While I don’t wish to delve too much into politics at this time, the battle over the State of the Union address has caused me to see some parallels between the state of our Country (USA) and the state of the American church. 

The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the President of the United States, to a joint session of the United States Congress at the beginning of each calendar year in office. The message typically includes a budget message and an economic report of the nation, and also allows the President to propose a legislative agenda and national priorities. (Wikipedia) 

The speech is also for the American public, to inform us what type of changes are being made in the future and to review changes already made. If congress does not show any effort in regard to making the proposed changes, the President can take matters into his hands and override congress.

Union

noun

1. The action or fact of joining or being joined, especially in a political context.
2. A club, society, or association formed by people with a common interest or purpose.

The union (of our United States) is for a common purpose (see United States Preamble).  The church was also created for a common purpose, and we find that in Acts 2:42 ~ “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  Both church and state are governments.  Both have authority structures.  Most importantly right now, both are under attack.

Many don’t see the structure of the church, or spiritual things, as a government so first I want to make this scripturally clear.  Isaiah 9:6-7 says, “For unto you a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the governmentshall rest upon his shoulder…There will be no end to the increase of His government of peace…to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore…” Jesus is the head of our spiritual government.  He is our King. 

We also know through scripture that satan is a very real enemy and anything he does is a perversion, or counterfeit, of the Spirit of God.  Additionally, we can infer from some key verses, ranging from Genesis to Revelation, that satan fell from heaven and took 1/3 of the angels with him. While we don’t readily see in scripture a direct reference to the structure, or hierarchy of angels, we certainly see a clear picture of the hierarchy of demons (fallen angels) in Ephesians 6:12.  Since satan perverts the things of God, it stands to reason his governmental structure is a (evil) mirror picture of God’s governmental structure.  In his pride, he wishes to exult himself above God and his goal is to grow his kingdom and snatch away as many of God’s beloved as he can.

A (should be) serious goal of the church is unity (see Ephesians 4 for details on this).  There is great, great power in unity.  In fact, God saw just how powerful unified humans could be when He stopped the first Babylonians from building the tower of Babel, confused their languages and dispersed them because of their evil intent (see Genesis 11:1-9).  Unfortunately, almost since its inception, the church has been divided into different denominations due to varying interpretations of scripture resulting in a full range of doctrinal differences. Each denomination thinks they are right, and the others are wrong!  This is rooted in pride.  Sound familiar?  This division plays right into the enemy’s hands since he knows if he keeps us divided, and bickering amongst each other, then the power of unity is greatly diminished, and in some cases almost completely destroyed.

Why is this important to understand?  Well, because while the church has been caught up in her own little world, full of people playing church rather than BEING the church, satan has been awfully busy…quietly destroying our churches, country and nations because he figured out how to unify his team.  And if you don’t think he has been successful at recruiting right under our noses, then I implore you to wake up from your slumber!

It doesn’t take much looking around to notice just how much ground the church has lost to current cultural trends.  Abortion is being legalized up until full term…and celebrated!  Gender is now an option at birth, and beyond, based on psychology rather than physiology.  Children are being transitioned to the opposite sex as young as four years old! Our country is divided, ironically, over a wall that doesn’t yet exist.  We have invented new, and dangerous, shades of grey where there used to be pretty clear boundaries of black and white.  Some call this progress.  But this isn’t progress, it’s perversion.  Perversion of God’s good intentions for mankind that have been twisted, distorted and made to look outdated, old-fashioned and judgmental.  Church, why have we allowed this?  Were we too busy in our country club Sunday services with our plastic smiles fulfilling our religious duty?  Were we so entrenched in our Christian bubble, not wanting to be stained by the world, that we failed to reach hurting people? Did we just not care? Did we think that “someone” would fight the good fight, but just not us?  If ever there was a time to unify the body of Christ, to push back the works of darkness, it…is…NOW! ,

Let’s put aside our minor doctrinal differences, get on our faces and repent, and come together to pray! Pray for the church to come together, in unity, to fight the darkness that has even walked boldly into our places of worship.  Pray for the unborn babies, and the mothers who make the decisions regarding them. Pray for our children who are being subjected to gender confusion. Pray for our leaders to make righteous decisions. Pray for justice.   Then, let’s take up our swords and engage in the battle…whatever that may look like for each of us!  Write letters, protest, get involved in some action or project that produces good fruit!  We must take a stand!