Christianity 101

When you first decide to become a Christian, the very
first thing you have to do is…what?

“If
you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart you
believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth you confess and are
saved.”

You first believe.
Then you pray. You speak out loud.

“The
prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” No
wonder it’s the first thing we have to do and are taught to do. Prayer is one
of the most important foundations of our faith. And this important, spiritually
altering thing is what my team has been doing this month…

We arrived in Malaysia a little over two weeks ago. We
had no idea what to expect when we got here. It was hotter than the Philippines.
And cleaner. It seemed to be more developed. We were told early on that there
were no “slums” or homeless people. That was a surprise. We figured that that
would be one of our biggest ministries. Guess not. We rode a pimped out bus for
five hours to get to our location where two men picked us up in cars to take us
to their church where we’d be staying for the month.

Muslim is the most common religion here, followed by
Hinduism, Buddhism, and others, Christianity being the minority. Freedom of
religion is practiced here, but the converting of Muslims and Malay people is
illegal. This was nothing new. Being to China twice, a communist country, I’d
experienced firsthand the barriers of sharing my faith. It didn’t make it any
less frustrating though. To have every person we come across, from taxi drivers
to restaurant owners, ask us why we’re here and not be able to tell them out of
safety and sensibility has been frustrating. What could we do here?  We had discussed ministry opportunities
with our contacts in the beginning and came to find that there really weren’t
any. We talked about visiting an HIV house, but nothing was set. We talked
about visiting hospitals, but nothing was set. We talked about attending small
groups, and have been able to go to a few in the last couple weeks. But those
were only in the evenings. Our days have been pretty empty. We’ve been cleaning
and working on a few things here around the church, but almost all of these
projects took only a few days. Again, I asked myself, what are we doing here, Lord?

Every morning, at 5:30am, the Muslim chants and prayers
begin right outside. For the first week, it woke me up every time. At first, it
made me angry because it had woken me up. Eventually though, it made me angry
because they were praying to an idol, and I knew the spiritual forces at work.
It also disturbed me that these people were more dedicated to prayer than so
many Christians, including myself sometimes. What a way to be convicted! So while
they prayed to some piece of stone or wood, I prayed to the God of the Ages, my
one Almighty Alpha and Omega. We came together as a team and realized that our
ministry for this month is prayer. So we started a 24-hour prayer, where one of
us was praying at every hour of the day. Honestly, it’s not a very rewarding
ministry, if you’re looking for the fruit of it with your physical eyes. But I
know that with “every prayer offered up in faith, God hears,” and things change
in the spiritual realm; things get stirred up in the heavenlies. Our prayers
give strength to the angels as they fight battles. Our prayers make demons
flee. Our prayers bring freedom. Our prayers bring power. Our very presence brings
light to this ever-present darkness, a darkness we can physically feel. I think
too often that Christians don’t realize the power of their prayers, of their
words. The Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are offering up prayers and offerings
to their false gods? We’re going to offer up prayers and offerings to the one
true God just as much. We may not see the fruit of our labor, but we have no
idea how we’re preparing this place for future Soldiers of Light. The soil must
be prepared for it to accept the seed. We’re preparing the soil for future seed
planters. We’re making a way. What could be more important, or more rewarding,
than that?

So from the first prayer you’ve ever prayed when you
first accepted salvation from Jesus Christ, to wherever you are in our walk
now, you’ve been taught to pray first. But how many of us do that? How often do
people do everything they can in a situation, and once they don’t know what
else to do, say, “Well, I guess all we
can do now is pray”? No! Pray first!
Get back to the basics! It’s like Christianity 101. If we, as followers of
Christ, could really grasp the authority that Jesus Christ Himself gave us, the
powers of darkness wouldn’t be able to overcome us.

~Eryn