timeless teaching
originally published May 1988
The responsibility for a nation doesn’t belong only on the shoulders of the politicians, but on the hearts of born-again believers in prayer who’ve been given...
A Higher Form of Power
by Kenneth Copeland
What I have to say to you today is simple. And it is quite serious.
Your response to it will not only affect your life and mine, but many thousands of others.
It is a message—no, a command—all of us have no doubt heard before. But, by and large, we have ignored it. We have thought somehow we could get by without it, that we could let it slip without paying a price.
But we have paid. Our whole nation has paid. One look at any newspaper will give you an idea just how dearly.
The command I’m talking about is the one found in 1 Timothy 2:1-2. There the Apostle Paul says, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”
That verse is clear, isn’t it? The instruction is plain. Yet even in these tumultuous days when our nation is so desperately in need of God’s guidance, most of God’s people don’t do what that verse commands.
Why not?
Is it because we don’t care? Is it because we’re unwilling to invest a few minutes of prayer in the future of our nation each day?
No.
I believe it’s because most of us are overwhelmed by the problems we see around us. 'How could my prayers make a dent in the national debt?' we think. 'How could my faith affect foreign policy?' In other words, we fail to pray because we fail to realize just how powerfully our prayers can affect this country. So today, I want us to look at some scriptures and find out what The WORD of God has to say about the subject.
First, let’s look at Romans 13:1. There, the Apostle Paul writes, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”
It amazes me how little attention is paid to this very important scripture. In fact, when you get right down to it, most Christians don’t even believe it! You can tell just by the disrespectful way they talk about our leaders.
“Well, if those leaders are ordained of God,” you may say, “why don’t they act like it?”
Because the believers they govern aren’t praying for them!
22 : BVOV
