Self-Righteous Prayers (Prayer Call Testimony) — Edgar Reich

Sisters and brothers, I'm going to give a testimony, and I'll ask you to bear with me for about 20 minutes or so, and then we'll open up the line for everyone to pray. The Lord had mercy on me, a sinner, in 2004, and saved me via a vision.

In 2005, He called me for revival, and since that time, I have prayed for revival. God has been dealing with me. I came close to death last year, and then the word of the Lord seemed to come to me November 5, 2012.

And I believe the Lord gave me Luke chapter 18, verses 10 to 14, where it says, two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee that I'm not as other men are extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this publican.

I fast twice in the week. I give tithe of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, did not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone that exalted himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. The Lord said to me, you appealed much in corporate prayer for others.

You prayed for me to revive others, revive denominations, revive churches, and revive the country. But you did not weep for yourself. You appealed to me to shield you from persecution. Maybe once or twice I heard someone weeping before me, which touched my heart.

Once or twice a prayer was given where the person confessed and asked for forgiveness and revival for himself, and that touched my heart. Generally, you prayed for others. I do not want to hear self-righteous corporate prayers and preaching during your prayers.

It was I who allowed Satan to scatter you. In many of your prayers, you made yourself better than others. You didn't weep for yourself because you lacked the understanding and you lacked the power of the Holy Spirit.

You lacked because of your self-righteousness. You have no room for the Holy Spirit. Did you look at my heart and do you know what hurts me? You have not acknowledged that you live in two nations where more than 50 million of my children have been killed.

Do you have a part in this? I am grieving. My son is grieving. My Holy Spirit is grieving. I'm weeping, wailing, shedding tears, and hurting with pain. I'm weeping because you're killing my children. My tears are falling to the ground that I have blessed for so many years.

I'm angry and ready to continue disasters, storms, earthquakes, and famines, and then I will give you into the hands of the enemy. You have allowed to take prayer and my word out of school. I weep because you permit Christian denominations to accept sinful and shameful practices and appoint ministers that openly practice sin against my word.

You want entertainment in church rather than worshiping and glorifying me. You go to church to want more blessings and more wealth from me rather than bringing your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto me, which is your reasonable service.

You're concerned more about the food in your stomach than the food that I give you through my word. You enjoy more speaking with your friends than you are in walking and talking with me in prayer. You're going to church hoping that the sermon is not longer than 20 minutes so you can take my children to a baseball game and then watch the Sunday afternoon football game.

You behave and pray as though you have no part in what is happening in your countries. You pray as the hypocrites and Pharisees pray. Pray as the publican prayed, and I will hear you. Will you humble yourself?

I wept. I was deeply moved. I was humbled. I went off the revival prayer call. I wept again, and I started to pray, asking God to break my stony heart. In Matthew 21 -44 it says,. And whoever falls on the stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls it will grind him to powder.

This not only speaks about salvation, but it also speaks about my surrender to Jesus in my daily life after salvation. Those who reject Christ will be crushed underneath his feet for eternity. But if I draw near Jesus and I surrender to him, I will fall on him and I will be broken.

I started to pray, asking to be broken. I asked for tears. I prayed, Lord, help me to weep about myself and my pride. Help me to weep about my self-righteousness. Help me to weep about myself for the lack of the Holy Spirit, whom I deny to help me to witness.

Help me to weep for the unborn we are killing. Help me to weep for all the things that are wrong in my country, where I have had a part in causing it. Help me to weep about the things that hurt my Father in heaven.

Help me to weep for myself for not witnessing to my neighbors. Help me to weep for the people's loss to eternity in my city. Help me to weep for my country and my neighboring country. Just around that time, I spoke with a sister that had fasted with her husband for 62 days.

While speaking about her country, America, she wept for an hour. I looked at myself and I said, what kind of Christian am I, Lord? I started to ask for God's mercy for myself to be revived. For it seemed I was honoring my Lord with my lips, but yet my stony heart was far from him.

I was praying and I continue to pray. Break me, Lord. Break my stony heart. Break my outward man. Break that mortal man full of sin. Break me so you can shine through me that others might see a light in a dark place.

I'm blending in so well into humanism, Lord. I'm blending in so well in secularism. No one knows that I am a Christian. Lord, I want to be again the salt of this earth. Lord, I've lost the savor and you said it would be thrown out.

Lord, if there is any mercy, forgive me, Lord. Revive me, Lord. Return my saltness. At that time point, a dear friend of mine asked me to do some work. The task included doing research on the Chinese underground church, the North Korean underground church, and the Iranian underground church.

God had a plan for me to learn and it broke my heart. And it's still breaking now. I have been so conditioned by humanism that I had lost almost all sense of true Christianity. I was aghast by the differences that I saw.

When is the last time I have wept because I was permitted to worship God in church? I see tears streaming down a lot of Chinese faces when they worship God, getting together in an underground church. When is the last time I have wept when I'm able to touch the Word of God?

In North Korea, if they have one Bible and ten people, they hand it around, they kiss it, they touch it, they weep over it, they spill their tears. When is the last time I have wept over unsafe neighbors?

When is the last time I have wept for America and Canada? In Iran and China, they say, hurry up, hurry up, share the gospel. It may cost them their lives if they do. In Iran, Christians were promised to be released from prison if they were willing not to witness.

They chose to stay in prison and to face beatings and torture. These Christians ask, how can we keep the great, great gospel for ourselves? We sin when we don't share the gospel. The Lord told us to share.

Reverend Maydeej said at his court defense in Iran, the object to my evangelizing, that if one finds a blind person who is about to fall in the well and keep silent, then one has sinned. It is our duty, as long as the door of God's mercy is open, to convince evildoers to turn from their sinful ways and to find refuge in Him in order to be saved from the wrath. of the righteous God and from the coming dreadful punishment.

This is as per Farsi Net News. This brother had previously written these words, I have always envied those Christians who were martyred for Christ Jesus our Lord. What a privilege to live for our Lord.

And what a privilege to die for Him as well. I'm filled to overflowing with joy. I'm not only satisfied to be in prison, but I'm ready to give my life for the sake of Jesus Christ. Three months after he was released from prison, Reverend Maydeej was abducted and later found hanging from a tree.

31st week ago, I went to my church in Toronto, Canada. I had forgotten there was no Bible study for adults that morning. It had snowed. I was an hour early. I went to church. None of the church's walkways were shoveled.

I went inside. They were practicing all new songs, and I didn't like it. But then I said, well, let me be a do-gooder and shovel the snow. I found a shovel and went outside. I did the back first, then the side, and then started on the front.

When I had one walk left, a middle-aged deacon came almost running and rushing out. He was putting salt on the walkways. He asked if he could have my shovel, and he finished the job quickly. He gave me the salt to do the front steps, but he did not look very happy.

I had heard him somehow. Maybe I had shown him up. I don't know, but something was not right. I did not feel good. I did the salting of the front entrance. Just then the visiting preacher came. Reverend Pastor Dugood was his name.

And yes, dear sisters and brothers, that's his real name, Pastor Dugood. I said hello, went downstairs where some coffee was being served. I thought I better speak to the deacon whom I had upset. As I spoke with him, he said, oh, you should not have been doing the job.

You just came through a major operation, and he also looked at me, and I'm not the youngest person. I somehow did not feel good. I turned around to see Pastor Dugood and went over to say hello. I want to speak with him.

He did not seem interested in me. After all, I was the man who had put salt on the front steps. Maybe I wasn't too important for him. I did not feel good. I went upstairs, and during the morning service, they had all new songs.

I complained inwardly. Why all new songs? The pastor gave a spirit-filled sermon. I left and went home. As I went home, the Holy Spirit started to speak to me with a still, small voice. From a humanistic viewpoint, nothing too bad had happened, right?

When I started to think about it, I wondered what God thought. Then the Holy Spirit asked me, did you think about all of the things that were lovely? For Philippians, it says, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue, and if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

Well, I didn't think of all the praiseworthy things. The deacon had helped me, but he wasn't too nice, I didn't think. Then the Spirit asked me, did you give thanks in everything? Give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Well, no, I didn't give thanks about anything. Yes, I had a church I could go to. I didn't have to worry about police or other secret police to keep me from going to church. I had a Bible, I had a stone, but I didn't thank God, no.

The Spirit asked me, did you judge people? Judge not that you be not judged. I had judged three people that morning, the deacon, the pastor, and the people selecting the music. The Spirit asked, did you love your sisters and brothers?

1 John 3, 14 says, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. I cried out, forgive me, Lord, forgive me, Lord, and now comes the most terrible part.

The pastor had asked, are you excited about being in church? The people in church, including myself, were pretty dead. Why should we be excited? Oh, what is the matter with me, Lord, I thought. What has happened to my Christianity?

If the pastor had said the Prime Minister of Canada will be present, I would have been excited. If he said the Queen of England with all her pomp would have come to our church and worship with us, I would have been excited.

Suppose the President of the United States would have come to worship in my church, I would have been excited. And beloved, you and I know someone far greater than them. We know the King of Glory. We know the King of Kings.

We know the Everlasting Father. We know the Prince of Peace. We know the Creator. And the Holy Spirit reminded me that He, the Son of God, had been at that service. I was part of the service, but I did not see Him.

I had allowed spirits of demons, spirits of pride, of division, judgmentalism, lovelessness, and thankfulness invade me. I was sitting there blind. I was sitting there blind. And the Lord said, you should have imagined my being present and heard this.

Did I not tell you where two or three are gathered in my name? There I will be too. And you should have heard me. You should have seen me being present. And then the Lord said, now listen to this music.

And listen. My dear brothers and sisters and brothers, I went much before the Lord and I prayed this prayer. Father, I come in the name of the Lord Jesus and His righteousness alone. Be merciful to me, O sinner Lord.

Forgive me, Lord. Please revive me, Lord, for I am a chief of sinners. Lord, if there's any mercy left, I plead before You. I'm wretched and blind. My lips honor You, but my heart is far from You. Lord, I have a stony heart and I need a heart of flesh.

Let me be broken on that cornerstone, which is Your Son, Jesus. Lord, wash me in the blood of the Lamb. Wash me that I might be white as snow. Lord, You are faithful and just, but I don't deserve it, Lord.

Cleanse me anew from all unrighteousness. Be merciful to me, O sinner. And dear sisters and brothers, I have joyous and wonderful news. After I prayed that prayer, the Lord forgave me. He washed me in the blood of the Lamb.

He washed me in the blood of His Son, Jesus. He cleansed me and He returned me to the joy of His salvation. Let us pray. Father, I thank You in Jesus' name for cleansing me anew, for forgiving my sins, and for starting to break my stony heart.

Break me, Lord, all the way that You might be able to shine through this unworthy man. For I ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.