What God thinks of Obama...

Firstly, I'm not an American neither do I live in the USA and yet an irrefutable fact cannot be denied. Any major happenings in USA have its rippling effects across the globe. For instance, in my country India, there were discussions and debates in the media as to what the election of either John McCain or Barack Obama as the next President of USA could mean to us.

Secondly, I'm not much knowledgeable about politics and I don't like it anyway.

Along with the rest of the world, I was glued to CNN Live watching the result of the voting, every moment praying that God would somehow cause a miracle to happen for McCain. However, the inevitable happened. Barack Obama was declared the winner by more than 50% of the votes. I was very disappointed, but not at all because Obama is a black American. The color of the skin hardly bothers me. I myself have brown skin.

Beside the usual liberalism of the Democrats, the thing that was bothering me most was the Internet filled with stories that Obama was and still is a Muslim and that his confession of being a Christian was simply a lie. One website had pictures of bumper stickers one of which said, "Be insane, vote Hussein". I kept telling to myself that those who voted for Obama came under a great delusion. The hangover of my disappointment just wouldn't leave me the following days. It was until about four hours ago (and that's yesterday now as it's just past midnight here as I'm typing this)...

Last night, at around 8 pm (7th Nov '08), I entered a quiet room in my house to pray. After singing the song, "My Jesus, my Savior.... shout to the Lord", I began praying for some believers in the church. As I was doing that suddenly the image of Obama appeared before me. I simply tried to discard it away because every time I see him on TV, newspapers or even think about him, I simply couldn’t digest the fact that he was going to be the next President of USA. But this time however, I had no negative feelings about him anymore. I just felt a love in my heart for this man. I wondered why and how. Then the Holy Spirit began to reveal things about him to me.

The first thing He said was, "I've chosen him" and then quickly reminded me of the Scripture in Daniel 2:21, "he removes Kings and sets up kings" (ESV). Again, He brought a second verse to my mind and it was from Romans 9:21, "Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?" (NASB). This time I felt the Lord saying, "I've chosen him not for honorable use but for common use". In essence, I felt that the Lord was saying that Obama wouldn’t be someone who’s kept for a display behind a window glass in a shelf, but rather like a vessel for everyday use, he would be a man whose hands are on the plough - willing to get them dirty. By now the Lord had my full attention. And as I continued to be in tune with what the Lord was showing me, I began to be led to pray for Obama over the following points: -

1.That Barack Obama would know not only the Jesus of Christian religion but that he would come to know Him in a personal way as his most dear and intimate Friend.

2.That he would have not only political advisors over him but that he would see as imperative the need to have a godly person over him for spiritual counseling and to help him in his faith in Christ Jesus.


3.That his wife and his children would similarly be strong in their faith in Christ and would grow closer to Him in all godliness.

As I finished praying these three points, I felt a sense of peace in me. And now I'm not at all worried that he's going to be sworn in as the next President of this great country. In fact, I'm sure I'll be praying for Barack Obama and his family regularly. After all, when Jesus taught us to love and pray even for our enemy how much more for someone who's not our enemy?

Is This Just a Dream?

This morning (29th Oct '08) I woke up with a dream that has made me not only to wonder but also to seriously ponder. The dream involves God’s audible voice.

In this dream, I saw myself standing outside a typical Indian grocery store. And although none of our church members own any shops as yet, a family from our church ran this store. As I stood there, I began to leisurely put my hand on the rice contained in a sack. Then I felt some rice had gotten inside the sleeve of my jacket on my right hand. The jacket I was wearing is thick and black in colour and was gifted to me by my father some time back for the winter. I pulled the opening of my sleeve to shake off the rice on a table. As I did that, truly indeed, rice fell off my sleeve. However, I felt there were some more left inside and again I repeated the process. More rice began to pour out of my sleeve. We began to wonder how this could be possible that simply touching the rice in a sack would gather so much inside the sleeve. The process was repeated twice thrice and even more. As I continued doing that now it was no longer only rice but even lentils (daal) of two different kinds (red and yellow in colour) pouring out of my sleeve. (Rice and lentils are the two very basic staple food of India). I remember there were few other believers too from our church present there. And we all stood there watching with great amazement and perplexity wondering what all this meant.

Suddenly, we heard God’s voice either directly or through a second person, that this was God’s supernatural provision for the orphans. Then He spoke again, but this time we heard Him directly. He spoke to us as a church saying that we should take in the orphans to our respective homes and shelter them and in essence, He would take care of the provision. The dream ends here.

I could argue with myself and consider this dream a probability or since my brother John in Nepal has recently taken in three little girls for adoption I could simply consider the whole issue to be a preconceived thought embedded in my subconscious mind. But honestly speaking, though I did briefly entertained a passing thought to follow my brother’s footsteps it wasn’t a serious or a recurring one. And yet, from time to time, I would either be reminded or find myself quoting to others the word in Isaiah 58 verses 6 & 7.

6 “Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the straps of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him,

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Naturally speaking, I cannot see how this could be possible since most of our church members are limited or even under-limited when it comes to meeting their daily needs including myself at times. Indeed, it's quite a challenge. And yet, since the dream clearly speaks of God’s supernatural provision for this noble ministry I feel that I cannot just ignore it or even take it casually now but to consider it seriously and prayerfully as I wait for further confirmations from Him.

Please do consider seeking the mind of the Lord in this matter together with me/us. And should the Lord reveal anything to you I’d be more than glad to hear it. Thank you and God bless you.

Love,

Reuben