Fast and Pray

Beloved, the time is perilous. The fields are white and ready for the harvest.
The enemy is at work in all facets of humanity with his intent to steal, kill and destroy.
The above seems as generalities taken from scripture. Jesus said, “When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times (Mt. 16. 2,3)?”
I don’t suggest, for an instant, any form of hypocrisy in the readers nor any spiritual ineptness. As I read the passage, I am reminded how obviously we are approaching the end times.
Heating oil is $2.85/gal., the production of ethanol is depleting grain supplies causing the cost of food to skyrocket, abortion is epidemic and will become even greater with the next administration, today’s generation of youth is the most unevangelized ever to live in this nation. Even more alarming is the Church is irrelevant and powerless to do anything about it. Every denomination is moving toward interfaith apostasy.
The question begs an answer, “What shall the true Church do?”
Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?
Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God (Joel 2. 12-17)?
I’m one person, just a guy on the street. I can only speak to one person at a time. Those who are capable of speaking to hundreds seem only interested in leading their congregations in Purpose Driven Apostasy; the church services seem to have driven the Holy Spirit away. The leaders never seem to address the true issues but are content in keeping people on an ecclesiastical treadmill that keeps the paycheck coming.
There is no anointing on the sermons; nothing to stir the spirit; nothing to convict the conscience; no impetus to follow after God. Just a dose of dead religion for the week.
Every week I enter church expecting and leave disappointed.
Where am I wrong?
I believe we must pray for those in leadership, including music ministers and Sundie Skool teechers to not beat at the air anymore; forsake the gratification of self and seek God as never before. Every one of them should be out of bed by 4:00 a.m., seeking the face of God diligently, every day for their ministry is not a treadmill but that which should be an oracle of the eternal destiny of those they face every Sunday. There is no anointing because men are not serious about prayer. When was the last time you or I heard of the ministers of the Lord weeping between porch and altar?
Don’t even begin to tell me they are. If they were, the churches would not be so dead. The messages would affect the hearts of men. The young people would not be so impatient to get out of church and into their worldly activities. Divorce would not be rampant. Men would be getting saved.
If you have any interest, at all, in the souls of men, you will fast and pray, give up hours of precious sleep, call on God to have mercy and get those leaders into His presence, however He may (even by brokenness, persecution and misery), so that the Holy Spirit return to His church and make her relevant again.