Faith & Prejudice | Restoring OnenessSample

Racism is a spirit. It’s a demonic spirit. This is why the devil works so hard to maintain power through creating confusion, fear, anger and all manner of fleshly responses to it. But, once the people of God begin to walk in the authority of Christ and stand boldly in confrontation to the spirit of racism, we will strike it down. This is what Dr. King wanted his fellow pastors to do, but instead of standing on moral authority, they gave in to the desire for power. How does this happen?

In each of the scenarios outlined in today's passage, Satan tried to appeal to an area of human frailty.

1. In compelling Jesus to turn stones to bread, Satan was appealing to Jesus’ flesh. He wanted him to exchange authority over his flesh for the power bread provides a hungry stomach.
2. In compelling Jesus to throw himself down off the cliff, Satan was appealing to Jesus’ pride. Imagine how people would react if they saw Jesus throw himself off a cliff, then get up and walk away without a scratch? They would truly worship him then. He would become the most famous person in the world. They would make t-shirts with his face on it. But, Jesus knew that if he allowed pride to rule him, he would always be at the mercy of people’s applause. 
3. In the final temptation, Satan compelled Jesus by appealing to his eyes. The desire to have what you see is a powerful desire that can quickly derail people because they cease from pursuing God’s will in favor of pursuing their own will.

Right now, the Church is in crisis because too many leaders and Christians have surrendered our authority for power. And now it has cost us our witness. God designed authority and power to have different roles because authority tells power what to do. The Bible tells us in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” There is no fulfillment in the pursuit of power because, in the absence of authority, power is simply chaos. When you give up authority to pursue power, you lose the right to tell power what to do because you are no longer standing on the principles of God.

John 12:42-43 says, “Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human praise more than praise from God.” The pain Dr. King felt is a pain I have felt many times over the last year; the pain of watching people choose to be “popular” with those in “power” over standing on the side of the oppressed. And because of this, many Christians have been found to be standing on the side of Pharaoh and not the side of the Israelites.

In what ways has the allure of power kept you from doing or saying what needs to be done or said in order to protect your Christian witness?