Who Does God Listen To?

In October of last year, a horrible attack took place at the California home of then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi was not home at the time, but her 82 year old husband, Paul, was. Paul became the victim of a vicious attack by a seemingly mentally ill person who took a hammer to the elder Pelosi’s head. Fortunately, as of this writing, he is mostly recovered now, and the attacker is in jail.

The New York Times has now reported that following the attack, Nancy Pelosi summoned a Roman Catholic priest to exorcize evil from her home. Seemingly, she believed that there was a demonic infestation lingering in the house that needed to be cast out.

Beyond the act itself of calling in an exorcist, there is quite an interesting dynamic at play here. The priest of her own church indicated that no exorcism had taken place at Pelosi’s home. Beyond that, last year, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone barred Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion until she publicly repudiated her advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion. Of course, she has never given up her position on abortion, and most likely never will. In spite of the fact that she claims to be a devout Catholic, she boldly repudiates the Church’s teaching on abortion. (She also supports anti-biblical teachings about homosexuality, marriage, gender, transgender procedures for children, and numerous others).

The truth is, in spite of the fact that her local priest and archbishop would not help her with the exorcism, there are plenty of Catholic priests who agree with her and are willing to accommodate her wishes in spite of the official stand of the Church. Seemingly, she brought in one of these outside priests to take care of this matter for her.

Now certainly, a discussion about the nature of evil and demons could be quite interesting, or perhaps even the Catholic doctrine of exorcism. But there is an even more important matter that we are dealing with here – the matter of who God will listen to.

Now certainly God will listen to anyone about certain things. In fact, Christ willingly went to the cross for the very purpose of providing a way for human beings (any and every one) to enter into a personal relationship with Him. And He did it “while we were yet sinners.” So God is not averse to hanging out with sinners.

However, an important distinction needs to be made. While God welcomes sinners into His presence, that welcoming comes with a condition. The condition is that we have to be willing to give up our sin. Jesus Himself gave this command. When a woman who was caught in adultery was brought before Him and He saved her life, He told her to “go and sin no more.” Another time, after Jesus healed a lame man at the pool of Bethesda, He told the man to “sin no more.” So, while God does welcome sinners to come into His presence, He will not fellowship with sin. We must be willing to put aside our sin if we want to have the benefit of His presence in our lives.

Now I would never be one to make a pronouncement about who God is fellowshipping with and who He is not. However, it is perfectly legitimate for believers to be fruit inspectors. When God has clearly revealed a moral imperative in Scripture, and we see someone blatantly and deliberately disregarding God’s clear revelation, it is probably a pretty clear indication that the person is not meeting the requirement that God has set forth for fellowship with Himself.

It is pretty clear that God:

• has prohibited the murdering of innocent life,
• has not approved of sexual immorality (in any form),
• has established marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and,
• has only created two genders.

Yes, God welcomes all who will come to Him on His terms. Those, however, who shake their fist in His face, do not put themselves in a position to live in His presence.

In spite of the fact that Ms. Pelosi believes in evil spirits and contacted a Catholic priest to come to her house to do an exorcism ceremony, there was nothing for God to do in the house itself. The evil was not in the house, but in the one who lived in the house. If she wants God to clean her house, she must begin by allowing Him to cleanse her. She must be willing to put aside her evil beliefs and to “go and sin no more.”

One more thing. You need to understand that I am not, here, trying to pick on Ms. Pelosi. She is merely an example of a principle. There are a LOT of people who claim to be Christians, but who live their lives based on beliefs that are contrary to what is taught in the Bible. God does not give a pass to any of them.

Freddy Davis is the president of MarketFaith Ministries. He is the author of numerous books entitled The Truth Mirage, Rules for Christians Radicals, Liberalism vs. Conservatism, and his latest book Shattering the Truth Mirage and has a background as an international missionary, pastor, radio host, worldview trainer, and entrepreneur. Freddy is a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Communication, and holds MDiv and DMin degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a popular speaker, particularly on the topic of worldview and its practical implications for the Christian life. He lives in Tallahassee, FL, with his wife Deborah.

You may also contact Freddy at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule him for speaking or leadership engagements.

To set up an appointment to speak to a Literary Agent:
Email: Alfredo Baguio
Call: (702) 605-4354