This
month the focus is on prayer for mindset change in relation to the role of the
ecclesia in the vital matter of the politics of climate change. As you will be
aware politicians and the media are particularly focused on this in Copenhagen at this time.
As well as points for prayer this month’s material will of course be attempting
to challenge our mindsets and we look forward to ongoing discussion via the blog
and email communication to admin@passion.org.ukOnce again can we remind you that your email
feedback may be placed on the blog unless you specifically request otherwise.
If you wish to explore Roger’s thinking on this and other topics further, please
have a look at his blog: http://www.rogerhaydonmitchell.wordpress.com
A) “THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S!”
This statement comes three times in the
scriptures, in Exodus 9:29; Psalm 24:1; and 1 Cor 10:26. In Exodus the context
is Moses reminding Pharaoh after hail had destroyed the flax and the barley
crop that intercession can change the climate even when the unjust exercise of
empire has brought about the problem.The second connects holiness and the creation and the third then puts
together the creation, grace that overcomes law, and godly compromise for the
benefit of our neighbour.
Understood through the revelation of Christ it would seem to follow
from these verses that:
1. The exercise of empire, or seeing the earth as a resource for the
dominance of an individual, family, group, nation over others, causes the
creation to react negatively and in the end God allows this to happen. In this
context intercession is for the purpose of bringing down the political powers
responsible for the injustice and abuse that causes the problem.
2. God is central for the earth and the earth is central for God.
Ascending the hill of the Lord is about connecting the heaven and earth,
Incarnation takes this to its fulness. God became a human being and now a
resurrected human is in God, Quite literally a human being, and with him
potentially the whole human race, is in the trinity. This has changed God
forever at his own initiative.
3. By grace we receive God's
loving gift of himself and his world. Then we cooperate with him to steward the
world for the benefit of others more than ourselves, including our enemies. It follows
that it is both subhuman and ungodly not to connect with or care properly for
the creation in this way.
B) THE FINANCIAL
SHAKING AND THE DISCLOSURE OF GLOBAL WARMING IS FROM GOD
1. Three generations of revival, the prayer movement and the prophetic
movement is bringing down the human empires which exploit the earth. It is
reconfiguring the people of God to come in the opposite spirit and care for the
poor and their enemies more than themselves. And it will issue in the renewal
of creation culminating in the new heaven and the new earth of which the
resurrection of Jesus is the first fruits
2. The UN Copenhagen
conference on climate change is a huge opportunity for humanity to correct the ongoing
abuse of the planet. This makes it a vital target for intercessory prayer. Unfortunately
the misplaced idea that the sovereingty of the nation state is something that
God wants to preserve at all costs has led some intercessors, prophets,
national and church leaders to miss the point of what is happening at this time.
The same tendency that has led some British intercessors to oppose the EU, as
if British sovereignty as an institution were in some way a good thing and spiritually
superior to any other, is making many American intercessors fear the UN. As a
result lots of prayer and prophetic interpretation is being misdirected. However
western
sovereignty has long been submitted to the rule of Mammon which makes it an
unjust empire that is in fact a major cause of the rapidity and extent of
climate change.
3. It is for this reason that it is to be hoped
that any political leaders with real vision and courage are heading for Copenhagen in order to
try to find some internationally agreed way of preventing the unhindered impact
of global capital on the planet. Of course an attempt at new world legal
institutions will risk repeating some of the same evils of empire that western
Christendom has unleashed on the world. But the US
and the UK
or any other western nation can hardly cast itself as the protectors of the
planet. Let’s thank God for Barack Obama and George Brown and whoever is
representing your nation at the UN for a start, and pray for grace for them to
steer as just a compromise course as possible for the good of the poor of the
earth.
Jane Almond responds:
This is an important dialogue and I will be interested to read responses. My first thoughts are as follows.
I respect those who have been praying for years at the UN and I do believe they have insights and revelation to deal with some of the demonic forces operating there. I'm going to stick my neck out too here by saying that I have, however, moved a little, recently, away from the praying against (so to speak) towards praying- how can I say it? - that the kingdom of God will break out in such a way that goodness will prevail, Jesus will be glorified and the other issues/forces etc will just fade away. Might sound a little 'weak' to some (isn't that when God is strong?), but I'm learning that the issue is not always one of praying 'against' but resting, trusting and remaining in him whatever happens. Just the presence of Jesus within a person can shift the balance of authority in a place...as we learn more about the great privilege of walking in the footsteps of Smith Wigglesworth and others (when people repented as he entered a room!), we learn more about this anointing...and, indeed, aspire to walk in it ourselves one day.
That said, it is important to use the insights and revelation we get from the Lord to prevent deception and enable us to analyse what is at work with discernment and then pray accordingly. But for me, there has been a subtle shift from aggressive warfare towards resting in the anointing, knowing he lives in me and I(almost) don't have to 'do it'.(I'm putting things in inverted commas because language can be misread.)
So, I suppose I walk a little bit of a middle road - and recognise that not everyone will walk that road too. God may move me on further down one path or another in the future.And, I am not ignoring the many valuable spiritual roots that have been uncovered in the last few years - speaking as a researcher, I do believe it is vital to know they exist and not be blind - we are like the Men of Issachar after all. I still pray about these things but they are no longer the source of my prayers - he is.For me there is a difference.
