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Prayer is the foundation of spirituality.\u00a0 <\/span>If there ever was a time when true Christians need to pray it is now (2 Chronicles 7:14).\u00a0 <\/span>However, there is an aggressive attack on prayer today.\u00a0 <\/span>That insidious attack is the pagan practice of Contemplative Prayer.\u00a0 <\/span>It is a well-documented fact that it originated in paganism.\u00a0 <\/span>Just as it has adopted and adapted other paganism, the Roman Catholic Church has appropriated CP.\u00a0 <\/span>Contemplative Prayer\u2019s link to paganism is not denied by the RCC.\u00a0 <\/span>In spite of this knowledge, many Christian leaders are prompting it with the result of multitudes being lured into a powerful deception with eternal consequences. \u00a0<\/span>How so many Christian leaders do not realize that CP is a diabolical practice is perplexing.\u00a0 <\/span>The arch nemesis of prayer is of course Satan.\u00a0 <\/span>Thus, individuals that promote and engage in CP are unwittingly or wittingly doing the work of Satan.<\/p>\n There is a good reason that CP evolved as the means for pagans to \u201ccommunicate\u201d with their god or gods.\u00a0 <\/span>That reason is because their gods could not communicate with them.\u00a0 <\/span>When they crafted their gods and sat them up for worship, there was of course never a response.\u00a0 <\/span>As a result, they had no personal relationship with their gods and vice versa. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Despite that fact, Israel repeatedly succumbed to the lure of paganism.\u00a0 <\/span>God sent the prophet Elijah to confront the nation during one of their apostasies.\u00a0 <\/span>That confrontation took place on top of Mt. Carmel.\u00a0 <\/span>Regardless of all the chanting, cutting themselves, and other bizarre actions, the prophets of Baal got no response.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it,<\/i> and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, \u201cO Baal, hear us!\u201d But there was<\/i> no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.\u00a0 <\/span>And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, \u201cCry aloud, for he is<\/i> a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or<\/i> perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.\u201d So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time<\/i> of the offering of the evening<\/i> sacrifice. But there was<\/i> no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.\u00a0 <\/span>(1Kings 18:26-29 NKJV)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Satan desires communication though voiceless false gods and idols, but he doesn\u2019t want his subjects to think.\u00a0 <\/span>If they use cognition they may discover that he is indeed their adversary and the enemy of God and all righteousness.\u00a0 <\/span>At some point in history, he beguiled them to develop CP and other diabolical practices as a means of communication with their inanimate gods.\u00a0 <\/span>There is no cognition in CP because it is neither contemplative nor prayer.\u00a0 <\/span>It is in fact an altered state of consciousness that is not unlike what one might witness today in any African tribe that practices voodoo or witchcraft.\u00a0 <\/span>CP makes their gods and idols appear to be alive.\u00a0 <\/span>The reason is because CP subjects the soul to possession by demons.\u00a0 <\/span>Individuals possessed by demons are susceptible to every means of deception including hallucinations.\u00a0 <\/span>Transcendental Meditation and other popular trance initiating practices are also altered states of consciousness.\u00a0 <\/span>Like CP they too are quick routes to demon possession.\u00a0 <\/span>Individuals that attempt to communicate with a god or idol by means of altered states of consciousness gods will encounter demon spirits.<\/p>\n True to their pagan roots, modern proponents of CP teach as their basic premise the avoidance of words.\u00a0 <\/span>Although they may at times use words to pray, they do not and cannot communicate personally with their gods (demons) except by CP.\u00a0 <\/span>Professing Christians that have fallen for the heresy declare that traditional Christianity has failed because of too many words when communicating with God.\u00a0 <\/span>That is either ignorance or willful denial of God\u2019s word.\u00a0 <\/span>Search the Scriptures and one will discover a plethora of verses where individuals verbally communicated with God.\u00a0 <\/span>There is not a single implication that one should engage in what is called Contemplative Prayer.<\/p>\n \u201cYet you do not<\/span> have because you do not<\/span> ask<\/span>.\u201d (James 4:1-3 NKJV)\u00a0<\/span> Further, there is not the slightest indication that Christ Jesus practiced CP.\u00a0 <\/span>On the other hand, there is much evidence that He prayed verbally.\u00a0 <\/span>Nearly every miracle that He performed was preceded by a verbal prayer.\u00a0 <\/span>When answering His disciples request that He teach them to pray, He taught them to pray verbally.\u00a0 <\/span>None of the writers of the New Testament taught or practiced CP.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span> It is clearly evident that God throughout history communicated with His people with words.\u00a0 <\/span>F<\/span>rom the first man, Adam, to this very day, God desires (and honors) His people to communicate with Him verbally.\u00a0 <\/span>He divinely breathed words into holy men who wrote the Bible.\u00a0 <\/span>It is also obvious that God wants conscious followers; followers that use the mental faculties that He gave them to know and do His will.\u00a0 <\/span>They can \u201chear\u201d God and respond to Him today by means of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and prayer. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Because they could not communicate with their gods directly, pagans came to the belief that the various events in life, both good and bad, were the means by which their gods showed their pleasure or displeasure.\u00a0 <\/span>Conversely, true Christians have the assurance that God loves them.\u00a0 <\/span>No idol ever sent its only son to die for mankind.\u00a0 <\/span>Idols cannot indwell mankind or deposit in us unspeakable joy and love.\u00a0 <\/span>They have no Comforter to offer us when harsh times arrive.\u00a0 <\/span>Idols cannot bless us, are not able to deliver us from our enemies, and cannot give us hope and peace that passes all understanding.\u00a0 <\/span>They cannot prepare a place for us in eternity where there will be no more sin, sorrow, sickness or death.\u00a0 <\/span>Therefore, when it comes to communicating with God who can and does provide all these things, I choose to use the method and means that He desires and provides, which is prayer.\u00a0 <\/span>Just as one cannot give a speech without thinking or speaking, prayer without thought or words is worthless.\u00a0 <\/span>Except for those rare times when the Holy Spirit prays for me, I intend to avail myself of the privilege to verbally communicate with God.\u00a0 <\/span>He is God Almighty, and not a man-created idol.\u00a0 <\/span>He must be worshipped and honored as God with true worship and true prayer.<\/p>\n But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true<\/span> worshipers<\/span> will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. (John 4:23 NKJV)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prayer is the foundation of spirituality.\u00a0 If there ever was a time when true Christians need to pray it is now (2 Chronicles 7:14).\u00a0 However, there is an aggressive attack on prayer today.\u00a0 That insidious attack is the pagan practice of Contemplative Prayer.\u00a0 It is a well-documented fact that it originated in paganism.\u00a0 Just as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-3y","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions\/222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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