It says in Isaiah 9:6, speaking about a future time, “That the government shall be upon His (Jesus) shoulder.” At the present time the Government in Australia is still in the hands of men and is voted in federally every three years. That’s why we as believers need to pray for our governmental leaders and in particular before elections.
I believe President Abraham Lincoln was right to say about earthly government, “My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”
Democracy was invented by Greeks but failed because of self-interest and greed. Democracy only became successful in societies with a strong Christian ethos because the bible recognizes man’s fallen state and the need for self-sacrifice for the greater good of all. Democracy is an imperfect system made for imperfect men. Winston Churchill was right to say, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
Australia faces a democratic election, “most likely” to take place on Saturday 18 May 2019 that will decide the future of our nation, not just for 3 years but perhaps for decades to come. The choice is stark to say the least. Electors will have to choose between a Bill Shorten led Labor Party and the leadership of the current Prime Minster Scott Morrison, who leads the Coalition.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is a devoted Christian and a man who believes in the power of prayer as his recent numerous calls for prayer for the drought shows. Mr Morrison nailed his colours to the mast in his maiden speech. It is interesting to note that the rainfall has been up massively since the Prime Minister’s call to pray for rain. Rainfall over the drought stricken areas on the east coast over the last 3 months has been almost normal, an amazing miracle of answered prayer.
Having said that we need a lot more rain yet to break the drought so let us continue to pray. I cannot help but feel there is a big fall on the way. More than anything else we need an outpouring of the rain of the Holy Spirit so let’s keep praying for both.
The Labor/Greens Alliance has shown an absolute commitment to the promotion of anti-Godly legislation at a state and federal level over the last decade. Coalition governments at times have not been much better, especially under the recent Prime Minister-ship of Malcolm Turnbull.
Our current Prime Minister Scott Morrison is different and is prepared to stand up for his Judeo-Christian convictions. How many countries in the western world have a strongly Christian Prime Minister and a Jewish Treasurer? Scott Morrison gave a passionate speech in support of marriage continuing between a man and a woman in Parliament and ultimately abstained from the final vote to introduce homosexual marriage in December 2017. This is to his credit as man of faith and conscience especially under a strongly antichristian leader like then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who according to reports was a real bully.
Prime Minster Scott Morrison has indicated a strong commitment to freedom of religion. This will be tested in the coming months in the lead up to the 2019 election hence, the need for concerted and ongoing prayer. Mr Morrison has also stood up against the Gender Whisperers in our school system which in our current political climate is an extraordinary achievement.
So the choice before us is to be governed by a rabidly anti-God Labor/Greens Alliance or an imperfect Liberal/National Coalition led by a man with strong and proven Christian convictions. This same man, whilst imperfect, would heartily agree with the words found in Australia’s constitution, “Humbly relying on the blessings of almighty God.”
He not only agrees with those words but he has the faith to pray those words in his public prayers for an end to the drought, much to the scorn of the Godless media.
Currently the imperfect Liberal/National Coalition have absolutely no chance of retaining office if the polls and the experts are to be believed. It will be a miracle for the Liberal/National Coalition to actually contest a federal election in mid-May without a highly likely vote of no confidence in February when Parliament resumes. The fact that the Morrison govern as minority government makes there reelection prospects ten times more difficult. I believe the experts are right.
It would be an absolute miracle on a hundred different levels for a Scott Morrison led Liberal/National Coalition to be elected into office. It would be “Lazarus with a quadruple bypass,” to requote, with a difference, a famous Prime Minister.
Is there precedence for such a miracle in Australian political history? The answer is a resounding YES!
The re-election of John Howard in the November 2001 Federal election was a miracle of united prayer and took all the experts by surprise.
An article called, “Let me remind you: it’s 2001, John Howard is facing disaster”, by Sydney Morning Herald Journalist john Watson tells the story well.
‘ In 2001, the Queensland vote closely followed a Coalition wipe-out in Western Australia, which prompted obituaries for the Howard government. The Herald Sun’s Andrew Bolt got in a year early and told us Howard was ”the walking dead prime minister, even before the GST puts him out of his misery”.
After the WA election, he reminded us of this ”not just to boast” but to underline the certainty of his reasons for declaring ”Howard is gone – barring something truly extraordinary”…
Michelle Grattan reported deep pessimism in Coalition ranks. ”I think the [federal] election’s lost,” said a Liberal backbencher. ”It’s just a matter of the margin.” Pollster Gary Morgan said the government had ”zero chance”. Howard acknowledged the ”widespread perception among political commentators … that a change of government is well-nigh inevitable”.
And things got worse. In March, The Australian’s Paul Kelly wrote that ”within five short years” of Howard’s 1996 landslide, Labor could win a comfortable majority, supported by six state Labor governments
Voters, it was widely observed, had ”stopped listening” to Howard. By April, an Age poll put the Coalition 20 points behind. By May… Come July and a knife-edge Aston byelection, and Bolt, not yet a diehard Howard loyalist, lamented the failure to ditch a leader who was ”gone, gone, gone”. ”If Aston proved anything, it is that Howard is following history’s script and heading to an awful defeat.” Within four months, Howard led the Coalition to a resounding victory, his third.
Some argue that the Tampa affair and September 11 terrorism produced the political miracle that changed the script.’
The question that needs to be asked is, “How did this miracle happen?” The answer is, “united prayer and fasting”. Alfred Lord Tennyson said, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” Ps Bruce Lindley says, “Corporate prayer & fasting shifts nations.” Pope John Paul said, “Jesus himself has shown us by his own example that prayer and fasting are the first and most effective weapons against the forces of evil.” Jesus said, “Men ought always to pray and not to faint.”
We know prayer is powerful but Australians are very apathetic, so what was it that got Australia praying in 2001?
On the 15 August 2001 at the Burning Hearts Conference in Brisbane, Cindy Jacobs from the USA brought a prophetic clarion call to urgent united prayer and fasting for the nation and the coming 2001 election. Cindy Jacobs’ call for united prayer and fasting went viral across the nation.
We had never before seen such a concerted response to a call for prayer for the nation, in the period before an election, that we saw in the lead up to the 10 November 2001 Federal Election. My wife and I have been involved in prayer for every election for almost two decades up to that point. In the eighties we worked with Noel Bell from Intercessors for Australia and more lately in the nineties, with the Australian Prayer Network. Compared with previous elections the sheer amount of prayer generated was a miracle in itself.
When Cindy Jacobs issued that call for urgent united Prayer and Fasting on 15 August 2001 the Federal Coalition Government led by Prime Minister John Howard was trailing the Labor party 44% to 56%. The chances of John Howard being returned were nonexistent as the ‘John Howard Facing a Disaster’ article by John Watson pointed out. Even the Morgan polling in the week immediately before the election still pointed to government wipe out, but miraculously John Howard was returned and the power of prayer was proved.
God speaking in Psalms 2:8 says, “Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations for your inheritance,” Jesus says in Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given you.” God’s word in 2 Chronicles 7:4 gives us the parameter for our prayers; “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.”
Ultimately we need a supernatural national transformation as evidenced in 2 Chronicles 7:14. This will come like it did in John Wesley’s day through the Holy Spirit inspired preaching of the Gospel with an accompanying revival and reformation in our nation.
Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:1-4, “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made… for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
Godly leadership in Government allows for the FREE proclamation of the Gospel. From a faith point of view FREEDOM will be the issue of the coming election.
Let us again call the body of Christ to pray and fast at every opportunity in the lead up to the 2019 Federal Election in the hope that God would grant us another miracle of prayer as He did in 2001. Soli Deo Gloria
Warwick,
Scott Morrison has demonstrated the same lack of Christlike fruit as Donald Trump who is applauded as a Christian (as opposed to a Christ follower). I.e the insidious treatment of the oppressed refugee people in Nauru, totally unbiblical, grovelling to the Jewish Community in the division of Wentworth by suggesting our embassy may be moved to Jerusalem. For crying out loud – while biblically the Jews were God’s chosen people, it wasn’t because He loved them more, it was because He had a task for them! To represent Him to their neighbours and they still fail to represent His character to their neighbours – big time. Could the Palestinian people possibly see the God of the bible through the way they are treated by the Israelites? I think not!
Australia needs a Spiritual revival- starting with the church (including politicians who claim to be Christians), which in many places resembles the church of Laodicea. Then communities where people are broken and without hope because the local church isn’t faithfully representing Christ the Saviour and Lord to them.
Unfortunately the Federal Liberal Leadership is as far removed from leading in a Christlike way as any other political party in Australia. Yet some ‘evangelicals’ cling to claims made by some, rather than observing the fruit of their lives.