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PRAYER
Apr 26, 2006 17:36:57 GMT
Post by StationAdministration on Apr 26, 2006 17:36:57 GMT
Some friends of mine have noticed a religious spirit that crops up when communicating with members of EN about their church. I can understand defensiveness coming from fear and even anger, but we need to communicate with love and grace and pray that God helps us all to speak to each other with seasoned truth.
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PRAYER
Apr 28, 2006 15:53:42 GMT
Post by philiprosenthal on Apr 28, 2006 15:53:42 GMT
It is normal for an organisation to be defensive against criticism.
There is a lot of criticism of EveryNation on this site, but I feel that to be faithful to God, these issues need to be translated into prayer. 1 Tim 2:1 says we must pray for those in authority. If we are not doing that, but just criticising, then we are being disobedient. I trust that many of the posters and readers are also praying but we need to focus prayer on the spiritual battle. His People was founded on intercessory prayer, but unfortunately when Paul Daniel backslid, he discouraged it - with the excuse that he would rather that prayer be fitted into all the activities of the church. Casual homegroup prayer for members needs for example, does not have the same effect as serious group intercession by godly people. I would challenge Factnet readers to pray and mobilise others to pray for the reform and restoration of the denomination.
Those of us who have been directly confronting sin in EveryNation have been taking a lot of counter-flak. We really need your prayers - as do the EveryNation leaders themselves. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I will give an example of answered prayer in His People, EveryNation to encourage you to pray: In 2002, after two years of ethical disputes with Paul Daniel, I came to the conclusion that he was wicked, although I knew nothing about his adulteries. I therefore decided to pray for his removal. The Lord guided me that it would take one hour of prayer per day for a month to remove him. So for that month, I set aside one hour per day to pray for his removal. My summary prayer was for God to "Judge the wicked leaders in His People", since I suspected there may be others. Exactly one month later, it was announced that: i. Paul Daniel was taking long leave due to poor health and burnout. ii. Gary Heneke, the church security officer, was arrested for theft of large quantities of tithe money.
I did not believe the Churches reason for Paul Daniel's 'taking long leave', so I continued to pray for God's judgement until he repented. The Holy Spirit gave me the scripture JOS 1:2 "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them--to the Israelites.". Therefore, I concluded that Paul Daniel's time in ministry was finished.
I continued then to pray daily for judgement till he confessed his sin - and Paul Daniel remained ill and unable to work. A few months later it was announced he was going to America for 'Sabbatical'. This I didn't believe either, so I continued to pray. He remained ill for a few more months in America. The illness was medically undiagnosed. I suspect that the prayer had caused conviction of sin, and that this guilt in turn led to stress and thus health problems. Jim Laffoon then confronted Paul with "Psalm 32:3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. PS 32:4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah PS 32:5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah"
Paul then admitted his most recent adulteries and resigned as senior pastor and as a member of His People. I then stopped praying for judgement and prayed for his recovery. His health then recovered.
Other leaders who have been complicit with abuse and unethical behaviour have since got seriously hurt by internal conflicts in the organisation - often in exactly the same ways they have hurt other people. I believe it is God's judgement - and hope it leads to repentance - which is the only way I believe the judgement will be stopped.
The reason I give this story is to encourage you to pray, because I and others who are confronting sin in His People/EveryNation need your prayer support. God is more powerful than the devil - and he can deal with unethical leaders - however clever and well defended they are. Nevertheless, we must break down the spiritual strongholds before we can deal with problems in the natural.
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