Statement by Pastor Jack Hayford
on the events of September 11, 2001

Even before we get to the issue of leaving vengeance in the hands of the Lord, I think the starting place for me is in Psalm 76:10 where the Bible says, Surely the wrath of man shall praise You.

It’s a verse seldom turned to, but the essence of it is that in the midst of the most vicious things accomplished by humankind, there is a place into which God will intervene and ultimately, His praise shall come out of it. Not as though He choreographed that event in order to evoke praise to Himself, but that His redemptive dynamic and capacity as sovereign God to step in makes it possible for the worst expressions of human wrath to become an instrument for an unusual visitation of divine mercy and grace.

That verse is a starting place. With that, there are people who honor the Lord Almighty, the sovereign God of history, who wrestle with questions like these from people who don’t know Him and the greatness of His heart: "Where was God?" and "Why didn’t He stop this?" or "Why does God permit things like this to happen?"

It’s a challenge for us who know the Lord to lay the gauntlet down on the table and, without seeming less than mercifully patient with their anguish, make clear to people that God is neither the active cause of these events, nor did He passively stand aside to let them happen.

The awesome privilege of human choice carries with it our vulnerability to be victimized by the exercise of that choice. I believe that to suggest that God, somehow in His sovereignty, causes those things misleads many people to misunderstand the essence of His nature.

Instead of seeing God as causatively active or passively tolerant or permissive in these moments, we must see that amidst that wrath, God will move in redemptively. He is never causative or passive in these issues; He is redemptive. But it is up to God’s people to move in under the touch of His Spirit to minister that redemptive grace, mercy and tenderness. Above all, God’s people must take their place in effective intercession to invoke the pervasive worth of redemptive grace and power at junctures like this.

What should we be praying for? I see a combination of things being the central focus of prayer. Knowing that "we have not because we ask not" (James 4:2), this is the time to ask for the things so desperately needed. I see our needs as the following:

First, Lord, unify our hearts with a fresh degree of humility. Not only in the face of the manifest horror to human hearts, but for the potential hope that is available within human reach. Let our hearts be humbled that there is a God that has revealed Himself as, in the words of the Old Testament, "a balm in Gilead." The national psyche needs a balm upon it.

Our need to pray for our nation is still reeling in shock, but at personal dimensions. God, bring comfort. Recognize that as we lead our people and together, join in prayer, we are not merely praying in order to offload emotion and hope we feel better just because we prayed. We’ve moving into the place of prayer, believing that it becomes decisive, and there will be an invasion of divine grace affected in a flow, a river of grace across the land as we pray.

All of us feel pain today, and for many believers prayer becomes an escape. This is not an escape. This is an entrance to the throne of the almighty God saying, "Let Your kingdom come, Your will be done in this moment." His will is to flood the situation first, with great grace. In appealing for that grace–the river of the Holy Spirit’s comfort, healing, and encounter with people in their grief–we move to the place of prayer.

How desperately does our President and all those surrounding him need a divine anointing of wisdom right now? The President’s needs transcend anything that human resources can provide, even with the best counsel. We need the visitation of God’s touch upon those who lead. And that comes right down to local leadership at every point across our nation. There’s going to be a fresh look taken at all aspects of how we manage ourselves, just in terms of practical security. I think we need to pray along that line.

One other thing I think we should ask God to do is to unmask evil and cause it to become clear in its disclosure. We need to pray for there to come a dual umasking of the spirit of madness that is in the world right now. First, in the exposure of the terrorists themselves, and the organizations or national interests behind them.

Secondly, at the United Nations Conference on Racism that just concluded in South Africa last week there was such an inequitable approach to the whole issue of human hatred as manifest in racism, and the mis-defining of the issue itself and the way it is played out in the terrorist activity taking place in Israel. I think there’s come a blindness on the global point of view as to the nature and degree of injustice that goes on in the human mind, that gives permission to the absolute craziness of this kind of thing. I believe if there could come an unmasking of this insanity–more than just the exposure of its injustice, the exposure of the sinister destructiveness behind it–that could at least ameliorate some of the casual attitudes internationally to tolerate human hatred in its unfairness, its viciousness, and its self-justification.

We are The Church On The Way, under the leadership of Senior Pastor Scott Bauer, are praying for unity and solidarity of the nation, for comfort and grace to flow to people in pain, and for the manifestation of evil to be exposed and neutralized. Those are points of prayer.

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