Prayer and Voting

Christians all over America are praying for the outcome of their presidential election. They seem to want God to determine who will be the next president, but I don’t think that makes sense.

The United States has adopted democracy. This is a system designed to enable the people to choose the president, not God. If most of the people were following Jesus and walking in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit that might produce God’s choice for president. But in a country where large numbers of people are no longer following Jesus, it becomes a system that shuts God out of the process of choosing a president.

So when people pray about the election, what are they expecting him to do. He will not cause ballots to be lost. He will not miraculously intervene and change ballots once votes have been made. The most that God could do is speak to people and prompt them to vote in a particular way. However, he has given us freedom, so he will not force people to change their vote to align with his will. This means that most of the people who are not following Jesus, and some who are, will ignore any prompting of the Holy Spirit about how to vote.

In a nation that has adopted a system that allows the people to elect the president, and many have chosen not to follow God, asking God to determine the outcome of the presidential election is naïve. The people will choose the person they want.

I realise that some Christians believe in a doctrine of meticulous providence in which God determines every event that occurs on earth, but that belief is not consistent with the scriptures. I explain this in God's Sovereignty.

If a nation has deliberately chosen a system of government in which the people choose their president, I don’t understand why they would expect God to override the people’s decision.

Prayer

Many prophetic bulletin boards are calling Christians nations to prayer. This is good, but prayer on its own will not change the nation. Christians will have to change their actions and behaviour. The church will have to change the way that it operates.

The danger with intercession is that it can seem like God is the problem, and that we need to get him to change, when the truth is that we are always the problem, and he is powerless if we are unwilling to change.

Prayer can be a way out for Christians who want others to change, but will not change themselves. If prayer distracts the church from real change, then it will fail to achieve the result it is praying for.

Third Heaven Intercession

A confusing doctrine has emerged in many Christians circles that I call Third Heaven Intercession. This teaching is giving many people a false understanding of how intercession works.

In this teaching, the first heaven is the atmosphere; part of the heavens and earth that God created. The second heaven is the place where the spiritual powers of evil operate (from a reference to the prince of the power of the air in Eph 2:2). The third heaven is the place where God dwells, and Jesus sits (based on where Paul said that he visited in 2 Cor 12:2). Actually, the third heaven is the paradise, where the people who die in the Lord go to be with Jesus, so it is something slightly different, but that is not important for this article (2 Cor 12:4).

The teaching on intercession claims that prayers fail, because intercessors are still operating in the first heaven, seeing things from an earthly level. Their prayers get blocked by the spiritual powers of evil in the second heaven from getting to Jesus in the third heaven..

The solution for intercessors is to understand that they are seated with Jesus at the right hand of the Father (which is true). If they pray from their position there, their prayers will be victorious, because the spiritual powers of evil in the second heaven cannot block them from getting to the Father. Their prayers go to him directly, bypassing any blockages.

Aspects of this teaching are true, and it seems plausible, but it is also misleading because it fails to take account of the nature of authority. Understanding authority is the key to success in intercession.

Having a place in the third heaven is not a guarantee of success in prayer. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, from where he is interceding on our behalf (Heb 7:25). His position does not give him authority to control everything on earth, so his wishes are not always fulfilled.

Jesus did not want Hitler rising to power and controlling part of the earth and slaughtering many Jews, but he did not have authority to stop him. Jesus did not want Stalin ruling half of Europe and killing many people, including Christians, but he did not have authority to stop him, though he was seated at God’s right hand in heaven (please do not reply that Hitler and Stalin were God’s will for the world).

The truth is that in terms of what happens on earth, authority on earth is much more important than authority in heaven. God gave authority over the earth to humans, so he can only intervene on earth if humans who have authority there give him permission.

Jesus was a human, so he was able to take back the authority on earth from the spiritual powers of evil who had stolen it from humans. After he had died on the cross, the spiritual powers of evil were totally defeated, so Jesus could say that all authority on earth (and heaven) belonged to him. At that moment, he held all authority over the earth. However, he did not keep it for himself, but gave the authority that he had won back to humans. The humans who chose to belong to him submitted to him, so he still had authority in their lives.

Most other people took the freedom (authority in their lives) Jesus had given back to them and resubmitted to the spiritual powers of evil (often unwittingly) by continuing to live their old lives. Jesus could have maintained authority over their lives by sending millions of angels and forcing them to obey his will. He could have sent angels to force Caesar to do what he wanted. Jesus could have threatened to smack down anyone who refused to obey him with angelic power. However, he chose not to do that, because his kingdom is a kingdom of love that cannot be imposed by coercion and force.

Jesus wanted people to be free, even if they rejected him, just as his Father had created them to be free. He wanted people to be free, even if they took the authority that he had won back for them by his terrible death and gave it back to the spiritual powers of evil who had cheated them before.

This is the current authority situation on earth. Jesus has authority in the lives of the people who acknowledge him as Lord, and those who submit to them for various reasons, as employees, children, etc. He has no authority in the lives of the millions who have rejected his wonderful gospel and submitted to the spiritual powers of evil.

The spiritual powers of evil have authority in the lives of people who have rejected the gospel and chosen sin and evil. This gives the powers of evil authority in the places and institutions on earth where these people have authority (even if they are located in the second heaven). Christians cannot override the decisions of these people, even if they are seated with Jesus at the right hand of the Father.

The Holy Spirit is everywhere, so the spiritual powers of evil cannot prevent the Father from hearing out prayer. The idea that our prayers can be blocked in the second heaven by the spiritual powers of evil is nonsense. Nor can they cannot stop the Holy Spirit from speaking to us, unless we have unwittingly given them permission by sinning.

All this means that our intercession will be more effective in situations where we have authority.

Parents have authority over their children. Elders have authority over the people in the body of Jesus who have submitted to them. That is why people in trouble should call on their elders to pray for them. When people submit to us by asking us to pray for them, that gives authority to our prayers into their lives.

Business people and have authority over their employees while they are at work. Managers have authority over the people who report to them. This opens the way to pray effectively for them, although this is always limited authority. Teachers have authority over the students in their classes, so this makes their prayers effective, within the limits of the authority that the students have also given to other people like parents and spouses.

Everyone has the right to speak to their political leaders, so we have the authority to release the Holy Spirit to speak to them. However, we do not have authority to make them obey his voice. However, if a president or king asks a prophet for advice, that gives the prophet extra authority when praying for him/her. Of course, the president or king will be submitting to other people too. If he/she gives them more authority, the prayers of the prophet may be nullified.

Authority is the key to effective intercession, not our place in the spiritual realms. That said, when we are in a place of authority, and are confronting evil, the fact that we are sitting with Jesus at the right hand of the Father with all his authority behind us is critically important. In situations where we have authority, the spiritual powers of evil have to surrender and submit to our declarations and decrees, if we speak on Jesus’ behalf and according to his will. In these situations, the reality that we are seated in the spiritual realms at God’s right hand means that they have to submit us.

The key to intercession is to seek authority: not imposing it on others by force, but whenever people freely submit to us for whatever reason, we should accept the authority and use it to pray for them. Authority makes intercession effective.

Weather (6) Dealing with Drought

During a drought, farmers should pray and ask God why it has come. There are a variety of possible answers to this question. Their response to the drought should depend on the answer.

• The drought is the outcome of the working normal weather patterns. In this situation, it is legitimate to pray that God will send rain.

• The drought might be the consequence of squeezing God out of the nation and giving freedom to the spiritual powers of evil to work evil upon it. There is no point in praying against the drought, if God has allowed it to happen as a matter of justice. The farmer should ask God how they need to change their farming practices, so that they can cope with the troubles that their nation is going through. Asking that God will stir up Christians to share the gospel might be the most effective prayer in this situation.

• The drought might be the consequence of long-term climate change due to the working of climate systems. In this situation, it is legitimate to ask God to change the climate. There will need to be enough people with authority in the land praying for prayers to be effective.

• If the long term-climate change is the consequence of the people of that part of the world deserting God, then there may be no point in praying against it. Farmers might need to ask God how they should adapt their farming practices, so that they can farm effectively, despite the changed climate. In some extreme cases, the farmer might need to move to a different place to live, even if the cost of doing so is significant.

• We need to be careful about praying for the weather, as humans have conflicting interests. For example, during the summer, city people might be praying for fine weather for their holidays, while Christian farmers might be praying for rain for the dry land. One group of farmers might be praying for rain on their land, while other farmers are praying for fine weather for their hay-making or harvest. Selfish prayers will not be heard.

Weather (5) Nations

The influence of the spiritual powers of evil changes depending on the spiritual state of the nation. If a big percentage of the population of a nation serves Jesus, the spiritual powers of evil will be squeezed out, and their influence will decline. They will find it difficult to cause harm by changing weather systems. If the faith declines and evil is rampant, the spiritual powers of evil have greater freedom to work in the nation. The result will be more weather catastrophes in terms of drought and storm. I have explained how this works in Prophetic Events.

This is also described in Deuteronomy 28. The link is more direct for a covenanted nation, but for ordinary nations where many people follow Jesus, blessings will flow.

The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands (Deut 28:12).

The Lord will bless farming.

On the other hand, if Jesus is rejected throughout a nation, the spiritual powers of evil will have greater access, so troubles will flow.

The LORD will strike you... with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed (Deut 28:22-24).

When the people of a nation reject God, the blessings on agriculture disappear.

Weather (4) Prayer

Prayer can change the weather.

Elijah prayed for a drought in Israel as a sign that the people had deserted God.

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word: (1 Kings 17:1).

Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops (James 5:17-18).

I am not sure whether God stopped the rain in response to Elijah’s prayer, or if his prayer released the spiritual powers of evil to bring a drought, but his prayer definitely changed the weather.

Moses prophesied a storm over Egypt.

Tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now… When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt (Ex 9:18,23).

Samuel prophesied thunder and rain during the harvest.

Is it not wheat harvest now? I will call on the LORD to send thunder and rain. And you will realize what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the LORD when you asked for a king. Then Samuel called on the LORD, and that same day the LORD sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the LORD and of Samuel (1 Sam 12:17-18).

In these examples, God changed the weather in response to the prayers of his prophets, during a season when the people had rejected God. They were warning judgements.

I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labour of your hands (Haggai 1:11).

The opposite is also possible. Prayer can bring good weather when the season of judgement is complete.

When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and give praise to your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance. (1 Kings 8:35-36).

Weather (3) Evil

If large numbers of evil spirits work together, they can influence the weather. This probably does not happen very often, but when they get their act together, it can be nasty. An example is when Jesus was crossing the lake in a boat. When they were in the middle of the lake, a terrible storm struck. This was not an ordinary storm. Mark describes it as a "great storm of wind" (Mark 4:37). Matthew says a great shaking (seismos) occurred in the sea. (Matt 8:24). The men in the boat were experienced sailors, but they were filled with terror because they realised they could be destroyed.

This was not just another storm. Most storms are caused by a strong wind. This was caused by something stirring the sea. The forces of darkness understood that Jesus was a risk to them. Now he had started his ministry the risk was becoming clear. He was casting out demons, and they were powerless. He was healing the people they had inflicted with sickness. They knew that they had to deal with him, before he really got going. So they stirred up the sea and the wind in an effort to kill Jesus.

When the disciples woke Jesus, he understood what was happening. He rebuked wind in the same way as he rebuked evil spirits that he was casting out. He spoke to the said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still" (Mark 4:39)! Speaking to an "act of nature" is a pointless waste of time, but Jesus knew the storm was demonic. He seemed to be speaking to the wind and the waves, but he was actually speaking to the evil spirits who were at work in both.

The disciples just saw a storm. Jesus realised that in the spiritual realms, a host of evil spirits had stirred up the wind and the sea in an effort to destroy him. There were other boats on the Sea of Galilee that night (Mk 4:36), but the spirits focussed the attack on his boat. Jesus understood his authority, so he rebuked the evil spirits. I presume that when he spoke, a host of powerful angels forced the evil spirits off the lake. That is why the wind and the waves instantly calmed.

Unlike a natural storm, this storm came without warning and ended suddenly. Much is made of the unpredictability of storms on the Galilee, but Jesus disciples knew how to read the weather signs (Luke 12:54) and would not have gone out if a storm was brewing. This storm ended as quickly as it started, because its source was demonic.

The storm that nearly destroyed the ship on which Paul was travelling to Rome was probably an attempt by the powers of evil to destroy him and his ministry. Paul got a revelation from God and declared to the sailor that no one would die. This declaration of faith undermined the power of the evil spirits stirring the storm.

When droughts and storms arise, it could be because we have opened ourselves up to the spiritual powers of evil. They love to kill and destroy. They sometimes use the weather to wreak destruction on earth. If that is the case, we should seek the deliverance of God. In these circumstances, prayer against the works of the powers of evil is essential for the victory of God’s people.

Praying for the Weather (1)

Weather systems are extremely complicated. Most of the time the weather is the consequence of the normal working of these systems, without any spiritual intervention.

Climate changes over time, as a consequence of even more complicated interactions between the earth, the sun and the atmosphere.

However, God can intervene in the weather for particular purposes. The spiritual powers of evil can also interfere with the weather, but I presume they have to band together to have much impact. That probably does not have very often.

Authority over the Weather
Before we can fully understand praying for the weather, we need to answer the question: who controls the atmosphere.

God gave humans authority over the earth. Unfortunately, humans gave their authority over the earth to the spiritual powers of evil.

The owners of land do not have authority over the atmosphere above the land they own.

The land does influence the atmosphere above it. For example, land can cause the atmosphere to heat or cool. Hills can provide shelter from wind, or cause rain to fall.

The land influences the atmosphere, but the owners of the land do not have authority over the atmosphere above it. This means that the owners of land do not have authority over the weather that transpire above their land. If they have given authority over their land to the spiritual powers of evil, then they do not get authority over the weather above it, either.

The weather in a region is determined by three influences.

• The natural working of weather systems.
• God.
• The spiritual powers of evil.

God does not have to get permission from the humans who control the land in an area before he can influence the weather, because they do not have control over the atmosphere above it. God gave authority over the earth/land to humans, but he did not give up authority to intervene in the weather on earth. God can influence the weather without getting permission from the people who control the earth.

Likewise, the spiritual powers of evil do not have to get permission from the people with authority over the land to influence the weather. Their main challenge is their limited power.

The authority situation with regard to the weather is different from what applies to other things on earth.

The weather has a significant effect on the earth. Rain helps seeds and plants to grow. Drought stops them from growing. If people are praying for changes to the weather that will affect the earth, then the authority of the people controlling the land might become more important.

Prayer for Kings

Paul urges us to pray for Kings and people in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-4), but we need to be careful how we pray. Many Christians assume that electing Christians as political leaders, or their kings becoming Christian, will advance the Kingdom of God, and they pray for those things. The problem is that political power is an obstacle to the Kingdom of God.

In his letter, Paul told Timothy to pray that kings and people with authority would leave us in peace and tranquillity, and allow us to get on with living godly and holy lives. God wants this to happen so we can get on with sharing the good news of Jesus. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man, not a king or political ruler.

We should pray for our own situation so that political powers will not take away your freedom to share the gospel.

Kings always crave for the allegiance and adulation of their subjects. Politicians mostly think that they know better than the rest, but they pretend to believe in democracy, so they also chase after the support of their people. This gives us a little authority in their lives, which empowers our prayers.

Prayer

Praying is always good.  However, our prayers will always be more effective, if we pray into situations where we have authority. They will also be more effective if they are precise, rather than vague and general.

It is good to pray that people come to salvation. However, it is better to pray more precisely, if we can. If we listen to the Holy Spirit, he will tell us what he wants to do in people’s lives. We can then pray for his will to be done. That will be more effective than vague general prayers.

Likewise, it is good to pray that the kingdom of the world will become Christ’s Kingdom.  However, we will never see our prayers being answered, because our request is too vague. I think it is better to ask the Holy Spirit what he wants to do to advance the Kingdom of God in the situations where we have interest and influence. If we pray for those things, we will be praying according to God’s will, so we are more likely to see our prayers being answered. That will encourage us to press on further.

Changing God's Mind

A person speaking on Christian radio suggested that prayer is changing the heart and mind of God. I am not sure about that.

God loves me. He knows everything that can be known. He knows what is best for me. If God wants something for me, it would be a mistake to get him to change his mind to align with what I want. I am often wrong about what I need, so if God gives in to what I want, I am probably going to get “second best”.

So, it probably better not to change God’s mind. That way I will get what is best for me.

Prayer is not changing God’s mind, or persuading him to do something that he does not want to do. It is giving him permission to do what he already wants to do.

One place where it might seem we could change God’s mind is about what he is planning to do for someone else. For example, Abraham thought that he changed God’s mind about what he was going to do about Sodom. But that is only part of the picture.

God gave authority over the earth to humans, so he can only intervene on earth, if we give him permission. Humans sinned and surrendered their authority on earth to the spiritual powers of evil. They used their stolen authority to get with wrecking and destroying everything that God had created ever since.

God needed to intervene and cut off the advance of evil in Sodom, but he could not do it without human permission. So, Abraham was not really changing God’s mind. He was giving God permission to do what he had already decided to do. God let Abraham think that he was persuading him to be merciful, so that he would give God the permission that he needed.

Prayer is not changing Gods mind. It is not persuading him to do things for us that he does not want to do. Prayer is people with authority on earth giving God permission to what he has already said that he wants to so. Therefore, a key to prayer is listening to God and discovering what he wants to do.

More at Prayer and Authority.

Elections and Prayer

Christians praying for the outcome of the US presidential election should remember that democracy is not God first choice form of government. God has made us free, so he does not always prevent the outcome of our choices.

Obama was the people’s choice, so there was no reason God would force him to change. God recognises the peoples freedom to choose their rulers. The problem was the choice, not lack of prayer.

Hillary and Donald are also the people’s choice, so God is unlikely to change them, whoever is elected. They might have a Damascus Road experience, but given their love of power and position, that is unlikely (Paul had a zeal for God that gave God authority to work in his life).

The spiritual powers of evil recognise every vote for a president as a prayer, so there are always more prayers for the candidate, than prayers to change him/her.

The people of the United States have submitted to the authority of a democratic system, so they are stuck with the outcome of that. Instead of vainly hoping and pleading that God will change the elected president, prophetic people should be prophesying and preparing for the outcome of an awful choice.

God’s Will and Authority

Although humans have authority on earth, and they have surrendered their authority to the powers of evil, God still manages to get his will done. The Holy Spirit uses whatever authority humans give with such wisdom and power that he achieves more than we would expect.

Although only a limited number of Christians are praying according to his will, many others are crying out to him. Their prayers often align with God’s will by serendipity. Even non-Christians sometimes cry out to God unwittingly, eg “God help me”. The Holy Spirit acts on all these prayers, if they are helpful for his purposes.

More at Prayer and Authority.

Fitch and Holsclaw (2) Mission of God

The second signpost introduced by Fitch and Holsclaw is the Mission of God. Christians tend to convey God in two different ways, neither helpful.

The common view is that the Christian God is all-powerful, but distant. This makes him see cruel to many people.

The pendulum is now swinging from a distant remote God, to one who is everywhere.

The problem is that if God is everywhere, then God is nowhere.

Fitch and Holsclaw push a different way; God is on a mission. They portray God as always actively breaking into the world.

We should think of God as the one who invaded the world in the Son. We should live as if God has remained active in the world through the Spirit.

God is always drawing near, entering in, walking beside the world in all its distress and uncertainty, in all its poverty and depravity.

If the Triune God is already in mission, then I need to see the worlds in which I regularly walk as the arenas of the Sprit-places imbued with the presence of God.

This changes the nature of prayer. Fitch stopped praying for opportunities to witness, and prayed that he would see what God is doing and know what to do to help.

God is already working there in each person’s life. Just pray that you will have eyes to see what God is doing so you can participate with a work or a prayer, with laughter, or a tear.

This is good stuff, but I characterise the situation differently.

This is our world.

God made it and gave it to us, so it is our world. We decide who comes in and what goes down. Right at the beginning, we made a huge mistake, and let the spiritual powers of evil into the world and they created a huge mess. They tricked us into submitting to them and se we have not been able to get rid of them to clean up the mess.

More importantly, despite Jesus death on the cross and the outpouring of the Spirit, God has mostly been shut out of our world. For most of history he has struggled to break in and put things right, because we have not given him permission.

Presenting God as the one who is constantly breaking into the world to put things right is misleading. He might want to do that, but he has not been able to do it. The problem with the mission of God is that if he is always breaking in, he should have sorted it out by now, but clearly has not. The mess remains. The reason is simple. The idea of God on a mission to the world reflects his heart, but not reality. God might want to break into the world and put things right, but he has not been able to get permission the permission he needs. God has always been desiring to break into the world, but he has not been allowed.

Rather than characterising God as being on a mission to the world, I would describe him as a God who has been struggling to obtain permission to be active in the world (see Gods Big Strategy).

This is our world. God can only enter into it when we invite him. History is actually the story of God looking for a way to break back into the world to put it right. He has spent most of history seeking a people to work through and place to work in. Most of the time he has been constrained. Getting a nation of people with a land to work through was a huge step. Sending the Holy Spirit to live in the body of Jesus was another big step forward. But even in the church age, God can only act in the world when people invite him into situations where they have authority to decide who can enter, but invitations have been surprisingly sparse and limited in scope.

This changes the nature of prayer. When we pray it is good to look for what the Spirit is doing in the world, so we can join him. We should also be looking to see where the forces of evil are at work, so we can join with him to resist them. More important we should be listening to the Holy Spirit to find out what he wants to do and where, so we can give can invite him to do it. Our prayers give the Holy Spirit the authority that he needs to be active in the world. The more active our prayer and the broader the scope, the more freedom he will have to put the world right (see more on this at Prayer and Authority).

Understandings God’s desire to break in should also change the way that we live. The Holy Spirit wants to go into the world, but he can only go there if the people he dwells in will carry with them. If we hide in our huddles, he is shut way from the world that he loves. To be active in the world, the Holy Spirit needs us to carry him into all the places where people are living, working and struggling. That means that we must be active where he wants to work.

Gods OT Strategy (5)

The common view is that when Adam and Eve were sent out into the world, he expected them to do what they had failed to do in the Garden of Eden. That was not possible. They were still on the path leading away from God. Adam lived for nearly a thousand years, but there is no indication in the scriptures that he ever did anything to help God get a foothold back on earth. God continued to be shut out of the earth. He needed a strategy that would restore his influence on earth. That would take time to achieve.

God could not act on earth, unless a human person called out and asked for help. Eve had called on God when her Cain was born.

She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man (Gen 4:1).

We do not know how long she lived after Seth was born, but this was the last record of her praying to God. It seems that prayer stopped once Cain was born.

Discerning Seasons (1) - Authority on Earth

Most Christians believe that God is in control of the world. He decides what happens on earth. If something bad happens, God must have allowed it. When a disaster occurs, he gets the blame.

This view is not true. Not only does it create confusion, it portrays God as cruel and nasty.

Many other Christians believe that we are in what they call the “end times”. Things on earth will get worse and worse, without any rhyme or reason. Their only hope to escape before things slip too far down the gurgler. Not only is this view wrong (the end times are not mentioned in the scriptures), but it creates confusion about what God is doing and how we should respond.

When God created the earth and mankind, he took a huge risk, because he decided to give authority over earth to humans.

The highest heavens belong to the LORD,
but the earth he has given to mankind (Psalm 115:16).

He gave this authority without recourse, so he cannot snatch it back, if it is used unwisely. This has a serious consequence. Since humans have authority here, we decide what happens on earth. Whenever something bad happens, some person, or group of people has allowed it to happen.

This principle is essential for understanding prayer. Prayer is not persuading God to do what he does not want to do. Prayer is finding out what the Father wants to do and giving the Holy Spirit permission to do it. I have written about this in Prayer and Authority.

Understanding human authority is also important for understanding events on earth. In this series of posts, I will set out a framework for understanding how this works.

The full series is at Discerning Seasons.

God is our Refuge

God really looked after us while we were in Israel.

We arrived in Jerusalem at about 10pm. The nesher taxi dropped us in a dark street up the hill from the hostel where we were going to stay. When we walked down the hill, we found that the gate was locked and we could not rouse anyone. When I phoned my contact, his phone was switched off and my calls went straight to voicemail.

We were standing in the dark street wondering what to do, when a young man approached asking us if we needed help. It turned out that he was a volunteer at the hostel. He had gone out for a walk, but because it was colder than he expected, he had returned early to get a jacket. He had a key and was able to let us in and help us find out beds. I told him that he was our rescuing angel. About half an hour after we got to bed, we got a txt from a blog reader, whom I did not know, saying that they had been praying for us. I was encouraged, as their prayers had already been answered when I received the text. Perfect timing.

We had flown to Israel via Seoul in South Korea. We were intrigued to read that North Korea had shelled a South Korean island, about the time we flew out of Seoul. We had not realised it at the time, but we needed God’s protection then too.

A couple of days later, when we were walking back to our hostel late at night with a group of people, my wife tripped on a step. I saw her fall head first down the steps, but could not catch her. I was amazed when she got up unhurt. That night we got another text from our friends saying that they were praying for us. The next day she did not even have a bruise, so I presume that an angel must have protected her from hitting the ground.

We travelled through Megiddo on the day when the fires took hold near Mount Carmel, but we did not see anything. So God kept us safe a third time, when we were close to danger.

Second Heaven

Many Christians believe that the devil controls the second heaven. Some have been taught that our sky is the first heaven and that our prayers have to pass through the second heaven to get to God in the third heaven. They allege that our prayers are not answered, because the devil prevents them from getting through to God. Sometimes God opens the heavens, which means that the devil cannot prevent prayers from getting through.

This doctrine does not have any basis in the scriptures. In fact, the second heaven is not mentioned in the Bible. Paul refers to the third heaven and links it with paradise.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise (2 Cor 12:2-4).

Paradise is the place where Jesus and the thief went after they died (Luke 23:43). If there is a third heaven, there must be a second heaven too, but we actually know very little about the way that heaven is structured. We must be careful building up a doctrine of several heavens, because we just do not know enough. If God wanted us to have this understanding, he would have got Paul to tell us more about what he saw, but he did not.

He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell (2 Cor 12:2-4).

Paul was not permitted to tell what he had seen. Those who claim to know the shape of the heavens are claiming to know things that Paul was not allowed to speak about.

The one thing that we do know is that Satan was thrown out of heaven (Rev 12:7,8). In Old Testament times, he could go into God’s presence and accuse the people of God. The cross destroyed that right and he lost his place in heaven. He is a still spiritual being without a body, so he has to operate in the spiritual dimension, but he does not have a place of authority in any part of heaven. The idea that he can control our access to God through prayer is nonsense.

Prayer and Authority (20) Disappointment and Offence

Persisting in prayer to change God’s mind is pointless. Expecting the forces of evil to surrender without a fight is foolish. If we pray in the wrong way, our prayers will not be answered. This is not a problem, if it occurs occasionally, but is dangerous if it happens too often. Frequent failure in prayer leads to disappointment and disappointment corrodes the human spirit. If we do not deal with it, we can develop a bad attitude that destroys our faith in God.

When fervent prayers go unanswered, we can get offended and start saying negative things about God.

God does not care about me.
God cannot heal everyone.
Miracles are not for today.

These statements are not true. They may express our pain and disappointment, but if we keep speaking in this way we are insulting God’s character. In the New Testament, this is described as taking offence with God.

When Jesus came to Nazareth, the people were amazed at him, but their amazement soon changed to expressions of doubt.

Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. (Mark 6:3).

Their statements were true, but they represented a distorted view of Jesus. They gave too much weight to their own experiences and too little to God’s promises. Jesus did not match their expectations, so they were disappointed in him.

The people were disappointed in God, but the scriptures say they had taken offence.

Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marvelled because of their unbelief (Mark 6:5,6).

Offence led to unbelief, which shut down the power of God.

Offence is a silent insidious sin that is mostly buried and hidden. When we are offended by someone, we often say nothing. The other person may not even know that we are offended. However, the offence infects our relationship by eating away in our hearts and tainting everything we say and do.

Most Christians who are offended by unanswered prayers have never said what they feel out loud. They just have this feeling of being let down by God. This wrong attitude is often buried so deep in our hearts that we do not know it is there. However, it taints our thoughts and words and spoils our relationship with God. Buried offence at God makes faith difficult.

We do not want to fall into offence, so leaning how to pray correctly is really important. Instead of pleading with God, we should learn about authority and how we can use it to set the power of the Holy Spirit free to accomplish God’s purposes on earth.

For more on this topic see Rock of Offence.

To read this full series of posts go to Prayer and Authority.

Prayer and Authority (19) Idle Words

The other side of submission is that we should be very careful when speaking to others about people who have submitted to them. If people with authority speak negative words, about a person who has submitted to, they give evil powers permission to attack the person.

By agreeing with the lies of the enemy, Christian leaders can give power. If the leader says to his wife, “Bill has always been rebellious against authority, and he always will be”, his words give a spirit of rebellion permission to attack the person. If an elder says to a friend, “John is liar”, this allows a gives a lying spirit to attack John.

Jesus warned that we will have to give account for our idle words.

I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken (Mat 12:36).

Careless words are serious, because they are permissions. Many Christian leaders, elders and parents will be embarrassed on that day, when they realise the effect of they casual words they spoke about those who were submitted to them. They will be shocked when they see how evil spirits used their words as permission to attack someone who trusted them.