But yes, God also says, “IF my people will humble themselves and pray, THEN I will heal their land..” and other such conditional promises. It’s a dichotomy, isn’t it? I see it that when God chooses to move worldwide, he also puts the desire in tonnes of peoples’ minds and hearts. His plans aren’t thwarted if one person should choose not to obey what s/he is being directed by God to do. For example, just this morning somone was wondering about whether they would be guilty if they were lead to pray for someone else and to talk to them about the hope that was in them but instead chose to ignore it. What if then, say, that person died without knowing Christ? Would that believer then stand somehow guilty in their disobediece? That was the question thrown out and everyone seemed to concur that although we should be attentive to what the Spirit tells us, God’s plans don’t just solely rest on one person, although one person can be extremely influential. Many in this church group we visited (with mainly people in their 50’s +) considered how their own faith journeys were the result of many prayers from many many people, — a chain of events and discussions, not just the result of one encounter with one person. Interesting.

Anyway, although I recognize of course that we don’t battle against flesh and blood, but against spirits and principalities, and, yes, there are tonnes of miliaristic type analogies with references to the “armour” of God, and so on, I guess I still get really turned off by such phrases as, “‘taking the world’ for Christ.” It’s like other statements like, “Taking the high ground,” or “Men of steel” or whatever! Possibly I’ve just been too influenced by my ardent feminist upbringing or by our culture but I just don’t llike the “rah-rah”/jock sort of mindset that goes with that. Perhaps I better just accept it though than get bent out of shape by it. It is God’s Word after all! I guess the main issue is not so much what the words are but the sort of attitude that often accompanies these words! However, I have to too recognise that indeed we are called to humble ourselves and pray and as a result we will take action. I do also think that we would be wiser to walk in the spirit, dependent on him and not strike out in our flesh or pride and do what might ’seem’ right but in the end actually can make things worse.