Obedience and Unity in the Body of Christ
June 2020 Fasting and Prayer Summary
This is the first in a series of three posts drawn from my notes taken at our church’s June 2020 fasting and prayer meetings. We fast and pray for one weekend each month, gathering on Friday and Saturday for prayer meetings. It is usual for the Holy Spirit to speak to us through Pastor Praveen during these meetings. If you would like more detail about what the Holy Spirit had to say, see the related, more comprehensive write-ups of my notes from the Friday and Saturday sessions. Two themes emerged this month: obedience and unity.
The Lord Delights in Obedience
Lessons from 1 Samuel
Pastor Praveen’s message began with 1 Samuel 15:22:
But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
With these words, Samuel rebuked King Saul. The Lord had commanded Saul to wipe out the Amalekites, but Saul had not obeyed. Who were the Amalekites? They were the first to attack Israel after they left Egypt. At that time, Joshua led the Israelites out to defeat the Amalekite army. Afterwards, the Lord promised Joshua that He would blot out the name of Amalek:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.” (v. 14; emphasis added).
Centuries later, God gave Saul the chance to remove the Amalekites from the face of the earth. The Lord commanded him to do so:
Samuel said to Saul, “…This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them…’” (1 Samuel 15:1-3).
God told Saul to destroy everyone – men, women, children, even the animals. But Saul made a compromise with the enemy. He kept King Agag of the Amalekites alive, as well as the best of the animals.
When Samuel heard what had happened, he confronted Saul. But Saul tried to deny his disobedience. He excused himself for sparing King Agag. He said his officers had kept the best of the animals to offer in sacrifice to the Lord. Because he was afraid of his men, he had not stopped them. But Saul was the anointed king. He was responsible for his actions – he could not put the blame on others.
Samuel himself called for King Agag, put him to death, and admonished Saul:
… “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.” (1 Samuel 15:22-23).
This message remains true today. When someone comes to the Lord, they are changed and become a new creation, born in the Spirit by the power of God. We must obey God and fear only Him. We should respect and love man, the creation, but fear the one who made us by His hand and who is living in our hearts.
Pastor Praveen emphasized that we must not make any compromise with the enemy. Saul lost his throne because of such a compromise. When confronted by the enemy, we must immediately rebuke him by the power of God. We have the authority. God the Father gave Jesus authority in heaven and earth and Jesus in turn has sent us out with His authority.
Lessons from Esther
Pastor Praveen picked up the thread of this story with the book of Esther. At this time and place, many exiled Jews were living under the reign of the Medes and Persians and Xerxes was king. The main adversary of the Jews was Haman the Agagite, a descendent of the Amalekite King Agag. Because Saul had not obeyed the Lord’s command to wipe out the Amalekites, the enemy had been able to follow God’s people from generation to generation. Haman was now plotting to destroy the Jews in the kingdom of Xerxes. When God’s people heard this, they could not sleep and cried out to God because of Haman and the spirit of the Amalekites.
Remember, King Xerxes’s queen was Esther, a Jew and the cousin of Mordecai, who had raised her as his own daughter when her father and mother died. Mordecai went to Esther and explained that God had raised her up as queen for such a time as this. He told her to go to King Xerxes to ask him to spare the lives of the Jews. Esther kept her long habit of obedience to Mordecai. She agreed to risk her life by approaching the king without a summons – provided Mordecai and their fellow Jews would first fast for her for three days. She also fasted with them. When the three days were ended, she approached the king who received her favorably. The result was that the lives of the Jews were spared, and their enemies were destroyed instead.
Pastor Praveen made several points based on this account:
As children of God, we cannot say the enemy is following us from generation to generation. Because Jesus gave us authority over the enemy, we cannot blame heredity. We must rebuke hereditary ailments.
Mordecai and Esther stood for God, and so must we. If God calls us to something and we will not listen and obey, He will choose someone else in our place.
Because the people of God were crying out to Him and they fasted and prayed for Esther, she had her chance to go before the king. Likewise, we have to fast and pray for one another.
Esther heard and obeyed Mordecai and so she was accepted by the king. She remained in her position as queen. Saul was disobedient to the Lord and so was rejected as king.
Esther was ready to sacrifice her life for God’s people. She knew that God would help her and do a favor for His people.
Every family must have a Mordecai and an Esther. God will raise up many “Esthers” from the next generation if we are willing to fast for them. We can fast for our families, city, country, church, etc.
Pastor Praveen told us of a time when he fasted for a woman who was a stranger to him in obedience to the Lord’s command. This woman had called him with a desperate prayer request. She had advanced stage skin cancer, the doctors could do nothing more for her, and she had no one to help her. After he prayed and fasted for her, she was miraculously healed. We must obey God’s word; we must stand like Esther and Mordecai to destroy the enemy. We must not be like Saul when he disobeyed the Lord’s command to destroy the Amalekites. (For a more complete account of this story of healing, see the full write up of the fasting and prayer notes for Friday, June 12).
The Importance of Unity
Pastor Praveen asked us to pray in unity for the church, and also for unity in the church. Many churches all over the world are losing members and dying out. Why? Because there is no unity. Church members who should be connected together in the body of Christ are instead living their lives one-by-one.
It is God’s purpose that Christians should be bound together in the body of Christ. The household of God is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:20-22).
God builds the church stone-by-stone. Every member of the body of Christ is one of the stones. If any of the stones are missing or detached from the building, the building will collapse. Our connection with Jesus provides love, kindness, and unity to hold the stones together. “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5).
Examples from Acts
Acts 2
The Apostles understood the importance of unity. When Peter stood and spoke before the crowd at Pentecost, the other 11 Apostles stood with him, supporting him in prayer (Acts 2:14-36). About three thousand were saved that day, not because of Peter’s strength or wisdom, but because God answered the prayers of those standing with Peter. God revealed to Pastor Praveen that they asked God to give Peter power, knowledge, and wisdom, and to give him the right scripture to quote and words to use. From this place of unity, Peter raised his voice and addressed the crowd, “You crucified Him.” People were cut to the heart and said, “What shall we do to be saved?” Then they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
God’s children can do nothing alone. That is why He sends His servants out two-by-two, and why where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there with them. God uses Pastor Praveen’s ministry mightily with signs and wonders because of all who are praying earnestly for him.
The problem is many churchgoers do not have a part in a ministry -- they only come to church and leave when it is over. Some leaders in the church try to be a one-man show. So churches are dying.
Acts 14
Acts 14:8-20 describes the time when Paul and Barnabas travelled to Lystra and Derbe. In these cities, God performed signs and wonders through Paul, so much so that the people thought they were gods and tried to offer sacrifices to them. Paul and Barnabas restrained their misguided impulse and tried to point them to the Lord. Yet, when outsiders who opposed the gospel arrived, and the people’s enthusiasm for Paul and Barnabas quickly turned hostile:
“Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.” (v. 19).
This is the way of the world. Yet how did the believers respond when Paul was stoned and left for dead? They rallied around in unity and prayed for him. There was no selfish ambition, criticism, or mockery that he had fallen after having a great ministry. Because the disciples prayed in unity and compassion, the power of resurrection touched Paul and he got up and walked back into the city.
Pastor Praveen instructed us to pray in this way for people who come with brokenness and in need. When we pray with sincerity and compassion, they will go back with a healed heart – with peace and comfort. Without compassionate intercession, they will go back more broken. Jesus “was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.” (Luke 24:19). God’s children must be like Him, all over the world, then the churches will grow. If we pray in unity with a compassionate, humble, encouraging heart, this will happen. We need to pray with all our hearts for all churches and all church leaders.
Acts 4
Here is another example of unity among the disciples. Because of Peter and John’s great healing ministry, the Jewish authorities seized them and put them in jail (see Acts 4:1-31). They kept them overnight, questioned them, threatened them, and then released them. The disciples understood that they were in an unfavorable situation – they were opposed by those in charge. So they prayed in unity. Then they were emboldened to speak for the Lord:
“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” (v. 31).
And so, the local churches grew – because of the unity among the believers.
Concluding Remarks
The unifying response to the needs of Peter in Acts 2, Paul in Acts 14, and Peter and John in Acts 4 is very different from the response of the world in similar situations. We must emulate the actions of these disciples. Only a few churches have this kind of unity. That is why the number and size of churches is decreasing. People are missing – they are not in their proper place in the body of Christ. Therefore, there is no foundation for faith or for unity.
We must pray for all churches. We can pray in unity – with power in the name of Jesus – to shake the enemy with one accord for deliverance, healing, and growth.