The Gas Prayer: Beyond the Word?
And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. (Acts 11.28, KJV)
This week my wife and I attended a large, Spirit-filled church that has been pastored by the same pastor since the year that I was born. We are currently looking for a church since our last church went on a building boom and every Sunday became just another fundraising melee.
The service was your typical American-Sunday service where it started off with singing, then an offering was taken, then the sermon, and then prayer. The praise singing was in line with the Word which was something that took us by surprise. Frankly, most Christians songs these days don’t have anything to do with the Word, but are rather emotional blusterings that are all about the songwriter or singer and not about the Lord.
Though the church classifies itself as a “Word” church, much of the sermon was wrapped up in a Republican American flag. The pastor quoted Genesis 12.1-3:
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (KJV)
but he never developed Paul’s New Testament exegesis of them. Rather, he used the verses as a platform for derogating “those who don’t think they need to bless Israel.” He also went off (or after) “those who would want to raise our taxes” or “compromise our security.”
At the end of the service, he spoke about how gas prices were hurting the Body of Christ because it was causing people to give less. He proceeded to pray about the gas prices and concluded the prayer with a command: “By the grace of God and in the name of Jesus, we call those gas prices down” or something to that effect.
The problem with the pastor’s prayer is that it appears to be well beyond the Word.
While there are times that the Spirit of God will come upon a man with the gift of faith to speak as in the shoes of God, Himself, our scriptural example is not to command economic prices. In Acts 11.28, we see the prophet, Agabus, prophesying about an oncoming famine in the land. He didn’t prophesy the famine in order for Peter or some other apostle to stand up and perform some kind of commanding prayer. No, he prophesied so that the Body of Christ would understand the times and that they would give to those who were affected.
Personally, my law practice hasn’t been affected too much by the raise in gas prices. I have to pay higher prices to fill up my tank, but gas prices aren’t a large part of my overhead. Two businessmen in my office building, however, are drastically having to change the way that they do business. One said to me this past week that if prices didn’t come down soon, he could lose everything in a matter of two months.
This pastor’s congregation would be better served by following the scriptural example:
Some of us aren’t so affected by gas prices. We may have more than enough income to cover it or our lifestyle is relatively unaffected by it. Some of us, however, are peering over a cliff. Consequently, the church is going to take up an offering to help those cliff-dwellers.
As for a home church, we’re still looking.
I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work :)
I’m just shaking my head at that one. Godspeed in the hunt for a new church family to serve with!
I feel ya here! I’m still searching for a church myself. I enjoy most things at my current church, except that they are building a 10 million dollar addition, so that gets a little old.
Every time the pastor says “tithe” I want to stand up and scream, “you’re wrong!”
I guess, for those of us who aren’t content with the churches offered, we could always start our own…
I think you show a lot of discernment.
I have to admit to being ‘guilty’ of taking authority/commanding the weather
at times…..not that God told me to do so, but because the
winter was so difficult for me. It did help. (I’m not saying
it was a good thing to do………it did help to command it to
snow on weekends and at night rather than having to drive
in it….and I figured if the area needed snow anyways,
at least the snow could be more convenient). Did it work?
Yes it did.
Of course, doing such things can veer into a type of
witchcraft. For example, we can speak, command or
pray things that are not Biblical and are not in line
with the character of God. That doesn’t mean it won’t
work.
If I started to command evil upon my enemies, for
example, that would be disobeying Christ’s command to
love and bless my enemies.
There are other examples where Christians in immaturity
or ignorance are controlling and meddling with other
Christians. I heard one person in our church tell my
friend he was “praying for her to have a better job”. The
intent may have been good, but he didn’t ask her
first. and she told me she was happy with her present
job as it was. Praying for others can easily become
soulish or controlling or even evil. Just as we can
easily speak evil over or of others.
I do think we can command certain things IF they are in
line with the Word of God. (And IF God told us to)
I could be wrong here about the whole issue.
I would say it’s OK to command a sickness/disease to
LEAVE or a demon, if one is really there and the person
wants it to go. As far as commanding money to come
and other things, that might be OK but it also might
easily get into an occultish soulish type of realm, too.
I agree with you, it’s pretty easy to get far out
on a limb beyond the Word of God as well as beyond
God’s character and intent.
I have heard national preachers on Christian tv preach
that Christians should give a special additional amount
because it was between the holidays of the Jewish
New Year or Tabernacles (I forget exactly which holiday
but it occurred in the Fall this year), and Pentecost, or
vice versa. Someone’s personal belief may allow
special offering on special feast days but I don’t think
this should necessarily be preached to everyone as if
they should all do it.
The Bible says to those who worship God by keeping
feast days or certain days, find, and to those who
don’t keep special days, fine………..don’t impose it on
each other, and the point is, worship and love
God the way you believe.
There is a problem when personal beliefs are preached
in such a forceful manner that it seems to the audience
that this is a MUST for everyone, or when
God’s blessings and answers to prayer and provision
seem DEPENDENT upon doing such things.
We need to clearly discern and distinguish between
God’s grace, the complete Sacrifice of Christ for us,
etc. and other lesser (though important) matters.
God does not refuse to help someone or answer their
prayer because they don’t perfectly keep some
formula or follow something………and sometimes God
doesn’t lead all of us exactly in the same manner. The
Word of God leaves enough gray area to allow for
some cultural and other differences.
If we all had to perfectly follow everything in order to
receive things from God, we would all be in a big
mess.
As far as churches go, I do try to be charitable and thankful
for those who share the Word of God and I try to
recognize that people are going to have limitations
and biases depending on their background, what they
know and believe, etc.
I guess a good guideline would be: love the persons
but be careful about what they preach/teach. We are
told to weigh everything. I liked one teaching I heard
saying we were to judge or weigh every teaching, every
miracle or supernatural sign or event, as well as
the fruit coming from a person’s life. We are to follow
Christ, and to follow others only insofar as they are
following Chirst.
I do wish (this doesn’t happen) that preachers and teachers
would take a few moments to CLEARLY distinguish between
what is the Word of God, and what is their own belief
or interpretation of it. Some preachers do that by saying
“I believe” ………
I appreciate your efforts to rightly divide the Word of
God.
Yes, while it’s fine to love our country, that is NOT
the same as following Jesus and the Word, in fact,
I think we need to be careful that we aren’t inadvertently
following various traditions. Patriotism should not
become an idol; ie, it is an error to EQUATE patriotism
or serving our country, for example, with serving God.
These various deviations from the Word of God, while
humanly understandable, can cause further and greater
problems down the line.
I attended a service in a neighboring state where an evangelist who is now world known was leading the service. During the service, he called people up for healing. I was up near the front of the church because I went up for healing prayer. I actually SAW with my own eyes, something in some of the peoples’ hands…….it looked like a golden colored oil.
The evangelist mentioned it, saying it was a sign from
God or of His presence.
The problem is, I don’t recall anywhere in Scriptures where
God showed a sign or miracle of this type.
I don’t want to be pharisetical or limit God, but I did
hear you have to be careful of these things because
if a sign is false it can lead a person astray.
I did not notice anything else in the meeting, the
ministry or anything else done or said that would be
objectionable or in error.
I have heard of people seeing angels which took on a
female form/appearance. We know from Scripture that
any time angels have appeared they always took the
form of a male. So I would not be open to this type
of “sign”.
Another problem I have is with preachers and ministers
who tell people God told them to tell people that they
have a special healing “anointing”. I’m not saying God
never tells preachers to say that (presumably to help
people receive healing) but I wouldpersonally be very cautious about claiming any type of “anointing”…….not that
it is necessarily wrong to do so, but I think our focus
should be on Christ and His Word more than on any
gifts He gives us (although those gifts should be respected).
I read somewhere that a reply should be short and to the point, actually it was said that it should never be longer than the orginal post.
Mark 11:22-24 it will work.
As for hunting a new church, seems as though many of us are in the same boat. Restless?!? Or being poorly fed?!? God help us!?! Thankful for the internet.
Sorry, short an to the point I am not!
While you have my sentiments in your search for a church, as I, too, have been there….with all that I have been reading from your sharp theologically inclined minds and discerning spirits, why don’t you “elevate yourselves” and go start your own church/es or at least a Bible study/prayer group….something!? Through all the “cussing, discussing, brainstorming, exegesing, spot on ideas, Greeking and debeaking,” one might lay their “hand to the plow.” Just an idea. :-)
Having been in the church for 59 years, I’m still looking for the “perfect church”…..then, again, I’d probably find myself in heaven. Now, don’t get sore on me….keep your discussions going….though I am serious. Just in case you’re wondering…. over the years, I did have to follow my own advice. It was good for me…to begin being, “a doer,” and not just exercise my intellect.
Good comments on this topic.
One thing I’d like to add as a word of caution-sometimes we “run” from a church at the drop of a hat only to find the next place has some “issue” that bothers us.
In addition, praying the Word of God has always been a safe and effective route for me. I can be sure of what God’s will is if I know His Word and character-then speak/pray it out. Unless I’ve consulted Him and have total peace, I won’t speak it out. Sometimes it’s slow going with this method, but I’ve found it to be very effective.
As far as the gas prices-maybe we’re a little too dependent on the middle east for fuel and we need to be praying for a purified imagination to get to work in the people of the US for the purpose of inventing an alternative to gasoline powered vehicles so that we can side step our dependency on the Middle East for fuel.
Just a thought. BK