God enjoyed prayer dancing to ABBA music – Pete Greig of 24-7 Prayer

Psalm 89:7: “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.”

Hebrews 12:28: “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:”

The leader of the ecumenical 24-7 Prayer grouping, Pete Greig, who is helping the Roman Catholic Church try to bring in more people, has claimed that God told him He was “quite enjoying” a group of girls dancing round their handbags and praying to the music of Swedish pop group ABBA in a prayer room he was running.

Pete Greig has outrageously claimed that such polluted “worship” was approved of by God, even going so far as to claim God specifically told him that was the case.

The founder of the 24-7 prayer group says that God supported prayers being offered to Him to the tune of ‘Super Trouper’, which, according to Wikipedia, was a UK number one in 1980.

In an interview he has given to the ‘Premier Christianity’ website, Pete Greig recounts the story of a large group of girls coming into a prayer room he had set up.

He says: “Then a bunch of student girls, 30, came in to pray. They looked like they were dressed for a night on the town. I thought, ‘This is going to be interesting because they haven’t seen me.’ My secret fear is that no one’s actually praying in the prayer room, and they went to the stereo and confirmed my worst fears. They put on ABBA… ABBA! They started to dance around to Super Trouper. I was just about to bust them when to my shock and horror, they start praying! They’re going, ‘Jesus, we just thank you (Su-per, Trou-per)!’, and they’re dancing around their handbags.

“I sort of said to God, ‘Is this ok?’ And I think God said to me, ‘I’m quite enjoying it’. We need to pray the way God made us.”

It’s hard to believe someone who is supposed to be a serious religious leader could utter such nonsense, isn’t it?

What absolute blasphemous hogwash!

Dear reader, do not be deceived by this man.

How anyone can claim that worldly popular music can be used to glorify God is beyond comprehension.

When Jesus was teaching the disciples how to pray, he taught them not to do so in an attention-seeking way, but to do it discreetly.

Matthew 6:5-7 says: “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”

Dancing about like an eejit, to use an Ulsterism, is certainly not a humble or indeed respectful way to approach the God of heaven.

The way we approach God is of utmost importance, it ought to be a sober, humble, reverent approach.

Rather than jumping round the room, we should have, as much as is practically possible, our eyes closed and heads bowed as we approach His mercy seat.

The Bible is littered with examples of this.

The elders of the children of Israel did it, when they heard of God’s plan to deliver them from the Egyptians.

Exodus 4:31: “And the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.”

All the people did it when they saw the glory of the Lord had filled the temple in Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 7:1-3 says: “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house. And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.”

There is coming a day when all shall bow before God.

Romans 14:11: “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

If we have a proper appreciation of the power of God, of the might of God, then we will bow our heads when we speak to Him, not dance around like you’re in a nightclub to a song of the world.

We are reminded of the need to be separated from the world in James 4:4, which says: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

We need to remember the immense privilege we have to come before God ourselves with our prayers and petitions. The veil is rent and we have access to the holy of holies.

Hebrews 10:19-22: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Ephesians 2:13-14,18: “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”

When we look at the sacrifice Christ made for us, when we look at the lost eternity in hell we can be saved from through His shed blood, when we look at the joys of heaven open to all who believe on Him, should we not approach Him with reverence and godly fear?

In the same interview, Pete Greig says in the prayer rooms he sets up there are a number of ways he says he has brought “innovation” in prayer.

This includes praying “with graffiti, with all types of music, with dance, with all sorts of innovation”, he says.

Only, of course, this isn’t how we are to pray, if we look at examples from the Bible. Prayer is about communicating with God and pouring our hearts out to Him, be it in praise, or in distress, or in thanksgiving, or in putting our requests to Him.

We can see the example of the Psalmist in Psalm 6:6-9: “I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer.”

David didn’t prance around his bedroom all night, dancing round a stereo and spraying graffiti on his wall, he spoke to His Saviour, or indeed described it as “groaning”, pouring out his heart to God when he was afflicted.

This is true prayer, and Pete Greig serves only to corrupt and pollute true worship, thus leading others down a path of blasphemous so-called worship and prayer to God.

2 Timothy 4:3-4: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Don’t be turned unto the fables of the likes of Pete Greig, creating a new and unscriptural way to approach God, turning prayer into entertainment.

Let us all be ever mindful of the greatness of God and approach Him in a manner befitting the Creator of all things.