GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
An election of historic proportions! That’s what they’re saying. The people have spoken! Congratulations to President-Elect Donald Trump and Vice President-Elect Mike Pence on this historic victory! In this post I want to focus on one thing – how we the people can truly Make America Great Again. It’s the reason I believe we witnessed […]
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Contrary to popular opinion there is a spiritual war going on right now. Those who mock that suggestion, thinking that spiritual reality is a myth reserved for the primitive mind, do so at their own peril. There is a devil, and he has schemes intended to defeat humans and deface God:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Ephesians 6:10 (RSV)
To be willfully ignorant of such schemes is to cede victory to the devil. To know the schemes and ignore them is foolish and will produce the same result.
The designation of the evil one is "Satan." The word means "accuser." He accuses without the foundation of truth. In the original garden, he accused God to Adam and Eve of not being forthright with them, thus not being fully good. After Adam and Eve sinned, he began his shame campaign on the human race. His hatred is always aimed at God, and he tries to deceive those whom God loves. He loves to reinterpret circumstances to show that God is not both sovereign and good. Those who accept that perspective are held captive by such deception.
His main scheme with believers is to distract by accusation. It works like this: The believer trusts God for full forgiveness and cleansing. With a purified soul the believer can attack the strongholds of deception and evil, and Satan loses. So, Satan focuses on getting the believer to doubt his cleansing and remember his failures. Now, the believer can't see the opportunities to displace darkness with light, because he is focused on self.
An example of this was evident in the first presidential debate. Donald Trump' supporters groaned when he needlessly spent several minutes defending himself against accusations instead of focusing on the message he needed to deliver. There's a lesson here: you can't focus on yourself (either in defending or in promoting) and still see the opportunities to attack your enemy.
Many a Christ-following father has grieved the waywardness of a son who refuses to honor his parents and legitimate authorities. The son justifies his actions and accuses his father of being a hypocrite. If the father takes the bait, he disqualifies himself from the battle. He might needlessly try to defend himself or slip into condemnation based on the accusation. The truth is that he is still the father and the forgiven believer who has the name of Jesus and the discernment of the Spirit. Based on truth, he can engage in prayer and in communicating truth in love.
As long as we are susceptible to accusation we will easily be taken out of the fight. Defending our own righteousness is foolish. We have no such righteousness to defend. But followers of Christ have been given the righteousness of Jesus, which needs no defense. When Satan suggests that we are not fully clean and qualified to represent the kingdom of God on earth, he is accusing God of an incomplete salvation. We don't have to take the bait. The salvation given through Jesus satisfies God and that is enough.
The times are crucial. There is no time for foolish fighting. The real war is raging. The people of the ultimate victor must engage in it or our generation will walk in deeper darkness.
It was the 6th century B.C., and God's people, the Israelites, had been in exile for almost 70 years. They had broken covenant with their God, but God had promised to show them mercy and restore them. Their Babylonian conquerors had themselves been conquered by Persia, under King Cyrus. Cyrus became God's means of release for the Jewish people.
Some people today are wondering whether Donald Trump might be a modern-day Cyrus.
Cyrus was not a believer in Israel's God. He was acting according to his own political expediency, yet it fit nicely into what God was doing at that time. The prophet Isaiah verbalized God's view of Cyrus (Isaiah 45), even referring to him as God's "anointed." He was an unwitting leader, chosen by God to accomplish the purpose God had in mind for His people.
Surely God does that kind of thing in history. The illustrations are numerous. But we must be cautious about drawing parallels between Cyrus and Trump.
First, the Israelites were God's people by virtue of his covenant with them. That is not the case with America as a nation. The closest parallel today is not between Israel and America, but Israel and God's people, the Church.
Even here there is another very important distinction: Cyrus as a deliverer pointed as God's illustration toward God's ultimate rescue by His ultimate "anointed one," the Messiah. Israel's return to the homeland was only a shadow of the full blessing God had in mind. Jesus Christ, the ultimate deliverer came and fulfilled the covenant, even paying the penalty for breaking the covenant, defeating death and giving true believers the Spirit to live as his people on the earth. That was true deliverance indeed.
So we see that the rescuer the Scriptures have in mind is Jesus, and the people are the people of God by faith in His Son. Any other connections to historical or prophetic persons are incidental and secondary.
To see Cyrus as biblical grounds for hope that Mr. Trump will be the rescuer of this nation is wishful thinking. Sure, we would all like to see a sensible way out of disturbingly confused political trends, but the supposed Trump/Cyrus connection is not it.
God has sent his anointed one to liberate his people, not from political oppression, but from sin's oppression. Cultures change as people experience God's freedom and infect society with the virtue they have found in Christ. Governmental structures then begin to magnify justice, mercy and humility.
So if we want to stop the slide toward societal rot, we must place our hope in the one true deliverer. Where we have been complacent, passive, judgmental and irresponsible, we must repent. We must take our place as God's liberated army fighting against the spiritual forces of deception and destruction.
We have the authority of Jesus' name as well as the power of His Spirit within us as individuals and corporately as his body on earth. We can do something that matters while we place our trust in the sovereign God who has the kings of the earth in His hands.
We do have hope. We trust in the sovereign God of the universe who can use anything or anyone in carrying out his plan. But we don't look for saviors when we already have one. We don't have the luxury of wasting time in expecting Mr. Trump to deliver God's people. Our Savior is currently knocking at the door of the Church, desiring to come in and empower us to express the transcendent power of his kingdom (Revelation 3:20). Let's welcome him in and the nation will reap the benefits of a healthy Church led by the ultimate deliverer.
Donald Trump’s recent criticism of a slain Muslim U.S. army captain's family, just the latest in a long line of reckless insults from the presidential contender, points up an alarming weakness in Trump. I am praying that the root of this uncontrollable urge to pummel with disdain those who criticize him will be cut away and he can be free of it.
I regularly pray for both him and Hillary Clinton because we have been instructed in Scripture to pray for our leaders ( I Timothy 2:1-6). This is not only our responsibility but our privilege. God answers prayers from his people. So I have been seeking to pray for both our current and future leaders.
As for Trump, he presents himself as a winner, but his outbursts are costing him politically and personally. This chink in his robust outward armor makes him vulnerable to even moral dwarfs. Instead of exhibiting strength to ignore causeless curses and laugh at the folly of Lilliputian-like schemes, Trump must actually feel that he is so small that he must prove himself.
Some seem to enjoy his outbursts of vitriol, but many of us are embarrassed when he ignores the grief of parents who have lost a son while fighting for this country. Earlier, he threw insults at Fox News journalist Megyn Kelly for simply asking a probing question. And we gasped when he viciously attacked Ted Cruz's wife after a Super Pac mentioned Trump's wife posing without clothes for GQ.
Like a third grader he feels compelled to give derogatory monikers to competitors: "Lying Ted," "Little Marco," "Loser," "Crooked Hillary," etc. Even after he had won the nomination he could not let Ted Cruz's non-endorsement speech at the GOP convention go by without attacking him.
This flaw will make it very difficult for him to win the election. "The devil can't get your goat until you show him where the goat is tied." Be assured Mr. Trump's opponents know where his goat is tied. He will be easily distracted by those who personally attack him. He will be off chasing the little foxes that spoil the vines when he should be presenting substantial solutions to the national problems he has identified. It is not hard to defeat a person who is so susceptible to personal criticism.
If by the providence of God Mr. Trump wins the election without dealing with this flaw, it will be a great detriment to his governing.
"A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls." (Proverbs 25:28)
It is interesting that he has shown self-control in matters of smoking, drinking and drugs. It is a mantra for him and his family. I hope that his strength there does not deceive him and prevent his acknowledging his lack of self-control in matters of personal offense. It is also interesting that he has made building a wall one of his campaign pillars, while he demonstrates that the wall of protection around him has been broken down. He is a very vulnerable man.
Of course Mr. Trump is not alone in his weaknesses. We are all susceptible to such deception, but he is out front, and we are evaluating our potential leaders. We dare not judge him in the sense that we write him off as hopeless or worthless, but we must be concerned. He is the nominated leader of a party that has openly embraced many values that conservative citizens hold dear. His failure would seriously affect the chances that those values get implemented. As Christians we should fervently pray for his release whether or not we agree with his politics.
If our prayers are to be more specific than, "God please bless our leaders," we should pay attention to where they need the grace of God. Let us pray that God's abundant grace will expose this flaw and empower Mr. Trump to renounce it and embrace the perspective of the real winner of this battle, Jesus Christ.
All the while, let us examine our own hearts. May we, too, be moved from fear-based reactions to love-based confidence. We can repent as we pray. Even if you don't know what to do at the polls in November, you are able to know what you can and should do today. Pray!