A number of years ago, around 1990, the church I was then meeting with in Chicago gathered for prayer each week on Tuesday nights, which was very good. Most weeks the saints would get together in a few different neighborhoods, but once a month we would all come together for what we called our “corporate” prayer meeting, which was something a little more special.

There was a one particular corporate meeting, however, when neither of the two elders of the church was able to attend; for different reasons, I think, both happened to be out of town. But, rather than hinder the prayers of the saints, it seemed this caused all the saints to rise up and be much more exercised for the meeting. As a result, the prayer at the beginning of that meeting was flowing like a river as the saints prayed, one after another; it was so strong and anointed as we thanked and praised the Lord! I don’t remember if we also sang a hymn, but if we did, it had that same anointing.

Of course, Satan could not be happy about such a situation, but he had a very subtle way to deal with it: he sent in a man from off the street who had a good many problems in his life, and was possibly homeless. And when the time came for a brother to ask what we should pray for, this man spoke up and began to tell us about all his problems and the difficulties he faced, asking us to pray for him.

When he was done, one dear sister, who was naturally of a very sympathetic nature, responded by taking the lead to pray for him and his situation, and a few others followed her to pray for him as well. But after that, the special anointing was gone, and it became a more typical prayer meeting. As for that man, who knows what happened to him; we never saw him again.

For some reason I’ve been reminded of that meeting lately, and as I’ve considered it, I’ve realized that it was a microcosm of the way Satan so often uses to destroy the testimony of Christian groups. That is, they may begin with a vibrant testimony for the gospel of Christ, but after awhile they start to consider that they should use some of their strength to care for the poor and deal with various other problems in the world today. Before too long that becomes their entire focus, so that instead of the gospel of Christ, they now stand for nothing more than the social gospel; they may even lose their faith in Christ completely. Over and over again this pattern has been repeated in church history.

This is not at all to say that we should not care for the plight of the poor; we should (Gal. 2:10); but as we do, we must not be ignorant of Satan’s schemes (2 Cor. 2:11). I have often thought that it would have been so good if, in that meeting, a brother had stood up and said, “Friend, a few of us will get together with you after the meeting to consider your situation and pray for you; right now, let’s continue to pray for church, that the gospel would go forth and the Lord’s testimony would be raised up in Chicago!”; I for one am so sorry I didn’t do that.

According to the world, Christians can only be useful if they help it to solve its problems, so many of which are the direct result of man’s rebellion against God. We must be very firm to declare, That is not our commitment from the Lord; to the contrary, we are here to say to those living in the world,

Be saved from this crooked generation!
— Acts 2:38; cf. Philippians 2:14-16

If we do care for the poor, we must never lose sight of this fact, for only then can we truly stand with the Lord for His kingdom to be established upon the earth, so that He can return and put an end to this present evil age. And that is when all of the injustices and sufferings we see in this preset time will, finally, be dealt with fully and completely.

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—  30 July 2026 —