Kingdom Partnership

Recite the Lord’s Prayer

Continuing our series on prayer called “Lord, Teach Us to Pray”.

In a small Texas town, a bar owner applied for permission to extend his premises, but members of the local church were staunchly opposed to his plans and launched a vocal campaign with protests, press releases, petitions, and even prayer meetings. Planning permission was granted, however, and building work duly began. The Christians felt bitterly disappointed until the week before the grand opening, when a lightning bolt struck the bar and burned it to the ground.

The church folk were beside themselves with joy. Their prayers had been answered! Their cause had been vindicated! And so the furious bar owner decided to sue the church on the grounds that it was “ultimately responsible for the material demise of his livelihood, whether through direct or indirect actions or means.”

Suddenly everyone changed their tune.  All those who’d been trumpeting a miracle days before now rose up as one to deny all culpability. The case made its way to court, where a judge surveyed the brief. “I don’t know how I’m going to decide this,” he sighed. “We appear to have a bar owner who believes passionately in the power of prayer and an entire congregation that has lost its faith entirely.”

Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” In teaching us to pray this way, Jesus is showing us a second reason why we should pray. Prayer is about regime change. Prayer is how we address the spiritual powers and principalities that dictate the misery and destruction of this world so that they become submitted to the rule of heaven. As we’re going to see, God is looking for kingdom partners. People who will cooperate with him to bring his rule and reign to earth so that justice and peace become the norm.

Ezekiel shows us a perfect example of God’s desire to see his will done on earth, his search for regime-changing prayer partners, and the devastating consequences when no one will rise to the challenge.

Ezekiel 22:23-31

The wrongs God wants to right

The first thing we see is that there are wrongs God wants to right. Ezekiel describes the state of the city of Jerusalem. I only read a portion, but the proceeding verses tells the story of a place that is given over to corruption. They are a blood-thirsty people. Killing each other, yes, but blood-thirsty in their treatment of one another. Rules take advantage of the people, administrators defraud people, those with power use it in perverse ways to oppress. Even religious leaders use their power to advance themselves. Everything described is exactly opposite what it looks like when Gods kingdom comes.

It’s not hard to jump forward and apply this to our own time. We don’t trust leaders. We don’t trust religious authority. We look out for ourselves become we don’t believe anyone else will. Our nation and world is filled with so much abuse and brokenness. Widows, orphans, and immigrants are still exploited and pushed to the margins of society. Our legal system is prone to corruption. It’s just a mess.

But it is here in the midst of the mess where God plants his flag and says “this is mine”. It is right in the middle of our messes where God has determined to bring the healing power of his kingdom. Looking very personally, God sees the messes in our own lives, and here too he wants to bring the light and hope of his kingdom rule. That wherever the enemy works for harm in your life or in others, God stands ready to assert his will into those situation.

Some of you may be in a dark place right now. Things in your life are falling apart and it seems like the enemy is winning. Right now God wants to encourage you that these are the very circumstances that he wants to make right.

The search for kingdom partners

Look at v. 30 again. Ezek 22:30 “And I sought for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.”

God is looking for people who will partner with him in his kingdom mission. He is looking for those who will repair crumbling walls and stand in the breach on behalf of others. What he is describing is intercessors. Intercessors are those who will stand in the gap, mediating between heaven and earth as equal friends of both, pleading with God on behalf of people, and with people on behalf of God. When Jesus told us to pray “Your kingdom come...” he was not inviting us to some passive activity but a very active participation.

The book of Nehemiah records the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon. They come to Jerusalem and find its walls torn down. And so Nehemiah organizes the returned exiles into work crews to begin repairing the wall. Because there were people who were against the Israelites returning to the land the builders were under threat, so Nehemiah records that Neh 4:17 “The burden bearers carried their loads in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and with the other held a weapon.” They carried a trowel in one hand, and a sword in the other.

This is the heart of intercessory prayer. This is how we become kingdom partners. Through prayer we take up a trowel to repair that which is broken down, and through prayer we take up a sword to defend against the attacks of the enemy. This is the power of our prayers and why prayer matters. Walter Wink writes that, “Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is in the way of what God has promised.”

How is God inviting you to join in his mission by praying for others?

When the search fails

Looking again at our passage. Ezekiel 22:30-31 “I sought...but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; I have returned their conduct upon their heads, says the Lord God.”

What happens when God doesn’t find a kingdom partner, someone who will intercede on behalf of others? For those living in Ezekiel’s time, the consequences are devastating. It would not be much longer before Babylon would lay seige to Jerusalem and not just metaphorical breaches would begin to appear in the walls.

Here is one of the great mysteries concerning prayer. It seems that God is unwilling to act apart from a human agent. I’m not going to dogmatically say God can’t do something, but the example of scripture over and over is that God has chosen to work - almost exclusively - through human partners.

We fail to realize the full import of the creation account when God says Genesis 1:26 “Let us make humankind in our image...and let them have dominion...” God intended from the very beginning to invest in his human image bearers a measure of his own authority to rule. Not independent from God, but in conjunction with him. And even though humans would give into sin and fall, God has never revoked this original creation mandate. God is committed to the authority that he has given to you. We would like God to just consume all our enemies and pave our way to easy street. Yet He is insistent that we also play a part.

Here we get to the root of why prayer is so essential: There are aspects of God’s mission that you cannot do without God; but there are also aspects of God’s mission that he will not do without you.

When God fails to find kingdom partners - people who will get on their knees to intercede for the nations - devastating things happen. But the opposite is also true; when God can find those who will stand up and take their place on the wall, holding the trowel in one hand and a sword in the other, God’s power is unleashed to bring his kingdom in healing, deliverance, and salvation. “To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” Karl Barth

No plan B

The power of prayer to bring God’s kingdom is seen in a remarkable way in what is called The Miracle of Dunkirk. In May of 1940 during some of the darkest moments of WW2, Nazi forces had cornered the Allied army on the beaches of Dunkirk. With the sea to their back, they had no where left to retreat, and the German high command had made their intention clear that they would annihilate the Allies - there would be no opportunity for surrender. Allied command expected to lose a third of a million soldiers.

In utter despair, King George VI took to the airways to call the English people to a national day of prayer the coming Sunday. Old b&w photos shows throngs of people lined up outside churches and cathedrals waiting to get in to pray, asking God for a deliverance for these trapped soldiers.

The next day 860 vessels began to cross the English Channel on their way to attempt a rescue. Most of these were small fishing boats. Because of the presence of German Luftwaffe, they expected most of these boats wouldn’t get though. Their hope was to rescue at least 30,000 men. But just as they began to reach the French coast, out of nowhere an unseasonable storm blew up. It was so fierce it grounded the Luftwaffe. At the same time, for reasons that still baffle historians, Hitler called a halt to the advancing German army - for three days. Because of this, the rescue was allowed to proceed unhindered for three days.

On the third day, the storm that had blown up completely dissipated, and now a calm settled on the ocean - just what was needed for these overloaded boats full of soldiers. By the time the Germans were able to renew their attack, 338,000 soldiers had been rescued from Dunkirk.

Friends, there is no plan B to God’s mission. His plan is that his church would be the vehicle for his mission. This is how we work with God to enact a regime change in the world. And there’s lots of ways the church partners with God in that mission: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming strangers visiting prisoners, teaching and demonstrating the kingdom of God. But the beginning and ending point for all of those activities is prayer. Where God can find kingdom partners, his mission will move forward. Where he can’t, it won’t. This is the awesome responsibility we have, the awesome privilege we have, and the awesome power we have, in prayer. Jesus is looking for those who will say, “Lord, teach me to pray...”