The Family That Prays

The family is being tested as never before. But God is saying to us that this is an open book test. An open book test is when the answers are given to you in the book but you must search for them. My brothers and sisters God is always willing to help man on his journey of life. But often times because of our pride and independence we don’t “ask” for help. But a man should never be too proud to ask for help when he needs it. Because every now and then we all will need help.

The latest economic downturn just may have been the final straw to break the camel’s back. It has only exasperated an already shaky foundation. The 70’s where the party years. When we should have been praying for this season to come we were at the nightclubs partying. Jesus tells the parable about the man who goes out one day into his fields and discovers tare in his fields when he knows he only planted wheat. So he enquires as to how it got there. Then Jesus revealed that while men slept the enemy crept in and sowed the tares among the wheat.

The enemy is after the home. Because the home is the greatest threat to the devil’s kingdom. We don’t wrestle with flesh and blood. Your spouse is not your real enemy. There is a devil out there that does not want to see families prosper. Because he understands that the family is created to reveal the knowledge of God. So a strike or hit against the family is a strike against God. If you really want to get at somebody then hit their children. We know how we are when someone threatens our children. Our children are sometimes disobedient and hard headed but we will go to our grave for them! That is what God said. He said “I will die before I let my children be lost”!

The 70’s we were partying and you know what happens when a person is partying and drinking the next thing they always do next is go to sleep! So for the next several decades we were sleep. The enemy brought in rap music, since we were sleep, that no one noticed that we were calling each other words that were offensive and derogatory in nature. You need to understand that words are the entre to your next reality. Watch your words! We started rapping about violence, sex, and drugs. So that is what we started living. There was this one song entitled “White Horse” where they would say “Don’t ride the white pony”. This was speaking of cocaine. But then cocaine turned into crack and from there is got worse and worse.

So in Sep 11, 2001 we got our first wakeup call. We woke up for a minute. We were like Rip Van Winkle who slept for 20 years. He slept so long that he slept during America’s first revolution. We were sleeping during a critical hour. Our children were being prepared for the slaughter. But we kept on sleeping. Then three years later came Hurricane Katrina because we did not respond to 9/11. But still we kept on sleeping. Then another three years came the worst economic downturn since the great depression. Which brings us three years later to 2010. We are living on the threshold of our next wakeup call. But I believe today that we can wake up. We can do like the prodigal son and reclaim the our father’s house and our father’s blessing.

How to reclaim the father’s blessing?

1. Repent

2. Reclaim

3. Recapture

4. Recall

5. Reclaim

6. Recapture

Recall

Sometimes to move forward you must first go back. You can call that back to the future. I have to take one step backwards to take two steps forward.

God always declares the end from the beginning. Which means he always has the beginning in mind. The beginning speaks to your original purpose. So as we recall the original purpose we have to look back to the one who created it. If you are having a problem with something it is always best to ask the inventor. He or she is the only one that truly knows all the ins and outs. The only one who knows the intricate and intimate details. David said about God in Psalms 139:1-3, O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. 3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

So in looking back to God I have to look back to the owner’s manual, the Word. Ge 1:26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. The family was the first church. So when you saw Adam and Eve you were looking at the church. Society is a reflection of the church. We know the church is the place where God’s children dwell. The family was made to be a reflection of “us”, which is the family of God. Through the family would come forth the knowledge of God. Every time someone looks at our families they should see God. They should see virtues that reflect the kingdom of heaven. They should see unity. They should see peace. They should see joy. So the purpose of the family is to reflect and reveal God. The families that are depicted on Tyler Perry’s movies might be reality but they are not what God has in mind. This is the generation of “babies having babies”.

But when we look at our families today we see what David and his men saw when they returned from war. They see families that have been broken up, broken down, torn up, and torn apart. Which mean that when you look at the family today it is hard to imagine what was the resemblance of what we was suppose to have. The Amalakites had set fire to every thing which means you could no longer tell what was what. So the family has become so dysfunctional that wrong looks right and right looks wrong.

But God looks at the bright side. Mt 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. When God looks at the family he has in mind the church. And God takes the church personal. The church is his first born. The church is his beloved. He declares “No weapon formed against you shall be able to prosper”. David said “If my father and mother forsake me then the Lord will take me up”. If the family would ever break down then the only one that could put it back together would be God.

So David called a prayer meeting at his home.

Where are the prayer warriors? In the text they were off competing and comparing. We were not created to beat each other but to help each other. We started trying to run with the Jones’. So family reunions and class reunions are now all about this competition spirit. And this has gotten over into the church. We are always comparing ourselves to others. One of the worst mistakes we make is when we compare ourselves. Paul said we should never compare ourselves by ourselves. Because we limit God and what he is able to do in our life. God is the measuring stick. Anybody can grade their own paper. Anybody can write their own press clippings. We should celebrate our uniqueness. If God wanted all of us to be stripped like a zebra we would all be running around bumping into each other.

What threatens the family the most is communication and the breakdown thereof.

Communication à confusion à conflict

Communication creates boundaries wherein everyone is respected and their needs are met. Whenever a person’s needs are not met they will feel cut off. And a cut off person becomes distant.

Every family worships that moment when their children utter their first words. These are the most memorable moments of any family. Prayer is communication. The first forms of communication happened within the context and confines of the family. Goo goo, ga ga, turned into mama and dada.

The breakdown of the family is due largely in part to the breakdown of communication. If there is a dialogue open with heaven then generally there will be a dialogue open in the home. Because God is that three-fold cord that binds everything together.

3 Keys to a happy family

1. Communication

2. Discipline

3. Respect