The Church’s Role in Government & Nation Building: Prayers & Prophecies
These principles which Paul Deng Joshua Leek shares in parts 2 to 4 of his book, The Spirit of Politics, can be replicated in any nation. It was out of practising these principles that South Sudan began to turn around for the better.
How to Pray for the Nation
1. Thank the Lord for He is a God of many chances. Though we were ignorant of the times and seasons, He gave us another opportunity to start all over again as a nation.
2. Repent for the gross lack of national vision. People perish for lack of vision. They have no restraint and can become easily lawless. This was our situation.
3. Do you have a vision? Repent for the lack of vision for your personal life, your marriage, your children, and your work. This has caused you to operate aimlessly.
4. Ask the Lord to help you recognize that the season in the wilderness is mandatory to help us renew our mindset as a nation, from slaves and oppressed fighters, to developing our own national vision and direction, to becoming builders and managers of our nation and its destiny.
5. Ask the Lord to reveal to you areas where you have not paid attention to His working in your life. Rather, you were part of those who complained about circumstances and even wished to return to the Northern Arab rule; like the children of Israel in the wilderness who complained about their fleshpots in Egypt.
6. Repent for failing to see the situations you experienced as processes that would help you get to the end of the wilderness season of your life as a suitable mature South Sudanese who would build your nation.
8. The Arab Spring was connected to the liberation of South Sudan but we did not know. We saw it as an isolated event. Ask the Lord to reveal to you and to the church, His plan in the greater scheme of things; and the role of the nation with regard to the restoration of the North African nations.
9. Ask Him to show you from your family situation to your work situation, to the community situation, and to the national situation where you fit into the bigger plan He has for this nation.
10. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand the power of the Word of God in guiding you and in being the foundation for every aspect of your life. Pray this for your leaders at the church and governmental levels.
11. Ask the Holy Spirit to make you very conscious and sensitive towards walking circumspectly as a regular Christian citizen in your nation. If every Christian operated this way, then out of that pool of people, we would get a decent crop of politicians who manifest the qualities of a politician.
Just like the human being; every nation has its body – which is its physical features. Every nation has its soul – which is its redemptive purpose and destiny; and finally, every nation has its spirit – which is the spirit that rules over the nation shaping its mindset and steering it either towards or away from its redemptive purpose and destiny. This in turn will drive the agenda for harnessing the physical features of the nation for the good or destruction of its population.
It is the role of the descendants of pharaoh in the people of present-day South Sudan, led by the church in the nation to bring worthy and proper repentance for the rejection of God through pharaoh in Exodus. It is time to make an official declaration embracing the Lord as King of Africa, and pledge obedience to Him. It means that the South Sudan church has a role to carry out a lot of foundational repentance, breaking of evil foundations in order that the true foundation, Jesus Christ Himself, will be exposed. All areas of society will be established on His principles including our families, beliefs, government and leadership, economy, education system, media and culture and arts.
Prophecy Good Things!
Notice that in every area of redemptive purpose, the enemy has always brought about a counterfeit. He has always tried to bring the opposite of what God intended. Present each area of redemptive purpose and begin to prophesy again the truth of our calling, equipping and destiny as opposed to what the enemy has tried to bring about in the continent.
- Prophesy that you and your house shall serve the Lord in each area.
- Prophesy that the church of South Sudan will lead in manifesting these characteristics,
- Prophesy that South Sudan will return to that place of our redemptive inheritance of these great qualities. Make these your daily proclamations.
If you look at any nations which allowed the church to have a strong influence, they have very good, affordable education institutions started by the churches.
Scriptures should inform us of the great responsibility we have and the seriousness that the Lord takes in dealing with a church that will lead the nation astray by the ignorance of our role in establishing His kingdom’s purposes and discipling the nation to righteousness.
As the church goes, so goes the nation. When the church rejects the knowledge of territorial leadership whether it is in the community or in politics, then we can be assured that the laws of the land will begin to reflect ungodly challenges and we shall fall into disorder and chaos.
Abortion was legal in many States of the USA, and some even wanted to legalize the right to kill oneself or have oneself killed through euthanasia. This can only happen when the church, the Lord’s ambassador in the territory, forgets her role as His representative on earth.
We want to focus on the root of our problem; a national church that is ignorant of her role in matters of national importance such as government, governance and leadership at every level of society; and most importantly the often feared “dirty” realm of politics.
The Philosopher Plato said something very profound that should be taken as a warning to Christians about governance and politics. He said, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”.