supply a once and for all salvation because the law is the basis for their righteousness. Please note: by making the law the basis of saving righteousness, a ritual must be supplied which they oversee that fulfills the law. Therefore, the Hebrew writers categorize these priests synonymously with their mortality and the law. Many of them are needed because they die, and there needs to be a succession of priests to oversee various and sundry rituals that satisfy the “righteous demands of the law.” Protestants call this “the means of grace.” And in Protestantism, “grace” is a soft term for “salvation,” so what they are really saying is… “The means of salvation.”
The Hebrews contention follows: what is needed is a Priest who never dies. Look, Protestants themselves call the means of grace… “The sacraments.” Any questions? What is more evident?
Don’t miss this: it is the difference between law and life.
One requires mortal authoritative priests who must, according to Protestant orthodoxy, reoffer continually what Christ did once on the cross as opposed to one Priest who lives forever. Instead of mortal men who must make a continual intercession in fulfillment of the law, we have an eternal intercession via a Priest who lives forever. This is the cardinal point of Hebrews 7:25, NOT that Christ continues to make intercession for us in heaven to satisfy the law in response to the intercession of mortal priests on earth. It’s a one time eternal intercession because Christ lives forever, and it is His present life that guarantees our salvation; that’s the intercession—and it does not include additional priests of any sort. Christ was resurrected ONCE for our justification. We are saved by His life, not perfect law-keeping via religious ritual.
Another major point of Hebrews follows: this earthly mortal system actually dumbs down the law and circumvents the use of the law for love without fear of condemnation which fulfills the whole law. These systems present themselves as pious, but actually lead to decadence. Read the papers or watch the news much?
Hebrews 6:1 – Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
What A Home Fellowship Might Look Like
The Body of Christ was intended to be a family. The term “born again” should clue us in to that. A believer is the literal offspring of God the Father. We are born into God’s family. Being children of the Father makes us all brothers and sisters. The word “fellowship” is the Greek word “koinenia”, and it means “having in common.” What we have in common as God’s children is being a part of the same family!
So when we gather together, it is nothing more than a family gathering.
Today I am offering you a look inside my home. The video below shows you what a typical home fellowship in my home looks like. Right now it’s just my wife and I and our five children. But we would love to have you come fellowship with us! It is unfortunate that the miles between us makes it impractical. I ask that you pray that God will help us to be able to find other likeminded believers in our area who would come and fellowship with us. I ask that you pray that we would be able to take the gospel to the people around us who need to hear it, so that they too can be a part of God’s family!
~ Andy
“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers…And all that believed were together, and had all things common;”
~ Acts 2:42-44
Weak Sanctification and the “Revival” of NO Sanctification
Tonight 1/8/2017 @ 7pm Live Link: Weak Sanctification and the “Revival” of NO Sanctification
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