Orthodox Ministers Publicly Praying For The Elect
Hi Mike,
Tonight I had a talk with a former elder who spiritually lives in Babylon. It was a long conversation, and it was very clear that we are not of the same mind.
Mike, the conversation ended, and he wanted to pray with me…. and I said no. I told him that I could not invite him into my spiritual house. He asked me if we weren’t brothers, and I told him we are brothers in the way Joseph and his brothers are brothers. Mike, he was shocked, and it was hard for me to do it, because I don’t think he understood.
Did I do what God commands to do? Did I do the right thing not praying with him… he wanted to do the prayer. Please help me out.Your brother in Christ.
R____
Hi R____,
Thank you for your question.
You ask me if you did the right thing by not allowing an orthodox Christian minister to pray over you?
You are exactly right when he asked you if you were not brothers, and you told him, yes, in the sense that Joseph’s ten brothers were his brothers who wanted him dead. Now tell me the truth, can you imagine Joseph asking his ten brothers to come and pray for him when they came down to Egypt to buy bread from Joseph??? The person buying the bread does not pray for the person who is selling the bread!!!
Rest assured you did the right thing! Can you even picture Jesus Christ allowing the Jews who had just eaten His miraculous loaves and fishes, and the very same Jews which believed on Him and yet wanted to kill him and were of their father the Devil (Joh 8 30) to pray for Him and ask God to cast the Devil and his doctrines out of Christ? This is exactly what that minister would have done if you had allowed him to do the praying.
You say:
It was hard for me to do, because I don’t think he understood… he wanted to do the prayer.
That minister’s lack of understanding has nothing to do with whether you should let him pray over you, as you say he wanted to do.
Here is Christ confronting that minister who wanted to pray over you. Read about that man right here:
Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [ then] are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33 They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Joh 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Joh 8:35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: [ but] the Son abideth ever.
Joh 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Joh 8:37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Joh 8:38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
Joh 8:39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, [ even] God.
Joh 8:42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? [ even] because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Joh 8:45 And because I tell [ you] the truth, ye believe me not.
Joh 8:46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
Joh 8:47 He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear [ them] not, because ye are not of God.
Orthodox Christian ministers do not “hear God’s words”. They are ‘of their father the Devil’. They ‘do the deeds of their father’, and they do not understand Christ’s speech because they cannot hear His word, simply because they have not yet been given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God.
You and I were just such men only yesterday. But when we were in such a state, we would have had no business praying over the person who was feeding us with loaves and fishes or selling us grain to keep us from starving.
Heb 7:7 And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.
As presumptuous as the orthodox ministers considered Christ to be, and as presumptuous as Joseph’s brothers considered Joseph to be, Christ and Joseph were nevertheless “the better” in God’s eyes, and they were ordained by God to do the blessing and the praying over others. Christ did the praying over the sick. He never once asked a blind man to pray for Him.
I hope this all helps you to see clearly that you did the right thing when you refused to let that orthodox man who is spiritually starved to death and spiritually blind as a bat to pray for you to be given spiritual food or spiritual sight.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike
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