PRAISING GOD! SINCE PUBLISHING THIS CALL TO PRAYER 7 MEDIA RELEASES REPORT ON 7 STEPS OF PROGRESS! GOD’S CHURCH IS ARISING! KEEPING PRAYING!
The Opposition to Jesus’ Kingdom is Real.
I pray that as you read this your understanding will be touched by the loving, gracious power of God’s Spirit.
God is opening our eyes to discern strongholds and principalities that operate against the life giving will of Christ in the spirit realm over our nation. These have legitimate authority because they are hooked into the sins of our culture.
We, as the people of God, need to recognise our sins and repent of them to break the ignorance, obstinacy, cultural beliefs and behavioural patterns that are draining life from us and the future generations of Australia. Principalities will have no hold when we as God’s people carry Jesus’ kingdom on earth and establish peace, hope and good will in our regions. (Look at Luke 10 to see how satan fell when houses of peace where established in a region.) We are wise not to warfare for the removal of principalities until we have the united strength to permanently displace them, so they cannot return to an empty house in multiplied strength.
Why National Laws and Policies Matter.
There are shared consequences and responsibility for corporate legalised sin that go beyond the cost of personal sin. God has identified behaviours that kill, steal or destroy life and He has commanded us to love each other and respect life giving principles. Some Christians see it as a personal choice, whether we individually obey God or follow our own ‘conscience.’ But there are widespread consequences when leaders or a democracy or a popularist majority insist on laws, rights or ‘political’ correctness that are counter to God’s commands. In spiritual terms our nation becomes liable for having established authority set up against God. This opens the door to schemes of the enemy that will target the will and people of God and destroy generations. Anti-Christian values are widely eroding our freedoms – to worship God, live quietly, raise our children freely and care for our local communities.
It is sad that the church has been so divided and weak in discerning and standing against sin and its long term life draining results. Some are caught in humanism; some are conflicted by confusion around ‘rights’ and ‘compassion’ and theology. Righteousness and loving kindness are both attributes of God and His people. Let’s bear gently with one another and earnestly pray and fast so God can open our hearts to His love and life giving guidance.
Naming Our Sin.
We need God’s revelation and conviction on specific issues in particular nations, regions so we can repent – ie change what we do. I seek to speak the truth in love and welcome your feedback so we can stand together on these things. The 40 Days of Prayer & Fasting that we are planning for 2015 focus on Destiny. Many of our core sins come from our family and national history and need to be cleansed so we leave a strong pure heritage to future generations.
These are just a few examples of sin that has been ‘normalised’ in Australian culture:
1. Idolatry. Australians are deceived by life draining schemes of the enemy that idealise humanistic secular thinking as ‘rationalism’ and portray faith in God as irrational. We defend our ‘freedoms’ and ‘rights’ to the point of anarchy and the destruction of family life. The media and popularised opinion upholds political correctness rather than godly values. Materialism is a cultural idol that leads us to become slaves to debt, consumerism, competition; focused on our ‘life style’; and fascinated with celebrities and fantasy wealth. The worldwide impact of materialism is so serious it threatens to destroy nations, wipe out people groups and bring about extinction of species. Its curse is distorting our weather patterns; hence our harvest capacity to feed people. Materialism is a scheme that directly works against God’s commission that we take care of the earth.Why is the church is so quiet about this?
PROGRESS REPORT: 8 July Anglican Media Melbourne announce: The General Synod General Synod heard last week, passing a motion urging the Government to “to respect and act upon relevant independent evidence-based scientific advice as a core basis for making decisions” in regard to climate change. Source:http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=5f70ffbadafdf46663612a513&id=768f9c6f13&e=a2f92affb4
2. Sexual sin. In Australia we still value faithfulness to our marriage partners and we hold leaders accountable to this. Sexual promiscuity for singles is considered acceptable – even advisable.
In recent decades, laws have been reversed from prosecuting prostitution to protecting it as an industry in Australia – despite the demonstrable links with human sexual slaves brought to our nation and held captive here. Internationally this includes child abduction. Many sex workers have a history of sexual abuse and are driven by poverty and drug desperation – yet we justify their involvement as ‘free choice’.
Laws have recently reversed from prosecuting homosexuality to laws and policies providing equality, but also restricting freedom of speech and religious freedom. Now in Victoria, politically correct agendas promote the ‘Safe Schools’ policy with a cover picture of a boy wearing girls’ school uniform while prayer & Christian study in schools has been banned.
PROGRESS: 21 July 2014 The Australian Prayer Network quoted a report by Christian Concern. The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) has issued a statement that people are not born gay. Mike Davidson, the director of Core Issues Trust (CIT) says the statement admits what the RCP previously denied, “that the causes of homosexuality are a combination of ‘biological and postnatal environment factors.’ So, if a child does not encounter such postnatal experiences, they will grow up heterosexual”. The Royal College now says, ‘It is not the case that sexual orientation is immutable or might not vary during a person’s life.’ Active homosexual males experience significantly higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases and lifetime sex partners than do homosexual females. Homosexual females experience on average higher rates of mental health problems than do homosexual males.
Pornography has become more and more prolific and violent; and abhorrent in its misuse of children etc but we do see increasing social awareness and accountability and legal prosecution of sexual abuse – particularly where this involves children. We fail to protect the lives and quality of life of many of our children in contemporary society. But there has been active efforts to bring individuals and institutions to accountability for the past sexual abuse of children.
The voice of the church has been weirdly silent on all this– even failing to initiate accountability and publicly repentance for the sexual abuse of children by church employees.
PROGRESS REPORT: 8 July 2014 The Pope begs forgiveness for ‘sacrilegious cult’ of Church …Reuters - 8 hours ago VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis told victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clerics the Church should weep and make reparation ...
3. Shedding Innocent Blood. Each life is so precious to God that innocent shed blood cries out for justice.
Globally hundreds of thousands of Christians are killed for their faith each year.
Our culture is guilty of the abortion of a high proportion of our babies.
God is leading intercessors to deal with the spiritual consequences of aboriginal massacre but our culture has not really faced and repented of this.
There is widespread moral outrage against high frequency of rape, street violence, home invasion and murder – and the pattern of repeat crimes. Good people stand publicly together to express repentance and compassion for the loss of life – let us be one in this.
We are not addressing human slavery which impacts us through imported goods and is operating in Australian cities – particularly as sexual slavery.
Note: Mining magnate Andrew Forrest launches Global Freedom … www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-18/forrest-launches…in…/5327192
We need to continue to pray for compassionate resolution of Australia’s response to refugees.
PROGRESS REPORT: 8 July 2014 Anglican Media Melbourne announced: Bishop Philip Huggins and Dean of Brisbane Dr Peter Catt successfully moved a motion at General Synod to remind the government of an alternative way forward for asylum seekers – seeking strong advocacy and pastoral care. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-uJyVmoun8&feature=youtu.be Source: http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=5f70ffbadafdf46663612a513&id=768f9c6f13&e=a2f92affb4
PROGRESS REPORT: Special Day of Prayer and Fasting for Asylum Seekers in Crisis, Sat 19 -Sun 20 July
See prayer points and more information on specific post at www.partnersinprayer.org.au
We’ve set aside a special 24 hour period of time for this purpose. We will pray and fast from 1pm Saturday 19th July to 1pm 20th July 2014 and we are asking churches to include prayer for asylum seekers as part of their Sunday morning service on 20th July, perhaps as part of their pastoral prayer. Please join with us in prayer for these hurting people.
Both Asylum Seekers and friends of Asylum Seekers are invited to join us for a special time of prayer and fasting for Asylum Seekers:
Collins St Baptist Church. 174 Collins St, Melbourne
6-9PM Saturday 19th July 2014.
(No cameras please for security reasons)
For more information contact Steve Cooke on 0423 623 885 or
sdcooke18@gmail.com
4. Broken Covenants. Our cultural faces some challenge around covenants – breaking them and neglecting to make them. We have not yet made an honouring covenant with the first people groups on this continent.
Australia is failing to meet its international covenants in relation to our responsibility for refugees.
Our culture accepts bankruptcy as a legal way to break financial obligation. Integrity to one’s word is still a standard held for our politicians and in business and we punish ‘white collar crime.’ We expect commercial integrity and freedom from bribes but at a personal level Australians will ignore copyright and even celebrate the illegal download of movies etc.
The main covenant in our culture is marriage. There is a very high social and financial cost being paid for the broken covenant of divorce. See:
PROGRESS REPORT: Exclusive: Divorce and family breakdowns are costing the national economy more than $14 billion a year in government assistance payments and court costs, an exclusive News Corp analysis has found. That figure has blown out by $2 billion in the last two years alone, with each Australian taxpayer now paying about $1100 a year to support families in crisis.
A News Corp analysis of information from the federal Attorney-General’s Department, the Department of Human Services and the Department of Social Services, shows that this financial year alone the government will spend $12.5 billion on support payments to single parents, including family tax benefits and rent assistance.
Another $1.5 billion will be spent on the administration of the child support system, while the cost to taxpayers from family disputes in Australian courts is $202 million.
Almost 50,000 people get divorced each year in Australia, and while the divorce rate declined between 2002 and 2008, it is now on the rise again. Over the last two years, the cost of divorce to the national economy has increased by more than $2 billion, or 17 per cent. See Government Proposal at: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/divorce-is-costing-the-australian-economy-14-billion-a-year/story-fnet09y4-1226979027353
There have been massive recent shifts in what is accepted as ‘marriage’. For many, marriage is no longer a covenant before God. Australia faces pressure to legalise homosexual marriage. A high proportion of adults have defacto relationships and a high proportion of children grow up outside a marriage covenant despite the evidence that shows marriage is highly protective of adult and child health and well being. In our culture divorce has become readily obtainable, although we are very aware of the profound generational curse of its consequences. Our covenants and laws take us further and further steps from God’s will which is for long, abundant life for all – peace, joy and hope. Our choices have many consequences for the next generations of Australians.
PROGRESS REPORT: To “Thunderous Applause,” The U.N. Reaffirms “Natural Family” AKA: “Traditional Family” as the Fundamental Unit of Society
Stefano Gennarini (July 7, 2014)
A last ditch attempt to include the qualification of “various forms of the family” failed at the eleventh hour. The resolution passed by a comfortable margin, with 26 votes for, 14 against, and 6 abstentions. It was greeted by thunderous applause.
The Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on “Protection of the Family” with a traditional definition of the family last Thursday. It recognizes the importance of the family for society and individuals, and that countries must strengthen and protect the family. The resolution not only echoes language from the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights about the family as the “natural and fundamental unit of society,” it also states that the family is the “natural environment” for the education and development of children.
Pray with us for Australia
“No renewal of the Church without renewal of prayer,” -The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has called on Christians to the disciplines of prayer and spending time in “contemplation and wonder” saying “there has never been a renewal of the Church without the renewal of prayer.” The spiritual leader of the world’s 85 million Anglicans made the call yesterday during his keynote address to delegates at the Anglicans Ablaze conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Jesus calls us ‘the light of the world’ but our internal issues make us hide the light under a cover,” he said. “However, prayer changes us and the closer we are to the Light the more we change.” Archbishop Welby referred the delegates to the many instances in history and Scripture when prayer changed people and drew them into communion with God and others.
Billy Graham’s daughter, Anne Graham Lotz issued a recent call for America to pray – and many of us joined them to support three purposes across the planet. I continue to uphold these as key in our ongoing prayer for Australia and our world:
- For God the Father to restrain, protect, and deliver His people from the evil that has come into our world.
- For God the Son to be exalted, magnified, and glorified in His Church, in our nation, and in our lives.
- For God the Holy Spirit to fall on us in a fresh way, compelling the Church to repent of sin and our nation to return to faith in the living God, resulting in a great national spiritual awakening.
Philippians 3:13-4:1,4-9 ” Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. 17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
You may also like to read Proverbs 4 and Habakuk 2.
I pray Habakuk 2:14 ..’the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord’.
Sue Tinworth
