Category: education

Testing becoming obsolete

Think Doing Away With ACT and SAT Is A Good Thing? Think Again

September 2, 2020

Over the last four months, ivy league universities like Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Duke, and Brown announced their decision to do away with any usage of the ACT and SAT exams, not just for the upcoming school year, but permanently. As if on cue, other institutions of higher learning, quickly followed their lead.

Why are colleges suddenly averse to entrance exams? According to a press release by Harvard University, they are looking to find a more well-rounded applicant who is not a part of the upper-middle-class. Somehow, the elimination of testing will allow universities to increase diversity without any loss of academic quality. All of a sudden, college entry exams exist as the ultimate act of discrimination against people of color. Entry tests, required by our educational system, are a blatant example of the systemic racial disparities embedded in American society and were put in place by white supremacists to assure people of color remained lower class and poor for generations. Some decry the exams as unfair to students who score lower, or average as compared to the scores of their more advantaged peers. Almost every reason one can imagine to promote racial prejudice in education is given as a reason to discontinue the SAT and ACT as college entrance exams.

Newly devised entrance applications will consist of some combination of the following: essays, video presentations, lists of extracurricular activities, and organizations to which the student belongs. All of the listed items will quickly identify a student’s political ideas, race, and susceptibility of falling in line with the university’s predominant radical ideas, promoted by the majority of the school’s professors.

The original intent of the SAT and ACT, instituted during the 1940s, was to assure every college applicant an equal chance of admittance, regardless of color. Nicholas Lemann, in his book The Big Test: The Secret History of The American Meritocracy (pg 52) writes about James Conant, as the President of Harvard and the major player in not only getting Harvard to start requiring entrance exams but others institutions of higher learning as well. Conant wanted a governing elite selected on the basis of merit, not parentage – and the most deep-seated wish in American culture, an opportunity for everyone.

The real issue behind discarding entrance exams lies deeper than the academic community cares to admit. Colleges and universities need systemic change by promoting academic discourse instead of political radicalism. Also alarming is the high cost of university tuition. Universities could lower their tuition to allow more students to attend their institutions without accruing excessive student loan debt. But instead of much needed positive changes, the educationally elite have thrown in their woke version of change by the elimination of entrance exams. This semblance of change allows universities like Harvard, to continue their anti-God, anti-American, and anti-family indoctrination of our youth, with no interruption of their budget because of the continuing flow of government grants and student loans.

Universities and Colleges have two reasons to eliminate entrance exams:
First: As colleges and universities face declining enrollment, they look for a new pool of potential high school graduates who will fill their student quotas.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, twenty percent fewer students intend to enroll in four-year schools in the fall of 2020. There has been a steady decline in college enrollment as students and parents are no longer consider a degree necessary to jumpstart a career. Since 2016, four-million high school graduates who might have enrolled in a college in the past, have opted not to pursue higher education. President Trump’s June 26, 2020, executive order didn’t help. The federal government, as the nation’s largest employer of 2.1 million civilian workers, can now hire non-degreed applicants equally as those with degrees in hiring new employees.
Second: Higher Education needs a continual influx of young minds, easily influenced who will fit into the new socialist America.

Radical professors are in the majority in college classrooms, and they intend to remain that way. According to John M. Ellis in his new book The Breakdown of Higher Education: How It Happened, The Damage It Does, And What Can Be Done About It (pg.27), states, It is rare to find a college or university in America where departments are not predominately radical or, at a minimum, leftist. The virtual extinction of conservative voices occurred about 1999 when it became clear that radicals were not hiring others like themselves, but rather they were hellbent on hiring fellow radicals. Socialists employed in academia, do not hire conservatives, they hire those as radical as themselves, if not more so.

To maintain their new student quota, colleges now turn their attention to a different kind of student than they once courted. Their perfect student will be a student of color, whose family is not part of the upper-middle class. And he will be the first generation in the family to go to college. The parents’ yearly income is less than $125,000. Parents will most likely not able to pay for the child’s college tuition, requiring the student to use student loans to reach his dream of a college education. Much of the massive expansion of colleges and universities have been at the expense of the students who incur student loan debt to pay the high price of college tuition. Student loan debt in America surpassed credit card debt in 2012 and continues to rise with student loan debt currently at $1.6 trillion. Colleges bear no responsibility for student loan debt. The burden falls on the backs of the individual student for years after graduation.
To continue the radical agenda, we witness in colleges today, universities desire their applicants to come from the public schools of America. To continue teaching radical ideas, radical college professors need new minds, who already have a predisposition toward socialism and anti-American thought instilled in them during their years in our public high schools.
For the last sixty years, America’s colleges and Universities took in the cream of the crop of our youth. Over a four-year timeframe, professors enlightened the new students with anti-American, anti-God, and anti-family rhetoric. Many graduates remain forever changed – lost to their families, the church, and to the country that gave them hope for a future. The more extreme returnees embrace socialism and Marxism, and actively seek to overthrow the government of America. As believers, we say, “No more!”

Pray: We disrupt the plans of the enemy who has come to steal our children. They do not know the thoughts of the Lord, and that He intends victory for His people. Let God’s people rise up like a mighty army and throw off the bondage of debt and deception that American Colleges and Universities have placed on our children.

Original Intent for American Education

August 18, 2019

The majority of Americans who refer to education in this nation, think only of public schools as we know them today, but that’s not how education started in America, and a quick look at history reveals two educational systems. The first educational system was the original intent of our founding fathers. Known as the Father of Public Education, Horace Mann is responsible for implementing the second public school system, the major system we have in the United States today. This is the system that is predominant in our country today.

From the standpoint of the founding fathers, the original intent was for schools to be founded and funded by local communities. The first laws on education were passed in the 1640s in the Massachusetts Bay Colony where the Pilgrims lived. The laws required that parents saw to it that their children knew how to read the Bible and to be able to understand the laws of the land. It was clear that parents were to be the ones who oversaw the education of their children.

The primary system consists of the secular public schools we have today funded by taxpayer money and steeped in socialism and social issues. The original system is what our forefathers intended at the inception of this nation. To pray effectively for America’s education, we must look at the history behind how we got to our present the failed state of education and pray for the restoration of the original system.

We have an early glimpse as to the value early colonists placed on education by the laws the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed in 1643-1643. These laws required parents to educate their children and other children , The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed of the first laws regarding education. In 1643, they passed a law that required parents to teach any child under their care to read and to work with numbers. If parents failed to educate their children, the government could remove them and place them in a home where they could receive a good education.

Most schools Early settlers used a Bible-based education, held high moral standards for the students, and stressed hard work and academics.

The Bible Although Massachusetts stressed education, the same was not necessarily true for the other colonies. Schools, if they existed at all, were organized by town councils, local churches, urban charitable societies, or put together with a rotation of the town’s citizens as teachers. More often than not, the Bible was the only textbook available in a classroom. Mandatory attendance was not required, which resulted in a high rate of absenteeism. The demands of children to sustain the family’s subsistence by helping with household chores, working in the fields, and assisting with a family business often took precedence over schooling.

The original system intended by our forefathers barely holds a glimmer of hope but can be revived.

Conclusion for Original Intent for Education of Children in the Colonies: The original intent of education from the standpoint of the Founding Fathers was for children to be taught the Bible in such a way that their lives were to be lived by God-given principles, knowing God as their creator, and ultimately knowing Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Westward Expansion Spreads Secular Education (1812-1860)
From 1812-1860, education took a drastic turn in America away from its original intent. The diversion occurred as a result of two people: Horace Mann and Catharine Beecher.

Horace Mann served in the Massachusetts Legislature from 1827-1837, at which time he resigned to take the position of the newly created Massachusetts office of Secretary of Education. Horace Mann was raised in a Christian family but rejected Christianity and became a secular humanist and attended a Unitarian church. While running for office in the state legislature, Mann made a campaign promise to the Unitarians that he would start secular public schools funded by taxpayer money, which he did during his time as Secretary of Education. He is known as the Father of Public Education. Mann hated Calvinism with a passion and fought the churches who opposed his new school proposal. The Calvinists of the day feared the long-range effects of secular education and stated, “We do not need this central, all-absorbing power; it is anti-republican in all its bearings, well-adapted perhaps, to Prussia, and other European despotism, but not wanted here.” (The Christian Witness 1844)

Opposition to public schools was so prevalent that Horace Mann and his supporters secretly organized the placement of people in communities for the sole purpose to lobby in such a way to sway public opinion toward government schools.

Catharine Beecher’s father, Lyman Beecher, pastored a Presbyterian church in Ohio. As a pastor, he opposed the spread of Unitarianism, preached predestination, preached a conversion experience, advocated for the gradual elimination of slavery, and fought against the forming of secular public schools. All of her life, his daughter, Catharine expressed great opposition to the idea of conversion and a personal relationship with God. She instead embraced logic and reasoning as redemptive qualities. She refused to convert and embraced the belief that public works could serve society as well as a private faith.

In 1803, America under President Thomas Jefferson completed the Louisiana Purchase, which gave America 828,000 square miles of land for expansion. The humanistic concept of Manifest Destiny fed into the ideas of the two secular educators, Horace Mann, and Catharine Beecher, who seized the opportunity to secularize the settlers and their children in the newly acquired territory. They Europeanized the heathen and uncouth inhabitants of the new land, thereby creating a new secular society, devoid of Christianity in the new territory.

Horace Mann and Catharine Beecher joined forces to promote a new teaching profession for women. Beecher and Mann saw women as the best way to expand their new religion of secularism throughout the country and particularly felt that teaching was a great profession for unmarried women. They coined the term “missionary teachers” to entice women whose mission would be to educate “ignorant and neglected children” of the frontier. The ideal school fashioned after Prussian schools that Mann admired, were based on the teaching of humanistic philosophy.

Mann particularly liked to hire women teachers because women willingly suffered the hardships of frontier life and worked at a small fraction of the cost of a male teacher. He often bragged at how much money he saved by hiring women. As people moved west, frontier schools sprang up like wildfire through the new territory.

Conclusion for the Original Intent of Public Schools Funded with Taxpayer Money: With the formation of public schools, education was taken from the church and local communities and put under the direction of the government. Those who attended church held to a high standard of morals that Mann and Beecher wanted to be taught, without any teaching on religion and certainly not a salvation experience.

If any two people can claim credit for changing American social, academic, and ultimately political direction from libertarian to one governed by the state, the credit must go to Horace Mann and Catharine Beecher. They redefined public education as America’s new, more gentle church and female teachers as the ministers of American morality.
They were able to overcome the Church’s objections and teach a secular, watered down religion that attempted to retain moral content without referring to Jesus or conversion. They were on a passionate mission, well-financed with taxpayer money, and had the social backing of the Harvard Unitarian elite.

Note: On April 26, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to begin the process of returning school control to state and local officials. If carried through, President Trump’s order is a major step in returning schools to the original intent of our founding fathers.

Prayer for the Mountain of Education During the Month of Av

September 13, 2018

Linked to the Tribe of Simeon, the month of Av (July 13- August 11, 2018) is associated with the time the twelve spies explored the promise land. Ten spies brought back a discouraging “evil” report, “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is the fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there….” Two spies, Caleb and Joshua, brought back a good report, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

Av is the month:
• to believe the good report.
• for the divine will of the Father to be executed!
• to advance through partnerships.
• for a new level of discernment

Mountain of Education decrees for the month of Av:
• Although there are giants in the land we say with Joshua and Caleb, “Our God is mighty and although there are giants who have strongholds in the land by our God we are well able to overcome!” We decree that we are well able to bring education under the jurisdiction of the God and creator of the Universe!

• We decree that this month of Av is the time to turn the tide of unbelief – we no longer look at the Mountain of Education as unmoveable. This mountain will be transformed by the power of God!

• We decree that strongholds of humanism are broken over Americas Schools.

• We decree that Mountain Moving Faith will rise in believers across America to change education.

• We decree that as we start a new school year, this is the year for the divine will of the Father to be executed in the cultural Mountain of Education!

• We decree that divine partnerships are established this month that will advance Godly education and expose ungodly, corrupt, practices in American education.

• We decree that the Godly decision makers will rise to a new level of discernment that will penetrate and destroy the culture of death in our schools.

Prayer for Tulsa Public Schools

August 29, 2018

Prayer for Tulsa Public Schools

August 16, 2018, TCI sponsored a call to prayer for Tulsa Public Schools. Thirty-six people from almost every spectrum of Tulsa’s education came. The keynote “pray-er” was Dr. Madeline Manning Mims, an Olympic Gold Metal winner. I very grateful to Chloe Allen and Sherrill Cressman. Chloe is an outstanding woman of God who brought Spirit led and Spirit directed people of prayer to the event!! Sherrill is a TCI board member, former teacher, and a great friend.

Special Guest Speaker
Dr. Madeline Manning Mims
Dr. Mims is an Olympic Gold Metal winner and a motivational speaker for the youth of our nation.

School Board Members came to pray.

Principals prayed.

Students Prayed

School supplies for teachers give-away.

Don’t Back Down – Your Prayers Change History

August 28, 2018
Standing for LIFE in front of the Supreme Court

Lately, I’ve been reminded of the first time I took fifteen intercessors to Washington, DC to pray. Early in the planning process I contacted Sandy Grady, who had worked for years as a key intercessor for David Barton of Wall Builders. As I shared with Sandy my desire to pray at educational sites in DC, she said, “Nancy, everyone who comes to DC goes to the same places. They go to the White House, the Capitol building, the Washington Monument, and other famous landmarks. But I’ve never known a group to go to the National Department of Education. Please go there and pray. Our schools need our prayers and intercessors don’t think to include education in their prayer trips to DC. What you want to do will be hard, but don’t back down.”

That was in 2001 and Sandy’s words never left me. That first time to pray at the Department of Education was every bit as difficult as she’d prophesied it would be. Over and over, I heard her words ring in my spirit, “Don’t back down. Don’t back down. Don’t back down.”

In order to go inside the Department of Education building one must have an invitation from someone employed there. Somewhere I’d been given the name of a man from Oklahoma—Jim—who worked in the Department of Education, so I called him a couple of weeks before my group was to be in DC. We had a nice chat. He agreed to host our group, give us a tour of the building, and allow us to have a brief moment in the building’s small auditorium to pray. I hung up thinking everything was all set.

I called Jim early on the day of our visit. He didn’t answer of return my calls. With our appointment “iffy.” I gave those in the group an option to stay behind if they wanted to not take a chance on whether or not the appointment would actually happen. Eight people decided to stay behind. To be honest, I was the most frightened of any one in the group, but I felt the need to go as Sandy’s words repeated over and over in my mind. “Don’t back down. Don’t back down.”

We entered the National Department of Education building, went through security, and asked to speak to Jim. Instead of Jim, two burley security guards came to greet us. They demanded to know why we were there and what our relationship was with Jim. I told them we had come to pray for America’s educational system and gave them the name of the man from Oklahoma. One man left and a few minutes later came back and told us that Jim was busy and couldn’t meet with us.

Scared, I then asked if there were a room we could use to pray. The security men ushered us to a small auditorium where we placed chairs in a circle and began to pray for America’s schools. They eventually realized we were harmless and disappeared. Twenty minutes later, “Mr. Oklahoma” showed up and confessed he had been afraid and had backed out (without telling me). He redeemed the time as he showed us around the building and introduced us to the head of the Department of Education as well as key people in the building. We ended up praying in every office, even the office of the head of the department. It was a victory that would not have happened without one seasoned intercessor telling me, “Don’t back down. Don’t back down.”

No matter what circumstance you find yourself in as an intercessor for you, your family or for the children of America, don’t back down! It’s not an easy task and certainly not for the faint of heart, but persistence and tenacity are paramount when taking on a spiritual giant.

Where is the Moral Outcry?

June 20, 2018

Convinced of the importance of religion in the lives of America’s new settlers, our forefathers refused to entertain any suggestion that the people who lived in this nation would be better off without Christianity. In 1794, humanists Thomas Paine, penned an anti-Christian book, The Age of Reason, there was a moral outcry among the citizens and leadership of colonies. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, as well as prominent Christians of the day refused to recognize Paine or his writings. While people may have read the book, because those of influence rejected the content, the book was not well accepted. When Paine passed away, no cemetery would give him burial space. He was buried in a cow pasture. The moral outcry of the people at all levels of education day refused Thomas Paine’s anti-god book. As a result the book had little effect on the beliefs of the people.
Almost 200 years later during President Reagan’s first term in office, a poll revealed that 85% of Americans were in favor of prayer being a part of a child’s school day. President Reagan, thinking he had grassroots support, secured a majority of votes in the House and the Senate to get the measure permitting prayer in school passed. He was stopped when the courts ruled against his efforts. Justice Antonin Scalia spoke out against the decision to not allow school prayer. Justice Scalia felt striking prayer out of school would please a few to the detriment of the majority. Justice Scalia also spoke out against abortion. He is credited with making the remark to a group of friends, “Where is the moral outcry against abortion?” Justice Scalia was asking: Where are the Christians who will do more than give a nod against evil?
A look at America’s Educational system today reveals how different our schools are from 200 years ago. Educators have led us down a path that has almost destroyed our culture, our religion, our families and ultimately our future. Yet, there is little moral outcry among those who hold to strong Christian beliefs.
I pray God gives each of us insight on how to participate in the moral outcry that is necessary to change this nation – in particular the Mountain of Education. No matter where we are or what station we hold in life, we can begin to take a stand against the tide of evil that has flooded our schools. Let every one of us participate in the outcry against the ungodly agenda in the American Mountain of Education!

Are we all animals? Funny you should ask….

June 13, 2018

In the history of America, the period of 1880 to 1933 were pivotal for this nation’s education. New theories of how to educate children were being birthed at ivy league colleges that would gradually trickle down to be taught in every school room in America. It was a time of great change—and not for the betterment of our children in our schools.

One of the more prolific change agents was Edward L. Thorndike. Mr. Thorndike graduated from Harvard in 1897. While at Harvard, he began investigating instinctive and intelligent behavior in chickens. He wrote a dissertation for his degree in education on “Animal Intelligence.” In 1911, his work was published as a book. His theories still stand today as a benchmark in educational psychology.

Edward L. Thorndike believed in evolution and wrote in his book, “His [man’s] instincts, that is, his inborn tendencies to feel and act in certain ways, show throughout marks of kinship with the lower animals, especially with our nearest relatives physically, the monkeys. His sense-powers show no new creation. …” Dr. Thorndike wrote concerning teaching, “The best way with children, may often be, in the pompous words of an animal trainer, ‘to arrange everything in connection with the trick so that the animal will be compelled by the laws of his own nature to perform it.’”

The theory of evolution, applied to the mind, was used by Thorndike and other evolutionary psychologists as a basis for building a new theory of learning by conditioning. This method of teaching completely omits any consideration or training of the spiritual component of a child. Score one more huge win for humanism in American education! The truth is, if our children are trained as animals, we should not be surprised when they are without a moral compass and act accordingly.

The School Alarm is Sounding!

June 11, 2018

In school, I never remember an emergency that triggered a school alarm. Today school is a different place. School shootings, fights, fires and lock downs are commonplace. The school alarm is going off in the natural, but there’s also a school alarm going off in the Spirit as well. The question is: will the intercessors heed the sound?

On April 20 1999, Eric Haris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. When it was over, the two boys had killed 24 students, one teacher and wounded numerous others. One month later, the community hosted a grief meeting that gave students, teachers, parents and local pastors a platform to express their feelings.

A friend of mine and I drove to Colorado to attend that meeting. As each person came to the microphone to speak, the underlying theme—almost without exception– was that each one had felt something was about to happen. No one had any clue what it was, but felt God told them there was some impending catastrophe on the horizon. One pastor related how he had se
en the boys dressed in their Gothic attire and knew God was telling him that the boys were planning some horrible deed.

Even though many people knew that danger was coming, not a one mentioned intercession as a means to avert a disaster. The deaths were laid at God’s feet but He was not given credit for possibly giving a way out by prompting those who knew Him to heed the alarm that was going off inside of them and pray that the calamity would not happen. We not only need prayer that will deal with education’s past and present, but we need preemptive prayer that will disengage the enemy in future events.

From that Columbine meeting, there were three ways God had given warning:

1. An inward alarm went off while in the presence of the perpetrators.
Many saw Haris and Klebold and sensed the evil. Both boys were avid fans of death centered video games and heavy metal music with lyrics of death and destruction. The boys carried the evil with them and those astute in the Spirit could sense danger.

2. An inward alarm sounded as they entered the school building. They “knew” danger was near.
Some of the speakers, on walking into the school building, knew that something was going to happen.

3. Alarming dreams were given—of being in a dangerous situation at school.
The signs were there but ignored. I don’t think the praying people in Columbine were oblivious to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, but rather, they simply didn’t know how to intercede. Intercession is quickly becoming a lost art as not many are taught how to pray in situations where, without God’s intervention, disaster will happen. It’s time for the church to take up the mantle of Elijah and pray for our schools to not only avert danger, but change the entire structure of the Mountain of Education. We can see things change—if we pray. (Read more on this at takingthemountainofeducation.com)

Give it 10 minutes
I suggestion that you give the alarm you are sensing ten minutes of focused prayer as quickly as possible. See what the Holy Spirit speaks to you during that time. The burden may lift and that’s all that’s needed, but perhaps you’ll get direction on how and what to pray at a later time.

Often if we think something will require hours on hours of intense prayer, it will never get done. The task will look too overwhelming. It’s better to be instant in prayer. Hearing God’s voice takes time and practice and it is best not to let the task look too big in the beginning.

Intercession is an absolute act of faith – Faith in the ability of God to change the future is the driving force behind intercession. If anyone ever tells you that that kind of faith that changes circumstances, nations and hardened hearts is easy, they would be lying. It’s like a muscle that isn’t used very much and at first it’s extremely difficult but with continual use, it does get easier. That’s why it’s called “exercising your faith.”

“But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.” Jude 20

Prayer for the Mountain of Education During the Month of Sivan

May 23, 2018

When settlers came to America in the early 1700s, they established schools with Judeo-Christian instruction that instilled in their children a strong Christian foundation. These schools taught individualism and personal responsibility, traits that prepared their children for the rigors of frontier life in the new world. It wasn’t until 1884 that the first public school was established as the fulfillment of a campaign promise to the Unitarians by Horace Mann, known as the Father of Public Education. As the newly elected Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Mann promised he would start schools totally funded by tax payer money without religious instruction. Beginning in 1884, America had two school systems. In the beginning, there wasn’t a lot of difference between the two because the teachers were from the local communities and were strong Christians, but over time the two systems have diverged with totally different objectives.

The month of Sivan is the month of twins. As a result of Horace Mann’s actions we now have twin educations streams – one secular and one religious. During this month, we choose to nurture America’s Godly educational inheritance with our declarations, prayers, proclamations and decrees. This is also the month of Firstfruits, cause, alignment, strength and clear vision.

• We decree and declare that the Godly stream of America’s education flourishes. We speak life into that Godly stream and command it to live, grow and mature so it will feed the minds of our youth with God’s Word.
• We decree that the Mountain of Education to come into alignment with the intents and purposes of God.
• We speak to schools, teachers and administrators who serve God in America’s schools and we decree that you go from strength to strength.
• In this month of Firstfruits, we decree that new revelation will be given to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. She will share her revelation with those in her team who are new wineskins and who will receive the Firstfruits of her revelation, and align themselves with God’s mindset.
• We decree and declare as this is a month of giving, our students will be given an education second to none in the world.
• We decree that Secretary DeVos and each member of her team will find his/her place of strength during this time, and they will move from strength to strength. That strength will open doors for them to share new battle plans.
• We declare that those in leadership will see clearly what needs to be done to reform education in America.

Nancy Huff
HAPN Mountain of Education Leader

When You Pray – Remember David and Goliath

May 16, 2018

Abraham Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” That has certainly been true in America as we see socialism and secularization of our educational system now as it is played out in our government and courts. To reform our schools by addressing the roots of our misdirection in prayer will also create a reformation of our nation.
Those of us who desire to restore God’s place in our education system are the Davids and the school system is the Goliath. The statement David made to Goliath in the valley of Elah applies to us in a very real way.
“You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the Name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’S and he will give all of you into our hands.” 1 Samuel 17:45–47
The anti-God forces in our educational system are overconfident, over secure, and under effective, making the timing of a spiritual battle of utmost importance. Just as Goliath, they dare people to try to change the system. Yet, everyone from the office of the President of the United States to the classroom teacher knows that our education is a dismal failure when 25 percent of our public school graduates are illiterate. It is time to seize the opportunity. Intercessors can take back education from the domination of Baal and consequently the children of our nation from his influence.
Actually, our chances of felling Goliath, even in the natural, get better the larger Goliath grows. Best-selling author and military historian Max Boot in his classic book, Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present, gives small insurgent groups a more than fighting chance of bringing down huge military operations. The smaller groups cost less money than larger armies to maintain. They can travel to a location undetected and make a strike, and quickly retreat.
A larger army relies on its reputation, technology, past victories, and often outdated styles to engage the enemy. Over the last one hundred years American education has promoted man-made doctrines and taunted Christians by daring them to attack their policies. With our band of prayer warriors, we can win, if we fight with nonconventional weapons, keep our ranks tightly knit around a common purpose, and engage the enemy on a level in which they are not accustomed.
The American educational system is huge with a budget of $591 billion annually. Its strength lies in the size of the institution. It cannot move quickly and is the epitome of the works of the flesh just as Goliath was. Daily the system promotes propaganda that is anti-God, anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-moral. But it has been ineffective. Too long they have taunted those who believe in God. It is time we took our place with full knowledge of who our God is and what He can do.
Os Hillman, a well-known author and speaker on faith at work, states in his book Change Agent, “It takes less than 3–5 percent of those operating at the tops of a cultural mountain to actually shift the values represented on that mountain.”
This small percentage is the sum total of the true decision makers in education. That means that we as believers let the top 5 percent of the over 3 million people involved in education in this country make all the decisions. The rest of us watch on the sidelines as decisions are made that take our country down a path of socialism and ultimately destruction to the way of life our forefathers intended.
The church has lost its vision for stewarding the territory God given us. We has have allowed the voice of God to be muffled as Goliath taunted us day after day. Christian teachers in the classroom have their hands tied because of the lack of prayer by apostolic prayer teams who know how to release the power of God in worship, intercession, authority of the Name of Jesus, and strategic warfare.
We have a purpose: to manifest God’s Kingdom on the earth today. In the past we have lost ground, but we can regain it if we fight. In her book, Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid, Mary Beth Hicks wrote:
“In 2007, while still a member of the United States Senate, Barack Obama said, ‘I am absolutely convinced that culture wars are just so ‘90s. Their days are growing dark.’ Obama was right. The culture wars are over: We lost. We are no longer fighting to uphold traditional social values. Now we’re fighting a battle over the very definition of what it means to be an American, and what America means to the world. A losing battle.”
I would say that Hicks is right—except that God is calling His people to come together to pray in a strategic way as never before in the history of the world. Kingdom-minded people are being called into place. We must follow the instructions the prophet Joel gave his warriors, “Do not break ranks.” (Joel 2:8.)
Until we are called by someone with an apostolic jurisdiction we do not know how to stand together and not break ranks. The apostle puts prayer warriors in position and gives the orders and teaches them how to stand together without breaking ranks. With such a dynamic prayer team, we can take back our educational system as well as the other cultural influences in our nation.