Envisioning the Impossible

Personal Matters

I am not used to living with perplexity. Last week however I hear something which caused me great perplexity and motivated me to seek the Lord for a serious answer. At Perth Prayer we heard an anguished godly father share the heart rendering story of the long term demonisation of his son[1]. The child had often been prayed for, even by significant numbers of people. Rationalisations of the failure of earnest believers to deliver this boy conflict with the pattern in scripture that evil spirits must submit to a simple word of command given in the name of Jesus (Matt 8:16; Mark 1:25; Acts 16:18 etc.). In the case of many with serious physical, spiritual and mental disturbances the Church in Perth seems relatively impotent to free large numbers of sufferers from the bondage of Satan (cf. Acts 10:38). In the Perth Prayer meeting early this morning I sensed the Lord laying out a challenge for his people in this city which is humanly quite impossible (Matt 19:26).

Prayer Alone

In his own ministry Jesus was confronted by a situation very similar to the scenarios I have described above. Coming down from the mountain of Transfiguration the Lord found a crowd confused, arguing and suffering from doubt due to the inability of the disciples to cast a demon out of a man’s son. Jesus however immediately set the boy free with the rebuke, ““You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”” (Mark 9:25). When the disciples interrogated Christ concerning their inability to set the boy free his explanation was simple and direct; ““This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”” (Mark 9:29). Prayer is the key to deliver those in bondage to the devil and I believe God is setting before us in our city a unique challenge in the realm of prayer.

Role Reversal

Whatever is meant by the terms “principality”, “throne”, “dominion”, “power” etc. they represent an inflexible ordered hierarchy with Satan at the head (Eph 3:10; 6:12; Col 2:15). In God’s kingdom however the last are first and the least are the greatest (Matt 19:30; Luke 9:46-48). The cross is powerful to dethrone evil forces because it is the site of the ultimate role reversal. The King of all spirits voluntarily submits to humiliation and death (Col 2:14-15). The Church today however has a reputation as a self-interested moral judge speaking from a position above secular society trying to tell people how to live.  The very word “church” can conjure up images of withdrawal inside a special building on a special day separated from the normal concerns of life. These barriers to belief in a lowly King can however be overcome.

I believe that the Lord is calling for a mass movement in prayer beyond the hallowed spaces of religious buildings. Prayer in the normal Monday-Friday venues of schools, shopping centres, offices, homes, universities, parks, streets, factories, skyscrapers, car parks and so on. What would happen if on the same day the followers of Jesus from all walks of life paused to pray for the coming of the welfare of God to our city?  A movement involving shared Christian leadership from believers in business, politics, family, health, media, arts, education, law, sport, charity, as well as religion,  praying not only for their own sphere of engagement but for all others as well? This would prophetically image to the demonic hosts a Church freed from suspicion, prejudice or pride concerning which realm of spirituality, life or vocation was “the greatest”? Whereas regular Church life is often marked by differences of ethnicity, denomination or spirituality such a united act would broadcast to the forces of evil in the heavenly places all the rich colours of the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10).

Falling from Heaven

When the 70 disciples reported excitingly to Jesus, “even the demons are subject to us in your name”, he shared their delight and exclaimed ““I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”” (Luke 10:18). It is possible for such a dethronement of evil powers to happen over our city; but ONLY if the Church of God unites in prayer on the level ground at the foot of the cross under the banner of Christ alone. If we join together in a concert of prayer imaging that Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Catholics, Charismatics, doctors, delivery men, Indian Christians and Indigenous believers… are one, then Christ’s promise, ““I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”” (John 12:32) will manifest itself in our midst.

Conclusion

Under the name of Jesus the Church is charged with casting out the ruler of this world (John 12:31). But in all humility we must acknowledge as a Body that his power over Perth seems to grow daily. Our Father in heaven is not indifferent to the cries of fathers and mothers groaning over the demoralised and/or demonised condition of their sons and daughters. The “Father of spirits” desires all people to be saved (1 Tim 2:4; Heb 12:9) and will act powerfully if we follow his leading.

This teaching is a call to a specific action in which every believer can be involved. God has embedded each of us in a sphere of employment or cultural engagement with a call to pray for the welfare of our city (Jer 29:7). If the people of God rise to this call the Spirit will weave of mantle of humility across Perth, and no more will it be said, ““Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit… So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.”” (Mark 9:17-18).