What Christians like Tammy choose to ignore or fail to understand is that answering prayers is INTERVENTION. If God is not intervening to prevent evil and suffering, neither can he intervene in the form of answering any prayers whatsoever.
Says who?
And by whose reasoning?
Tammy does not ignore or fail to understand that answering prayers is intervention. Of course it is intervention. God DOES intervene. If God did NOT intervene... then He would not have sent Christ. Or prophets. Or the law. Or gifts of the Spirit. He would not have made covenants with anyone. He would not have rescued the Israelites from Egypt, or sent them manna and quail in the desert.
Obviously God intervenes.
Your problem is not that God intervenes... it is that God does not intervene in the way that you think He should. With everyone and upon every request... even if there is no faith in Him (revealed by and through Christ).
But where does that idea come from? Not from God. Not from Christ. Not even from the bible.
God gave life. Provided a way for anyone and everyone to come home to Him, depsite the choice that Adam made for his offspring (from whom we inherited this flesh with sin and death in it). God gave the planet, the animals on that planet to man, to rule and govern (though man has given that 'rule' to another who continues to transform into an angel of light, but that light is false). He gave these things from love, and He has spoken to all, through love, and by sending prophets, etc, to teach and guide and warn people away from wrongdoing that will harm them as well as others. Man chooses, himself, whether or not to listen to God and/or to love. If man does not listen to the warnings or directions that God gives (as Cain did not listen to God), then the harm or blood that follows is on his own head.
Beyond the above, however, God is not obligated to do the same things for everyone that He has promised to do for those who belog to Him (by means of a covenant or through the blood of Chirst, those who become His children, and are adopted as Sons) He made promises (such as to Abraham), and covenants (such as with Israel... though Israel continuously reneged on their end of that contract... but the promise to Abraham STILL stands), and now through the promise and covenant that has been created through Christ, who gave his life FOR us so that we could have life, in Him.
"This is the new covenant in my blood."
If one is not in that new covenant... if one is not even seeking to be part of it... if one rejects that covenant... then one should not expect the author of that covenant to do anything they ask. God did not answer the prayers of those who called for their offering to be burned in a challenge with Elijah. But He did answer Elijah... who called to Him, the Most Holy One of Israel.
Christ also said,
"Whatever you ask for in MY NAME, it will be given to you."
Now people want to believe that somehow this means anyone can ask in any name, even their own, simply sending their prayers and requests heavenward... that God will hear them and is obligated to answer them. But that is not what God has said; and believing what we want, as opposed to believing what is true (from the Truth who is Christ) does not seem to be getting people any actual answers.
Nor does it mean that one can ask in the name of some image that man has set up as a golden calf... calling that calf 'jesus' and his father 'jehovah' (as just one example). A golden calf not merely because of the pronunciation of the name... but because of the lies set up around the name. (Jehovah is going to kill all but the wts; Christ wants you to kill and being wars in his name, etc, etc) The wts does not even allow its members to enter INTO that covenant with Christ. Teaches them instead to REFUSE that covenant, and the members of the wts LISTEN... not to Christ... but to their leaders instead. Same with other religions, even though they say that they are from God, and that they follow Christ. They do not. Their adherents follow them... and worship the god that they teach them (like a god who has created a burnign fiery pit of hell where all who are not 'christian' will be tortured for eternity). That 'god' does not exist, and so those who pray to that 'god' receive the only answer a god that does not exist can give. Silence.
That is not to say that those who belong to Christ are not scattered throughout the world, including within various religions/denominations, having been misled by the false light (or born into it, so that their parents gave them into the care of the false light, themselves decieved as well). Otherwise He would not be calling to THEM, "Come out of her, MY PEOPLE!"
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As to suffering... those who know Him and belong to Him... know also that in this world, they will have suffering. Sin and death are part of these vessels. And this is world is under the control of the evil one. Not because God gave the adversary that control. But because man gives him that control.
I mean, Christ Himself suffered. Illness, disease, (these that he took into himself from others who he healed) torture, persecution... he had no home, no bed, no material wealth for himself, certainly no golden robes and big hats or multi-million dollar buildings in New York and various properties throughout the world. His followers, those who belong to Him, suffered. KNEW that they would suffer in this world, as it is part of this world. From the sin and death that are in these vessels (given to us from Adam... the same way that our children inherit these physical bodies, so too did Adam's inherit his physical body; it is the same) But also from the suffering that man inflicts upon his fellow man. (like the starving child of the mother in Africa) Because they are not listening to God. Because they LACK love.
Those who belong to Chrsit and to God know also that God also has a kingdom that He created from the very beginning, that He has given to Christ who shares it with those who belong to Him through His Son (and are so adopted as sons by God), as well as inviting into that Kingdom all those who do good to even the least of Christ's brothers. And God protects all of these in HIS Kingdom (though ironically, some will still take issue that He protects them against those outside the kingdom who will come against them, to try and destroy them and take the kingdom for themselves... while in the same breath blaming God for not doing something about those who harm people here and now). To enter that Kingdom we are given NEW bodies... the white robes - spiritual bodies - made clean in Christ and having no sin and death in them.
And that call and invitation is open to anyone who is thirsting and seeking.
May any who wish and any who thirst hear and come, as the Spirit and the Bride say to them,
"Come! Take the free gift of the water of life."
Peace and love to you,
tammy
