Man’s most valuable privilege is prayer. God made man in His own image so that man can know Him. Man did not evolve; he is not an animal. Man rebelled and fell into condemnation, but God has provided redemption at great cost through His Son Jesus Christ. Fallen man, who is separated from God by his sin, can be reconciled and can walk with God as did Enoch of old. Nothing is more wonderful. God invites, encourages, exhorts, and commands His redeemed children to pray in His will and to expect answers. The Lord Jesus said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). The apostle John said, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5:14-15). God has expressed His will in Scripture. We are told in 2 Thessalonians that the devil’s mystery of iniquity is at work in this world toward the goal of putting his man on the throne, but it will happen in God’s time. “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed…” (2 Th. 2:6-8). The mystery of iniquity is anti-Christ. It is everything that is against God. It is false religion, false Christianity, heresies, apostasies, Humanism, Evolution, Marxism, Socialism, anarchy, lawlessness, debauchery, globalism, totalitarianism, and much more. But God is restraining the mystery of iniquity, present active continual tense, and He will restrain until His good business with the Church Age is finished. God holds the reigns of the times and seasons (Daniel 2:20-21), and the Church’s Great Commission is in effect to the very end of the age, as Christ said in that context, “lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Mt. 28:20). Until then, God will restrain the devil’s program, and God’s people, as laborers together with God, can pray for restraint. So I pray that God will confound the totalitarian spirit in Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube, etc. In today’s context, these are more like telephone companies and postal systems. Though privately owned, they are public carriers of information, and they should not be engaged in censorship. The Antichrist will be totalitarianism personified, but it is not his time yet, so we pray against the spirit of antichrist that is in proud men in high places who think they are in control of “right-speak.” John told us that there were many antichrists even in his day, 2,000 years ago (1 Jo. 2:18). Whatever God is doing, God’s people can have full confidence in praying for that thing. He has told us to pray for those at every level of government, “For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Ti. 2:1-4). It is obvious that God wants to use the prayers of His redeemed people to change things in this present world. That is a wonderful thing, but it must be acted on. If God’s redeemed people would rise up and get on praying ground and really pray, there is no telling what God would do. Moses prayed, and God did not destroy Israel. Hannah prayed, and God gave her a son who did great and mighty things. Hezekiah and Isaiah prayed, and God destroyed the most powerful army on earth. That God is not dead.
(Friday Church News Notes, April 15, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)