In this season of warfare against the giants of the land, here is a must read from Merrie Cardin. She is the lead apostle and pastor of Brazos Covenant Ministries in Granbury, Texas. She also serves on the apostolic council of the Texas Apostolic Prayer Network:
The LORD spoke to His prophets because their life was a life of prayer. He then often asked them to display with words and actions the decisions of the LORD’S word to them. Isaiah spent 3 years walking in his loin cloth to display what would happen to nations. (Isaiah 20:2-6) that Israel trusted in instead of Yahweh. I want to challenge the church of America – even if only a remnant. We must begin to consider our lives as lost to Christ, forsake our lust for comfort, and boldly face what kind of land we leave for our children. First we are called to pray.
It is courageous to pray and to obey in our time here in the nation. Let me say UP FRONT that there is nothing scarier to me than for God’s people to move without a word from the Lord. Any action or obedience that is not following a word from the Lord is obedience to something else. But I do believe we will see times of Spirit-led action in the near future. Our prayers and active obedience will not just be motivated by love of our nation. Please hear that COVENANT with God is generational and our motivation – our passion is generated by our hearts joined to see His Kingdom come to earth and His love for generations of those that will serve Him
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Christian living in America when he felt he must return to Germany as it was being overtaken by Hitler and Nazism. He was a man of prayer and he also died a martyr in prison. He said some beautiful things:
“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” I do believe his prayers and even his death paved the way for Hitler’s defeat. He said, “The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.” He also stated, “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”
Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.” He also said that “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
I have always admired these two people who died for what was righteous and just- both honoring the law of love and insisting on that God’s people never give in to hatred or false judgment.
Recently I met a black Bible Church pastor who had been involved in our nation’s struggle for civil rights for the black race. He is a very bold man and for several reasons I am not going to name him but I want to quote him also. He said, “We have way too many evanjelly-fish. The minute he said this I could see many born-again floating around in an ocean called church with no backbone what-so-ever. Why quote all these people who stood in times of national conflict? Because we stand in such a time!! For the sake of space I will not give you the many cases right now in our nation concerning decisions that attempt to hinder and stop Christianity from witnessing, from speaking up, from stating Biblical values. Other nations have already fallen to this due to the silence of the church. I am speaking out because I firmly believe our prayers may need to be expressed in actions that demonstrate our refusal to leave our children to secular humanism and atheism.
I write this as a call to prepare your heart to resist fear-based comfortable unawareness leading to complacency. I write this as a cry from Father’s heart. I have never felt that politics or political parties can save a nation, although all should vote. We know that only God’s people have the place of authority to turn and heal a nation. Our biggest need in this hour is to know that following Jesus is not the same as being His disciple. (Luke 14:25-35) This is a call to become His disciples, to lose our life for Him, and to boldly resist where we are commanded disobey His Word. Not one of our Christian forefathers affected this nation through fear, complacency, lies or comfort, but through not loving their lives even unto death (Rev 12:11) Am I talking protests? If directed by our Father for the future ability of our children to serve God with freedom, YES. Am I talking civil disobedience? If we are asked to do things that directly oppose what God is saying and has said in His Word – ABSOLUTELY. My greatest concern is that many are oblivious to our season lost in the ocean of the cares of this life, the busyness of the day and maybe even anesthetized with church programs.
This is for those who have ears to hear and the willingness for form an unusual courage.
For our future hope,
Merrie Cardin
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