What to pray for Afghanistan

 Over the last few days the fear, devastation, and chaos of the Afghan situation has left many of us feeling bewildered and overwhelmed. In such crisis situations there is a discipline in prayer, and this blog is a basic response to so many friends struggling in knowing how and what to pray. Yes... God hears the cry of our hearts, the inexpressible made expressible by our union with Christ through the help of THE precious gift and gracious presence of His Spirit (Romans 8:26), but how do we pray intelligently, and intercede with consideration and growing conviction for these things? 

 

Here are 2 starting points /concrete foundations which may help a little...

THOSE STAYING

1) Pray for those remaining in Afghan for the sake of the church and to reach out to the hurting:

Over recent weeks, friends have been airlifted and migrated. Some so committed to the refugee cause have moved with the refugees wherever that takes them - we pray for our friends in refugee camps who are sharing aid, hope and the only lasting hope in Christ that many will turn to him. Those who remain however have the hardest task... how do they minister to the now underground church, shepherd them with teaching when contact is minimal, support them when they and their families are in deep danger? Whilst our hearts  pray for the danger to be taken away  - there may be much deeper things going on here as the two kingdoms face in battle, and as pastors lay their lives down for the sheep they protect. 

Pray that the kingdom of light seen through our Christ like brothers and sisters (who have chosen suffering for the sake of the church), and their weapons of love, truth and prayer, will shine brightly and expose the kingdom of darkness and fear for what it is.  

Phil 2:15

"that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world."

 

• Pray for their supernatural purity and love in attitude, instinct, and conduct when surrounded by grotesque sin and self service. May children of the living God display true community (John 13:35), the indwelling of the God who is love (1 John 4:7-21)
• Pray for their rest and peace in Christ, assurance of eternal truth and redemption (Isaiah 43:19) as wanton destruction pervades every vista.
• Pray that they continue to live for the unseen and not what is seen. 

Daniel 12:2

"Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever."

Hebrews 11:1

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

2 Cor 4:18

"as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

THOSE ON THE MOVE
  2) Pray that in God's sovereign purposes, many will migrate to a situation which will aid their hearing of the gospel. Pray that the Kingdom of Christ, the new community of love will advance because of these circumstances. 

The enemy is not creative, his ways are predictable. (we do not have to be "outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs"  2 Cor 2:11).  Throughout history the enemy intent on destruction has repeatedly shot himself in the foot  being outmanoeuvred within God's redemptive plan. We see this most profoundly and acutely at the cross where the goal of executing the Son of God is seen as success, but all it does is complete our salvation, our sin is paid in full, our salvation is totally secured. 

 

Psalm 68:18

 

When you ascended on high,
    you took many captives;
    you received gifts from people,
even from the rebellious—
    that you, Lord God, might dwell there.

 

Ephesians 4:8

This is why it says:

“When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.”

Colossians 2:13-14

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,  by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

 Genesis 50:20

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

 

Pray then that what was " intended for harm" may prove to be a pivotal moment whereby many come to find eternal life and hope in Christ. We have many friends on the ground, and as scattering occurs, we are seeing contact increase with those who are running into the arms of Christ, the gathering of his people. ACTION has instigated a new strategic project to this end, and if you would like to be part of that you can do so by contacting the office, or IM us. There is need for 500+ families, for tents, clothes and basics. By God's providence our workers and networks are perfectly placed. If you would like to help, we can help you do that through God's good people on the ground. Earmark any gift with "Afghan relief". God will have his way, and all his ways are good. 

 

Psalm 46:5

God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.

 

Psalm 100:5

 

For the Lord is good;
    his steadfast love endures forever,
    and his faithfulness to all generations.

We read all Psalms through the lens of Christ. He is our ultimate refuge and security. Put yourself in the place of an Afghan believer reading Psalm 91. We cry with those who weep and grieve (Rom 12:15-16). 

Psalm 91

¹ Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.^[a]
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

³ Surely he will save you
    from the fowler’s snare
    and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his feathers,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
    nor the plague that destroys at midday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only observe with your eyes
    and see the punishment of the wicked.

⁹ If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
    and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
    you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

¹⁴ “Because he^[b] loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honour him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”

Core Principle: We live for the glory of JESUS CHRIST. He brings all things into unity and redemption.

 

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Col 1:18

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28

 

Principle: There is no greater privilege than living for the purposes and mission of Christ. He came to serve and not be served, and so our service must be absolutely devoid of pride, positioning and preference (Luke 9:46, Matt 18:1). We build his kingdom not our own, and therefore the way we work together (both motive and manner in which we do it) are of paramount importance.

The kingdom of Christ is not confined to a local church (geography, building) or denomination. The kingdom of Christ is not defined by the personal preferences of any individual, ourselves, a local pastor or congregation. When local leaders mark territory, legalise or dominate in order to promote their personal views or ways, they cast a sinful shadow over gospel declaration.  In all things therefore we seek to avoid territorialism in order that Christ might be seen - in our unity and diversity as we work together in mutual submission to him and each other.  

1 Peter 5:5

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

We desire to declare in all things that "he is bigger, more glorious, and worthy of all of us giving our very best together for him". 

In Practice: Our desire is for churches to come together in  gospel purposes: to plant churches, search for the unreached and pool resources and gifts for the glory of Christ. Currently for our next short term mission trip 6 churches play an equal part in the team. We are pooling all resources, sharing complementary gifts. Our prayer is that this will not only be an encouragement to local believers to see the bigger picture, but have eyes lifted to the spiritual and cosmic glory of the one who brings all things into order and beauty. Common unity in Christ is beautifully simple.

(Acts 2:44)
And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

Please pray: 

• That in all things he will have the supremacy and that through our unity and mutual service Christ might be clearly displayed.
• That churches planted will not be diverted from this, or sidetracked into self service as they grow. Pray that all resources will be viewed as from him and for him. Pray that the next generation of gospel workers being trained will serve Him, others and not themselves.
  
  
• Pray that the worldwide network will display the manifold grace of God as people from every tribe, tongue, nation, background, intelligence level, physical ability, financial ability, gifting, capacity level and location come together to serve him.  

Eph 1:22

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church...

Matt 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
 

1 Cor 15:27
For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him.

Phil 2:9-11 

 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Core principles: Reaching the unreached

 For whoever would save his life will lose it, 

but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

In every age and epoch of human life, those who saw themselves as "God's people" have gravitated towards holding on too tight to the good things that God has given us. There is a danger in this for all of us. We are like children who hold our bag of sweets or crisps so tightly that they are at risk of getting squashed. We can be so focussed on ourselves that we wreck the thing that is most precious to us. There seems to be this human instinct in us from an early age to (like all children) to use  the word "mine !". It's not that anyone taught us to do this... but an issue of wiring...faulty wiring, self kingdom building from an early age. At its core it is about selfishness (Sin) and rebellion to God.

 

Flying at high altitude over the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, Dr Luke (in volumes 1 and 2) gives us an editorial view of why this approach as Christians is the opposite of Jesus Christ, and why those who say they belong to God should be known as open handed givers, not closed handed grabbers. The mission of God drives us from inertia and introspection to being outward bound by grace for his glory.

A common theme in Luke is Jesus being accused or criticised for being more connected and with those outside of the network of God's people.  The obvious window on this is Luke 7:34 where Jesus prioritises  those outcast, marginalised by society, those historically distant and forgotten by God's people. The Jewish Messianic seekers in their protected mono-culture want to own Jesus rather than  be owned by him for the purposes of global grace. They reject the notion that Jesus is for anyone else, that God's mission is bigger than just us, our culture, our future. They are so indignant and hurt by the wideness of Jesus' mercy that they miss His glory. God made flesh is standing before them, the definition of holiness, showering grace on the unloved, displaying power not of this world. Redemption unachievable by any human means is being played out before their eyes, and yet all that they can see is that he has broken their cultural boundaries, hopes, definitions, rules and expectations. Jesus / God's global mission of grace will not shrink down to our definitions and boundaries.

Jesus' stark and sobering judgement shows their lack of understanding and Godlikeness. Reaching the lost displays the Glory of God - it is core to God's mandate for humanity, what we are made for.  He made us in the image of Christ - the one who came to seek and save the lost, (the distant, the disconnected with God, any people who like us were very far off where we should be, in need of his monumental far-reaching mercy and rescue).

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say,

 ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’

Luke concentrates on those groups of people who are entirely and systematically disconnected with "God's people". They are however central to Christ, his mission and his obedience to the interminable, eternal mission of God.  

The Luke magnifier focuses on 3 Groups

1. Women - Their marginalisation had been normalised in 1st century Palestine and where not part of public life - their only function in Greco-Roman culture was if they were attachment to a male. In Luke's window on Christ however, women are in focus. From the vital role of God honouring women and their prophetic role in the birth of John and Christ himself (ch 1) to events where men (abusing power) are challenged on their wrong view of women.  Note how Martha and Mary (10:38-42) turn the traditional view of women upside down, Mary as a women of virtue, with  a desire (and posture) to learn, who pleases God. This is very purposefully viewed in the context of Jesus sending the 12 and 72 on mission, and how we should follow Christ. (10:1, 10:38)

2.  Sinners and tax collectors. The most despised and irritating of Palestine society. They exercised with energy the oppressive Roman tax system, Served neither society, business or authority well, Jewish tax collectors were especially offensive to Jewish society and especially the Pharisees. Across society they were on nobodies Christmas card list, and at the back of everyone's queue to be kind to. Jesus prioritises them in his frontier ministry (4:16-30).

Levi is the obvious example, (Luke 5:27 as he is brought lovingly to the front to publically walk with and follow Jesus. He was at the bottom of the list of human assessment and expectation, but at the top of Jesus' restoration and mission partner list). 

3. Samaritans. Across the two volumes four instances focus on this group of people. (Lk 9:51-56, 10:25-27, 17:11-19 and Acts 8:4-24). The historical entrenchment and bitter relationship between Jews and Samaritans meant cultural avoidance. They repelled like opposing magnets. When Jesus was rejected by Samaria (9:51-56) ("because his face was set to Jerusalem"), the disciples are keen (understatement) to "bid fire from heaven and consume them". Jesus turns and rebukes them, in correction of their hostile attitude towards those not like them, Nationalism and territorialism is always rejected in the gospel (Gal 3:28). Heaven is gloriously bigger than your race and your denomination, so ask God to remove your territorial bias.  

When the disciples lose touch with human need in (10:26-37) they (like all of us) are revealed as compassionateless and indifferent to the purposes of God. The Samaritan in contrast however is instantly moved and purposed by the heart and active mercy of God.

Jesus and the redemption plan of God is so radically different compared to our instinctive approach.

APPLYING THE PRINCIPLE:

As followers of Christ, because of  God's mercy towards us, we are compelled and propelled to apply this where we are, and wherever we go. Our desire is to serve those who are reaching the unreached, and get stuck in with them. For us as a growing team this means...

1) In the UK we must regularly ask ourselves who are marginalised, forgotten and neglected / missionally unreached in the regular purposes of the uk church network ? We would love to hear your thoughts and reflections if you have some...

·       Who do you think has been forgotten?

·       Who do we not prioritise through unintentional behaviour / communication/ setup, (or even nationalistic tendencies) in our church culture ?

·       How do we apply Luke 7:47 ?  Those who are forgiven much - love much.

We are currently in the throes of connecting a number of like-minded friends who having asked these questions are now united purposefully in this motivation . Through training and in some cases retraining, friends are moving house, moving out of their settled middle class confines of comfort and potential mediocrity, and re-establishing family home in the middle of the most neglected (and despised) locations in Britain. Life will not be dull. There are reasons churches have never existed in some of these large social areas of the Uk, they're just not good reasons before God. These brothers and sisters are choosing a future and lifestyle defined by where others don't want to go.  These are gospel driven families and individuals. Challenged by the practice of what we preach, our desire is to encourage and support this network in very real and personal (sacrificial) ways with long term commitments. God please use us as a group of believers to strengthen their hand as they display the heart and action of Christ.

2) Around the world each culture has ways of prioritising its own, and (sadly) so do churches and denominations. The church is in danger of prioritising itself across the world, seeking to hunker and protect, especially in volatile times. We can plan to reach those we feel comfortable with, connect with those we'd like to include in our family and likeminded friendship. Within one generation of churches being planted it is amazing how quickly things can fall easily into a a form of comfort driven - dead religion. When churches chose inertia and bubble wrapped survival mode, it looks like the Gospel is stuck in a cul-de-sac, but God is always bigger than this. Thank God his heart and plans are bigger than us. We are grateful to God for a new army of younger gospel trainees and next generation practitioners who think God's thoughts after him and feel his heartbeat for the unreached, the lostness of emerging generations. 

There is a commonality of issues they and we are working hard on together...

1) A LOCAL CHURCH WHICH WELCOMES, UNDERSTANDS AND INVESTS.

Loving the city and the forgotten rural outpost are often quite different challenges but both identically need local churches who invest grace unconditionally. What does it mean to lead a church where the majority of disciples have had criminal convictions, been abused, seen unbearable trauma, have had little or no education, been involved in prostitution, with multiple life partners, a history of addictions and the effects of substance abuse? How do we train indiginous leaders in this context? How are you doing in this, and could we be of any help or encouragement?

Part of our planned training and encouragement is to fertilize understanding of cross cultural barriers, so that understanding unreached people better we can love and communicate the gospel better. We are so encouraged at what is emerging, a reformation under God's heart and word, a power propulsion of grace which is over spilling to places previously unreached. It is such a privilege to be part of. These are unique times and this is a unique juncture in global missional opportunity - sometimes the issues and challenges are identical throughout the world. It is so great to see answered prayers, incubated leaders flourishing and being more fruitful than we have ever been. As we humbly relearn the gospel and go deeper in his grace, so God works good in us and through us.

2) A growing dynamic of Spirit directed  purposefulness. May God give you an me an increasingly soft heart, a growing compassion, a sacrificial desire to see his purposes of grace outworked through us to the unreached. May comprehension of His  showered grace upon us give us clarity and urgency, especially in the perspective that eternity will soon come for all of us, and many are yet unreached. Would he make us more like Christ.  These core principles which are driving our missional strategy and fuelling training will continue to filter down on the blog here. In all things our desire and joy is to focus on Christ. He is our motivation, treasure and message. The gospel in its entirety and our only hope is Christ. 

 

You may want to view this media coverage of the "20 worst places" to live in Britain and a subjective definition of depravity, but it is not a helpful dynamic - how does this help or result in real change ? How does this kind of article further embed stereotyping or is it just part of a gawping habbit to feel better about where we live? People across the globe seek true community, sometimes they find a community but it is not a good place to be. Maybe this opens our eyes a little to what God really sees. (I wholeheartedly recommend that you both read this and pray before you do so to read this through the lens of Christ by the Spirit's help)