'When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.' Words of Jesus Christ in the gospel of Matthew Chapter 6 verses 5-8.

Jesus told us that deception would be a hallmark of the last times. ‘Take heed that no one deceives you…for many will come IN MY NAME…’ (Matthew 24:4) How does the Global Day of Prayer, scheduled for June 4, fit in with this? Where is it in the Bible? Nowhere, it’s not there. We're supposed to pray in private.

When does the Lord ever tell us to plan mega prayer events world wide? Never; He never told us to do this. It sounds pious and good, but it is not what He said to do. Whatever can be wrong with a world wide day of prayer? The discernment ministries are warning that there is an agenda behind it which is not obvious to gullible Christians who will fill stadiums all over the world for this event.

The ‘vision’ behind it is to transform the world. But Jesus said His followers would be hated and persecuted, but to be of good cheer, because He has overcome the world. We are not going to transform the world. The Bible makes it very clear that things will get worse and worse to the point where there is a great falling away from the faith (sounds kind of like now, doesn't it?) It will get so bad that it seems like there is hardly any faith at all left on the earth - and that is the time Jesus will come back. I don't see any 'transformation' there.

Part of the 'vision' is to literally change the way countries are governed. That rings alarm bells in my mind. Most of the people engaging in the prayers will be from churches which do not study Bible prophecy. Most churches just do not teach anything about it. If they did, they would know that there is indeed a transformation coming, and the way countries are governed will indeed be changed.

The Bible makes it clear in the Book of Daniel and in Revelation that there is a one world government coming, and a one world religion, and a one world leader (the Antichrist) who will perform lying signs and wonders. He will trick people into believing that he is Jesus Christ returned to earth, but he will be a false Christ. Another aim of the globalists is to ‘make poverty history’ which also sounds good, but Jesus said: ‘The poor you have always with you.’ We will never make poverty history.

This rings more alarm bells with me. Who was it who declared: ‘From each according to his means, to each according to his need’? Our old enemy Karl Marx, father of Communist thinking. Doesn’t that sound like: ‘Let’s make poverty history’? The weasel words of Communists really meant – ‘Whatever you’ve got, if it’s a million dollars, or a pig in the back yard, we’ll take it off you.’ It made the poor poorer and also removed the rich , who weren’t around to provide jobs anymore. Poverty will never be history until the Lord returns and sets up His kingdom of righteousness.

The Global Day of Prayer is also ecumenical. But Jesus said, ‘How can two walk (or pray!) together except they be agreed?’ How can I pray with someone who believes Jesus inhabits a wafer? Who or what would we be praying to? All we can do is what the Lord told us to do – repent of our sins, believe in Him, study His Word, the Bible, be His witnesses on the earth and try to be like Him – laying our lives down every day trying to do what He would have us do in every situation.

To the globalists, that is not nearly as exciting as meeting together in big stadiums expecting something dramatic to happen. Sarah Leslie has written an incisive examination of the global prayer movement and you will find it on http://www.discernment-ministries.org In the two part article she explains some of the buzzwords of the Latter Rain Movement, whose teachings she believes are behind the global agenda. Also have a look at Cecil Andrews' Take Heed ministry website at www.takeheed.net These global movements are very subtle.

For myself, the very word ‘global’ gives the game away. We don’t have to do the global stuff. Jesus will do it all when he returns. Meanwhile, just do what He gives you to do each day, whether it is in your family or on the mission field. P.S. The above is NOT to say that we should never pray in public. Prayer is an important part of church meetings. Prayer is the engine without which nothing much happens in church life. The point of this article is that the global agenda is sticking out all over the place when it comes to mega meetings where doctrine is not even a consideration. by Pat Franklin