There are two powerful mental and spiritual weapons used to ensure the continued decay of our world and culture. They are resignation and despair. One teaches us to believe that it is no use attempting to change things the way they are, let alone hope for any change. The other teaches us that the world is beyond hope and we will do good just to get ourselves out alive and unscathed. These trap us into a world of hopeless worry and chilled inactivity.
Jesus introduced a different way to view the world. It is a world that is under siege by evil spiritual forces and human wickedness. It is a world which he invaded with his Kingdom to “undo the works of evil.” When Jesus came to earth, he did not arrive to just check on conditions and then report back to heaven what he witnessed. He came to change the human and world condition. Everything about his life was a divine rebellion against the status quo.
The divine rebellion Jesus started was meant to bring everything on earth under the dominion of his Kingdom. In fact, he promised not to come back “until the gospel of this Kingdom is preached to all the peoples of the earth.” In other words, he fully expects his followers to continue this divine rebellion until every tribe, language, and people group has had an opportunity to join the rebellion.
While on earth, wherever Jesus went he proclaimed “freedom for the captives” and set people free from demonic oppression, sickness, and disease. He rebelled against the wicked corruption of the religious leaders of the day. The Son of Man refused to accept things as he saw them on earth. His mission was to bring the Kingdom of God to earth to rescue it and redeem it from the stranglehold of its satanic ruler. The all powerful weapon wielded against Satan’s rule was his death and resurrection. He broke the back of Satan’s power in death. He liberated death’s captives by his resurrection. Through his complete submission to the Heavenly Father, he gained “all authority in heaven and on earth.” One day, everyone and everything will declare that he is absolute Lord and God.
Until then, he has left the work of this divine rebellion against the status quo to his followers. We continue his work of undoing the works of evil and setting spiritual captives free through his authority and the power of his Spirit at work in us. We bring people into the Kingdom of God by baptizing them into this new world order and allegiance to its King. We teach them the Way and how to observe what Jesus taught. Then, we train them to join this divine rebellion and to not accept resignation or despair.
Most of the world’s philosophies would get us to accept things “as they are.” They push their followers toward quiet acceptance of the status quo. Stoics claim that any unwillingness to accept the existing world is useless and vain. They would get us to believe that “the way things are” is an expression of God’s will. So, trying to change the world or pray that God would make changes is bad. Buddhists tell us that the way to true spiritual enlightenment is to embrace the way things are in the world. Even secularists hold a view that sees an inevitability to life and the world as it is. It is better, they teach us, to accept life the way it is and deal with the reality of it than to attempt to hope for change; especially change through any spiritual means or belief in a god.
However, Jesus taught and modeled a different way. Probably the most significant for his followers is prayer. Whenever believers pray, it is by its nature a rebellion against the status quo – the state of the world as it is. In particularly, petitionary prayer expresses a faith in God’s willingness and ability to bring change to our world. David Wells, in an article in Christianity Today (Vol. 17, No. 6), states,
“It is the absolute and undying refusal to accept as normal what is completely abnormal. It is the rejection of every agenda, every scheme, every opinion that clashes with the norms that God originally established. Our petitionary prayers are an expression of the unbridgeable chasm that separates Good from Evil, a declaration that Evil is not a variation on Good but its very opposite.”
Jesus told his followers that “At all times we should pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). So, if we succumb to resignation or despair, we surrender a biblical view of God that says God is present and has the ultimate authority and power to change things. In essence, we say that it is useless to pray as Jesus taught us, “your kingdom come, your will be done.” Why even exert ourselves to pray if God is not present nor able to change the status quo? Thus, we end up striking a truce with all that is wrong in the world instead of being angry enough to call upon God and his justice, mercy, grace, and redeeming love.
When we pray, we are openly declaring that God and this world are at cross-purposes. To not pray is to act as though they are not. Unfortunately, most of us have gotten too used to talking about the world’s problems than praying about them. It is easier for me to point my finger and shake my head at the world’s wickedness and evil than to engage it in petitionary or intercessory prayer. I allow the resignation of “the way things are” and the growing despair over what appears to be hopeless situations to rob me of my most potent and powerful influence in the worlds as it is: Prayer.
When I pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done,” it is more than a blanket prayer to cover all situations. It is specifically asking the Lord of lords and King of kings to bring his authority and dominion to bear in a particular circumstance in my life or my world. When I pray, “on earth as it is in heaven,” I am asking for that same supreme and absolute authority and dominion that God Almighty has in heaven to be displayed in a particular place and time here on earth. It is to cry out as the psalmist did, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!”
Rose in Full Bloom, Bush House Gardens, Summer 2009 ©Weatherstone/Ron Almberg, Jr. (2010)
Jesus’ life was filled with prayer. He refused to live in the world or do the Father’s business on any other terms than the Father’s. If he, the Son of God, required so much time in prayer to discern, discover, and disclose the will and mission of God in his life every day, how much more is required of us who follow him? Or, do we think we are more capable than he? Of course not. More likely, like his disciples in a storm tossed boat in the middle of a dark night, we have surrendered to resignation and despair. However, Jesus’ life and discipline in prayer was a divine rebellion against the world in its perverse and fallen abnormality.
If you are like me, the objection to this is on a very practical level, “But I have prayed and nothing seems to change!” This is perhaps why “prayer” and “do not give up” or “persistence” is always coupled in the Bible. Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow before an unjust judge. He was determined not to hear her case. However, because of her persistence, she won her day in court and received the justice due her.
God is not an unjust judge. In fact, Jesus’ comparison is to point out how much better God is than a corrupt and unjust earthly judge. The main truths, however, do not concern the character of the judge but of the widow. First, she refused to accept her unjust situation. In her world during the time of Jesus, her unjust and unresolved situation would have been the status quo for widows who do not have an elder male to plead their case. Jesus is making the point that his followers, also, should not accept or resign themselves to evil and wickedness in this world. The other example we find in the character of the widow is that, despite her discouragements and setbacks, she refused to resign or despair. She persisted in her cause; so should we.
The problem does not necessarily lie in our practice of prayer. We are persistent. Most of us would get an “A” on our heavenly report card for persistence and effort. Where we are most challenged is in our understanding the nature of prayer. Too often, we consider it a “Get Out of Jail Free” card in the great “Cosmos Monopoly” game. Instead, prayer is my service and my part in the Kingdom of God’s warfare against the devil and his works upon the earth.
Prayer goes way beyond my private concerns, though it includes them, to include Kingdom wide concerns around the whole world. It is more than just a religious experience or spiritual discipline then. It is to stand in the courtroom of the world and plead “the case” against what is wrong and for what is right. It is about my participation in the divine rebellion against the status quo until “all things are placed under his feet.”
©Weatherstone/Ron Almberg, Jr. (2010)
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