The “Desert Father” Abba Anthony (251-356 AD) said, “A time is coming when men will go mad [crazy], and when they see someone who is not mad they will attack him saying, ‘You are mad, you are not like us.’”
Certainly, the world seems to have become increasingly crazy these days. Yet, we are not the ones who are “mad”. Public institutions of learning have been ridding themselves of the knowledge of God for years. They’ve embraced much foolishness and appealed to pseudo-science and to humanism to justify nonsense and godlessness. “Professing to be wise they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man…” (Romans 1:22-23).
The fact is we are in a wrestling match with spiritual evil - as the Bible famously says in Ephesians 6:10-18. And the Bible tells us: “The end of all things is at hand: therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer” (1 Peter 4:7). Indeed, one of our great purposes here in this age is prayer. We might think it is all about argument and effort. But the real power in moving hearts and minds – and displacing evil spirits with the Spirit of God – lies in prayer!
My own testimony about the supernatural power of prayer which led me to eventually work with Creation Moments comes to mind. Out of college, I was working as a chemist in a research lab. I had been a true Christian for a little over a year. I was at my desk on lunch hour in the lab, reading a National Geographic magazine about the universe and the millions and billions of years for everything. I became terribly bothered by the thought: How could the Bible be true? I’d had the joy of my newfound faith, but I was at another crossroads. The Bible did not fit with “science,” and I knew science to be pretty exact and powerful.
I descended into an anguished state of mind and didn’t know where to turn.
I knew of no books or ministry, and it was before the Internet went public. I cried out to God for Him to show me how to believe! It was then that I remembered that a Bible teacher had a radio program at 12:15 pm, which I sometimes listened to, and I went to my truck and sat in the cab and listened to his 15-minute program. His topic for the day was faith. Faith comes before understanding, he said, and that’s how it is and must be with the Lord, the God of the Bible. For example, “I’d have fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13). Or, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God…” (Hebrews 11:3).
You see from the Scripture that faith comes first, and understanding or sight follows. We can’t understand everything about God, and that’s why we must come to Him in faith (Hebrews 11:16). But if we need or want understanding, we can ask, and He will reveal a satisfactory answer to us in time.
Listening to the teaching, I felt a wonderful sense of peace come over me, and I knew God had quickly answered my anguished prayer! I still had the questions, but I believed that I would see the answer in God’s time. Sure enough, several months later, out of the blue, a Bible-Science Newsletter showed up in the mail on the doorstep of my garage apartment! I had no idea how and why it came. I suspected it might have been sent to a previous renter of the apartment, long gone. I had never even heard of the group. But I devoured the material, joined the Bible-Science Association – which later changed its name to Creation Moments – and ordered some books. My questions and need for understanding were beginning to be filled! This became a great joy and spurred me on to further Bible study.
So let me ask: What do we do in an age gone mad? We continue in His Word. We keep Him as our “first love” (Revelation 2:4). We listen to, receive, and obey the promptings of His Spirit, for comfort, power, and wisdom to reach out to our fellow man, working and giving to shine the light of grace and truth through Jesus Christ! And we pray! We displace evil spirits of “madness” through the Spirit of God, in Jesus’ name!
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