TURNING FROM OUR WICKED AND RELIGIOUS WAYS

apostolic acceleration april house of prayer prayer repentance Mar 30, 2020

Excerpts from My Book, My House Shall Be called a House a Prayer - the 7 Principles of becoming a Praying Church

II Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.

Over the last few weeks to months many in the Body of Christ have quoted this verse in relation to the COVID19 virus, admonishing the body of Christ that God can heal our land if we do what 2 Chronicles 7:14 says. The President of the United States, as well as the Presidents of many nations around the world have even called national days of prayer to ask God's intervention in their nations

The dichotomy of these steps toward faith and piety are that the same people that are quick to look to God, using 2 Chronicles 7:14 to stop the plague are slow to see this plague as a consequence of man's turning from God. They say things like, "God is using it, but we can't attribute it to God's judgments, because God is only a God of mercy & love since the Cross, believing that God doesnt judge us anymore because Jesus took all of God's judgments on himself on the Cross....Therefore they are quick to point out that this plague is NOT the judgment of God. God is using it though. As if God can't act on His own to get our attention, He has to wait for the devil to act to kill, still and destroy to use his actions to react and get our attention.

My main problem with these biblically conflicting voices is that these same people that are using this verse to encourage the church to follow the remedy given in 2 Chronicles 7:14, to stop this plague, and quote this verse to be the answer for revival and healing in the land, often overlook and lift the verse from the context of the 13th verse of the same chapter.

2 Ch 7:13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people....IF MY People....

The same chapter that conditions that the people of God Humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways, for God to heal the land, connects to the Judgment of God shutting up heaven that there be no rain, sending the locust to devour their fields, sending the plagues into their land. If you're going to use this verse to compel God to heal the land, it shouldn't be too much of a jump to see that in the verse before this one, God is the source of the drought, locust or plagues that are causing His people to need to return to Him and repent for the drought, locusts or plagues to stop.

Many are quick to point out that this is Old Testament. As if the God of the Old Covenant is a different God in the New....That in the Old covenant He was a God of judgment but in the New Testament He's a God of Grace & Mercy.....But the Hebrew writer as well as Malachi assures us that God changes not, saying I AM GOD AND I CHANGE NOT, THEREFORE YOU SONS OF JACOB ARE NOT CONSUMED....He's the same yesterday, today and forever more....God had mercy and Grace in the Old Covenant and God still Judges man for His rebellion against Him in the New....It's just in the NEW there's a High priest, Jesus the Christ, that has passed through the heavens interceding on our behalf, not the earthly levitical priestly order of the Old Covenant..

Thusly, it looks as if the God of Judgement is a character of the old order. While actually in the New Covenant His long suffering is our Salvation, affording us time to repent. But the same God that judged in the Old Covenant, is the same God that Judged Annaias and Saphirre with death for lying to the Holy Ghost in Acts 5 of the New Covenant. And is the same God that will send the bowl, trumpet and seal judgments on the earth of the New Covenant book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ.

SO WHO MUST REPENT FIRST AND OF WHAT

This verse in 2nd Chronicles makes it clear that the answer to the problems of this nation or world will not be found attributing everything to the devil that needs to be resisted, but requires knowing what's the consequence of man's sin that needs Humility to be repented of....

This verse makes it clear that the answer to the sicknesses and plagues of this nation or world being healed will not be solved with admonishing the world to turn from their sins, but in the church, the body of believers in Christ being compelled to turn from their own wicked, sinful and religious ways.

This verse is God speaking to his people saying, during times of drought, disaster and impending destruction; IF MY PEOPLE would humble themselves, pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways I would hear from heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land.

For a land to be healed, God’s people must first repent. We must start with the sins of our hearts before we can go on to the sins of the world. However, what he challenges them to repent of is what’s most interesting.

What do God’s people in the church need to repent of? Is it sexual sins? Is it drunkenness? What is it that the church needs to repent for? Is it idolatry? Is it covetousness? We definitely need to repent of all of that in the modern Church, but this is not what God is speaking of when he tells them to turn from their wicked ways.

WHAT ARE THE CHURCH’S WICKED WAYS

II Chronicles 7:14 declares that we are to turn from our wicked ways. But what are the wicked ways he’s referring to? The wicked ways of His people are the reason that the Lord shuts up heaven that there’s no blessing, but cursing, no healing but sickness. But what are the wicked ways of His people? What God calls wicked is far from what we think of when we think of wickedness. When we think of wickedness we think of sexual immorality, debauchery, licentiousness and all types of lasciviousness.

However, when God tells us to turn from our wickedness he’s not speaking of lifestyle habits as much as he is speaking of our backsliding from our spiritual disciplines in seeking him. He’s speaking of the breaking of the covenants we made with God to give Him access into the earth he gave us. God’s people are the ones who give God access into the earth, because the earth has been given to the children of men (Psalm 115:16). When we stop looking to him, inviting him into our situations in the earth we cause the earth to be absent of its’ source of blessing, healing, and prosperity.

God calls wicked, a people that call themselves by the name of God but have become prideful, acting and living as if they can do what God has called them to do and be what God has called them to be in the earth without God, without prayer. God, in 2^nd Chronicles 7:14 calls wickedness a people that call themselves by the name of God, but they do not pray. He calls wickedness a people that are called by the name of God but will not seek His face. His remedy for a land that needs healing is for His people to turn from their wicked ways and REPENT of their PRIDE, PRAYERLESSNESS, and UNWILLINGNESS TO SEEK HIS FACE.

The land was created by God to be inhabited by God through his relationship with man whom he made His landlord in the earth. When Adam sinned and locked God out, the earth became filled with sin, rebellion, sickness, disease, Satan and his demons. In order for God to regain access back into the earth again he had to find another man to cut covenant with. Through Abraham God found a man and a people to cut covenant with to get His son into the earth to begin the healing and restoration process of the earth and man. Prayer is that access and key for God’s reentry into the earth to heal our land. As Adam’s pride locked God out of the earth, Jesus’ humility gave God access back into the earth

Luk 3:21 Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, 22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

Humility and submission to God’s will and plan for our lives, families and destinies in the earth are always the key to an open heaven and God’s access into the earth. Pride always closes the windows of heaven and shuts God out. Pride is the epitome of man’s wickedness. It is the sin of all sins; it is the sin that caused Satan’s demise in Ezekiel 28:14

You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.

YOUR HEART BECAME PROUD ON ACCOUNT OF YOUR BEAUTY. Ezek. 28:14(NIV)

It was this same sin of pride that caused Adam & Eve to be put out of the Garden of Eden. As a matter of fact this account in Ezekiel 28 sounds eerily like what happened to our first parents. Adam and Eve, through the sin of pride, were put out of the Garden of Eden, having turned over the title deed of the earth to Satan. They succumbed to the prideful proposition of Satan, to do what God told them to do - have dominion over all the earth that God created and gave to them - without God, without having to seek God, without having to wait on God, or look to God. This is the definition of the sin of Pride. This is the sin that began the release into the earth of all the wickedness, depravity, and corruption that is in the earth now- the sin of pride.

The destiny of a people that are called by the name of God, praying and seeking the face of God is a healed, whole, God centered land that is once again fruitful and prosperous. The remedy for a sick land is a people that turn from their prayerlessness and began once again to seek the face of God. The Church that has failed to fulfill her purpose in the earth as a House of Prayer has allowed into the earth Satan, and the curse of sin, sickness and disease that has caused the earth to be a barren wilderness in need of healing. Mark 11:17 says, “My House shall be called of all nations a house of prayer, but you have (allowed it) to become a den of thieves.” When the Church fails to fulfill her purpose as a house of prayer we make the atmosphere conducive for Satan, the thief that comes to kill, steal and destroy, to exist and have his way in our midst. We must wake up and repent of our pride, turning from our wickedness, back to our true purpose and mission in the earth, to become a house of prayer.

The Fruit of Pride in the Modern Mega Church Age

The modern church of the 21^st century must repent for turning from the Lord and prayer to the arm of the flesh and bringing the world’s way of doing business into the church. This is the wickedness we must turn from in the church - Prayerlessness and Pride! We have turned from prayer to our corporate business models and practices that have attempted to turn the church into fortune 500 companies. Don’t misunderstand me I’m not saying that the church doesn’t have a business side to operating ministry, because it certainly does. Having excellent business practices in the church is very spiritual. It’s just when we turn from the word of God and prayer to focus more on the business of running our churches we are turning from the Arm of the Lord which brings salvation, (Isaiah 59:16) to the arm of the flesh.

Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore brethren seek out from among you seven men of Good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. (Acts 6:3)

In the modern church we’ve turned from prayer to television marketing plans. We’ve turned from prayer to our latest greatest marketing scheme to gather crowds and influence people to give to our ministries so that our ministries can be maintained, and appear successful and prosperous. We’ve turned from prayer meetings to service planning meetings. We’ve turned from prayer meetings, to business meetings. We’ve turned from prayer meetings to partner mailing lists meetings, meeting on how to cater to our high donors.

This has led to our churches having a form of godliness but denying to power thereof. We look like we have power, we act like we have power, and we preach like we have power, but when it’s all said and done we have more performance than power.

People are not getting up out of wheel chairs in our churches. Limbs are not growing that have been cut off in our churches. Marriages are not being put back together in our churches. The poor in our communities and in our own congregations are not being ministered to, while we send money to Africa as a marketing scheme and manipulative ploy to cause people feel we are something worth giving offerings to. All of this happens in our most prestigious and largest churches in America while our generation is heading fast toward a generation where only 4% will even come to our churches, or pay any attention to either, our side shows, or in many churches our funeral services. All of this is because our wickedness and pride - Prayerlessness, have shut the heavens over our churches.

These alternatives to prayer are not evil in and of themselves. They lead, however, to wickedness and corruption, when they take the place of prayer and seeking the face of God. Business models and marketing plans are not evil. However, they can only be productive to the work of the church when they are God’s wisdom from the place of prayer. These alternatives become evil when they replace the power and wisdom that can only be released through a corporate prayer and fasting solemn assembly.

We must remember that Satan was a master business man.

Ezekiel 28:14 says that because of His trafficking (trade & corrupt business practices) he had become prideful, filled with violence, sinful and operating in corrupt wisdom. When we make trade and business practices the order of the day in running our churches we become corrupt in our practices. When we focus on trading a word from God, or a healing, or a touch from God, for an offering we become corrupt in our practices. When we chose having a business, board, or partner meeting over having a prayer meeting in times of emergency and urgency in our churches, we end up like Satan -Prideful. We end up turning to corrupt wisdom to keep our churches running. Ezekiel 28:17 said of Satan, “Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.”

Because of the great and beautiful edifices that we have built in the 21^st century church we have become proud and have corrupted the wisdom of God to keep these beautiful edifices and institutions operating and running. This corrupt wisdom is played out and manifested as we place a premium more on our offering times rather than on our prayer times. When this happens we have become prideful and wicked in the church and we must repent. When we spend more time having meetings trying to figure out how to receive in the next million dollars through our television mailing lists, rather than time spent in prayer meetings praying for the partners on our mailing lists, we have become prideful and wicked in the church and we need to repent. When we spend more time in meetings trying to figure out how to pay our million dollar payroll budget for the month, rather than time spent praying that God supplies all our need according to His riches in glory, we have become prideful and wicked in the church and we need to repent.

When we spend more time meeting to organize conferences centered on bringing in the next million dollars to our ministries, rather than praying to feed God’s people with knowledge, wisdom and understanding, we have become prideful and wicked in the church and we need to repent. When we spend more time meeting on how to implement the latest church growth, home cell ministries, than we do praying for God to increase us more and more, us and our children, we have become prideful and wicked in the church and we need to repent.

We have exalted and exchanged having all the money we need to accomplish our vision and large numbers of people in churches above having God and the power of God in our midst. We have fallen in love with the crowds while hating the people, and have equated having a lot of money and material appearance of success, over having the success of God being with us in power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost.

Hebrews 13:5 says, Keep your lives from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

Much could be said about how the church has done ministry over the last one hundred years, but suffice it to say, church as usual is passing away, and it must. Many in the church are trying to hold on to old, dying systems that are unable to hold the new wine of this coming new age. Many are failing to continue on unto the fullness of what God has promised us in the last days, simply looking to an escape from these times with an anesthetized brand of ministry from an end-time theology that leaves the church passive and unaware of what she should be preparing to become and do in the earth in the last days.

The Old Wineskins of how we’ve done ministry and church in the past centuries are no longer sufficient for these end-time days to lead the church into the fullness of her calling as we approach the unique dynamics at the end of the age. We must Repent and turn from our wicked ways and return to the House of Prayer for all Nations.

REPENTANCE, JESUS AND THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER

Act 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; Act 3:20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

To get back to our original purpose as a house of prayer for all nations we’ve got to get back to Jesus. I believe we have not fulfilled the purpose of Jesus for His church, not just because we don’t desire to pray, but because we don’t have the power to pray. The power to become what Jesus wants us to become - a house of prayer – is found in us becoming Christ-like. Because we have not made Jesus our goal or mark in the church we have missed His purpose for us as a house of prayer.

Repentance - The Process back to Christ-likeness

The problem in us not pursuing Christ-likeness is not desire as much as it is our faulty understanding of the process to Christlikeness. In the Church we have preached repentance to miss hell and make it to heaven. Or we have preached repentance from sin only. However, we can see from Acts 3:19, 20 that repentance ultimate aim is Jesus. Repentance is the process back to Christlikeness.

19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; 20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

With repentance being the process to Christ-likeness repentance becomes a way of life, not just something we do when we commit sins of commission. We don’t repent because we’ve sinned; we repent because we have not yet arrived at Christ likeness. You repent because you are still more like you than you are like him.

To Repent Requires the Word of God

The word “Repent” means to re- think, or to have or consider another thought. The word re-pent is a combination of two words. The first word is “Re”- which means to do again. The second word is “Pent”- which means to think, or a thought. You might recognize better the thought process behind the word Re- Pent by another word that the suffix “Pent” is used in – Penthouse. The top floor of a high rise building is called the Penthouse. Therefore to repent is to think again your situation, or to come back to life lived on top. It is to turn from one thought to God’s higher thought. It means to come back again to life lived with the Spirit of God on top, leading your flesh, not following your carnal desires.

Therefore, you don’t necessarily have to have committed an act of sin to repent. You just have to look in the word of God and get a thought from God that’s not your thought. When this happens, and you allow the Spirit of God to turn you from your thoughts to God’s thoughts you have just repented.

To repent it requires that you look into the Word of God and get God’s thoughts about you and your life. It requires that through the Word of God you’re able to see something that you’re not doing that he said you could do; see something you’re not walking in that he said you could walk in. When you see it in the Word and decide to turn from where you are to where he said you would be you begin the process to Christlikeness. When you see

God’s ways in the Word and decide to turn from what you’re doing to what he told you to do, or turn from who and what you’re pursuing to who he told you to pursue – Jesus Christ – the Spirit of repentance working in you has begun the process to Christ-likeness in you.

When we make becoming like Jesus our goal we will not receive the Holy Ghost religiously, but to become what he called us to become, and to do what he called us to do. The Holy Ghost is so you can become like Jesus. The Holy Ghost causes that word you’ve received to go from your head to your heart so that you can repent of your thoughts about God and life and turn to God’s thoughts about God and life. When you get the word in your heart and it begins to purge and purify your heart, God begins to manifest Jesus through you.

To Purchase: "My House Shall be Called a House of Prayer - The 7 Principles of Becoming a Praying Church" CLICK HERE

This book is aimed at exploring these 7 principles for the purpose of restoring joyful prayer back to the church of the 21st century, to enable her to fulfill her end-time mission in the earth of preparing the way for the coming of the Lord

What you'll get:

Praying Church Principle #1: PROPHETIC IN THE HOUSE - Ears to Hear, Eyes to see
Praying Church Principle #2: PURITY IN THE HOUSE -The 7 steps to Cleansing the Temple from Revelation
Praying Church Principle #3: PUBLISH IN THE HOUSE - Developing your Prophetic History
Praying Church Principle #4: PRAYER IN THE HOUSE - Establishing Day & Night Prayers for Justice
Praying Church Principle #5: PEOPLE IN THE HOUSE - Racial Reconciliation
Praying Church Principle #6: POWER IN THE HOUSE - The Mountain of the Lord’s House
Praying Church Principle #7: PRAISE IN THE HOUSE - The Glorified Church
"To Purchase " CLICK HERE

Blessings

Brondon