A Nation Founding Wanting

Daniel 5:25-28 MSG
25  and this is what is written: MENE, TEQEL, and PERES.
26  This is what the words mean: "Mene: God has numbered the days of your rule and they don't add up.
27  "Teqel: You have been weighed on the scales and you don't weigh much.
28  "Peres: Your kingdom has been divided up and handed over to the Medes and Persians."

Imagine yourself, you are running from the law because you have a message for your nation, one that is condemnation and makes the citizens squirm in their flesh.  Your government has put a bounty on your head.  You are living on nothing but honey and locusts.  You hide yourself in caves.

You have been told that you are different, set aside even before you were conceived.  You have been told that God has chosen you for a mission, but you don’t like being put under the spotlight.  You know that if you are caught by the army it means your death.

The reason why you are running from the authorities is because the message you have been given to speak is one of judgment.

This is just not a hypothetical, it is true, found in the Old Testament and the man is Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 1: (MSG)
1  The Message of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah of the family of priests who lived in Anathoth in the country of Benjamin.
2  GOD's Message began to come to him during the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amos reigned over Judah.
3  It continued to come to him during the time Jehoiakim son of Josiah reigned over Judah. And it continued to come to him clear down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah over Judah, the year that Jerusalem was taken into exile.
4  This is what GOD said:
5  "Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you: A prophet to the nations— that's what I had in mind for you."
6  But I said, "Hold it, Master GOD! Look at me. I don't know anything. I'm only a boy!"
7  GOD told me, "Don't say, 'I'm only a boy.' I'll tell you where to go and you'll go there. I'll tell you what to say and you'll say it.
8  Don't be afraid of a soul. I'll be right there, looking after you." GOD's Decree.
9  GOD reached out, touched my mouth, and said, "Look! I've just put my words in your mouth—hand-delivered!
10  See what I've done? I've given you a job to do among nations and governments—a red-letter day! Your job is to pull up and tear down, take apart and demolish, And then start over, building and planting."
11  GOD's Message came to me: "What do you see, Jeremiah?" I said, "A walking stick—that's all."
12  And GOD said, "Good eyes! I'm sticking with you. I'll make every word I give you come true."
13  GOD's Message came again: "So what do you see now?" I said, "I see a boiling pot, tipped down toward us."
14  Then GOD told me, "Disaster will pour out of the north on everyone living in this land.
15  Watch for this: I'm calling all the kings out of the north." GOD's Decree. "They'll come and set up headquarters facing Jerusalem's gates, Facing all the city walls, facing all the villages of Judah.
16  I'll pronounce my judgment on the people of Judah for walking out on me—what a terrible thing to do!— And courting other gods with their offerings, worshiping as gods sticks they'd carved, stones they'd painted.
17  "But you—up on your feet and get dressed for work! Stand up and say your piece. Say exactly what I tell you to say. Don't pull your punches or I'll pull you out of the lineup.
18  "Stand at attention while I prepare you for your work. I'm making you as impregnable as a castle, Immovable as a steel post, solid as a concrete block wall. You're a one-man defense system against this culture, Against Judah's kings and princes, against the priests and local leaders.
19  They'll fight you, but they won't even scratch you. I'll back you up every inch of the way." GOD's Decree.

Now we find another man who is running from having to speak the word that God has given him to speak to a nation.  Again, it is a message of judgment.  No one wants to speak condemnation to anyone, let alone a whole nation.

So this man develops a plan.  He gathers up all his finances, goes to local ports on the ocean, buys a ticket for a boat to take him in the opposite direction from that which God has told him to go.  Well, its time to board ship to begin the voyage on the sea.  He feels that the plan is going to succeed until the winds pick up and the ocean begins to heave up and down.  As time goes by the ocean only becomes more violent to where the men on board are fearing for their life.  Someone though on board got a bit of wisdom and spoke to all those on board the ship.  He tells the group that he feels there is someone on the ship that has displeased God.  The group begins to ask each other, is it you?  Guilt begins to well up within the man and finally admits it is him who is running from God.  To save the ship and the trip the group throws the man overboard into the sea.  The ship then carries on their way to their destination, which is Tarshish, and the man they have just thrown overboard is Jonah.

Well in the ocean God calls out to the deep and has a great fish, we tend to call it a whale.  He causes the whale to swallow up Jonah where he will spend three days there until he humbles himself and tells God he will go to Nineveh to give the word of  God.
Jonah delivers the message of judgment that Nineveh would be destroyed in forty days. For those forty days Jonah keeps giving the prophecy of judgment until the people of Nineveh repented, clothed themselves in sackcloth and ashened their faces.  After they did that God changed his mind and decided to spare the city.

Now you would think that Jonah would be happy about how the people repented and were spared from the wrath of  God. No, Jonah instead turns angry and sits under a tree and pouts like a disciplined child.

Jonah 3: (MSG)
1  Next, GOD spoke to Jonah a second time:
2  "Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any longer."
3  This time Jonah started off straight for Nineveh, obeying GOD's orders to the letter. Nineveh was a big city, very big—it took three days to walk across it.
4  Jonah entered the city, went one day's walk and preached, "In forty days Nineveh will be smashed."
5  The people of Nineveh listened, and trusted God. They proclaimed a citywide fast and dressed in burlap to show their repentance. Everyone did it—rich and poor, famous and obscure, leaders and followers.
6  When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up off his throne, threw down his royal robes, dressed in burlap, and sat down in the dirt.
7  Then he issued a public proclamation throughout Nineveh, authorized by him and his leaders: "Not one drop of water, not one bite of food for man, woman, or animal, including your herds and flocks!
8  Dress them all, both people and animals, in burlap, and send up a cry for help to God. Everyone must turn around, turn back from an evil life and the violent ways that stain their hands.
9  Who knows? Maybe God will turn around and change his mind about us, quit being angry with us and let us live!"
10  God saw what they had done, that they had turned away from their evil lives. He did change his mind about them. What he said he would do to them he didn't do.

In the two previous incidents is a great theme.  A theme that needs to be told to this present generation.  One God needs prophets, etc., who will give forth the message that God wants to speak to the people.  Men of God need to learn that it is not about them, not about a campaign to win friends and influence people.  Not to run because the message you are asked to bring forth makes you feel uncomfortable.  Fear of being hated by the very ones that God has asked you to deliver His’ message.  Yet, the majority of those who claim that they are men and women of God would rather choose comfort, acceptance, and also greed.  So, they hold back a message that if given could turn a nation around, see repentance in the land they live.

Therefore a nation like the one that Daniel lived in is found to be a nation found wanting.  A nation that has turned their back.  Given in to the desires of their flesh, greed, and false teachings.

There is coming a day however where God will hold the men who have held back the message of God responsible.  Responsible for allowing a nation to fall into the hands of the enemy who then in turn enslaves the people.

So, it would behoove those who stand in the pulpits across North America to speak that which God has for the nation and the people.  North America is hanging in the balance between a great revival or the start on the road to decline.

It is time for people to give into prayer and supplication so that North America would be saved.

A Nation Born In Rebellion pt. 2

Ephesians 6:12 - Our fight is not against people on earth but against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world's darkness, against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly world.

13 That is why you need to put on God's full armor. Then on the day of evil you will be able to stand strong. And when you have finished the whole fight, you will still be standing.

It has been several weeks since I posted the first part of this message.  You see it takes me some time to gather all my thoughts about a subject.  I want to make sure I have a sure foundation when I present an idea.  Most of the time I find my thoughts are clearer when it is totally quiet around me, no distraction from the outside.  Sometimes I find myself waking up in the night with a certain part of the message running through my racing mind. 

When I was just starting out and I found myself in this place I would get myself out of bed, go downstairs into my family’s dining table, place before me my Bible and begin to search the scripture until I found what I needed. It was not like today, there were no personal computers, no internet, not even a cell phone. Just me and my Bible.  Not even any commentaries or dictionairies.  Sometimes I would get so involved in studying the passage of time became oblivious to me.

So, here I am in from of my laptop with my Bible software opened and putting to words the thought s that seem to be flowing from within me.  I’m not quite sure how they would teach you to study and prepare in Bible school, because I have never attended one.  My methods may not hework for most, but they work for the person that counts, that’s me.

There is one thing that I am confident about, it is the method of study I have developed over the period of 40 plus years. Like the scripture, I depend on the innermost whisper, voice deep within me.  I do not call it, like the world, a hunch, or a gut feeling.  It is deep within my spirit man, for that is where the spirit of God speaks to each and everyone of His’ children if they are willing and are listening.  No, I don’t hear voices, or see stars or even feel the earth move beneath me.   It just I know that I know.

The thoughts in this post are mine.  I thought about this subject many years ago and haven’t given it much time until now, the election of 2016 in America.

I know about the history of the founding of the United States.  The civil war over slavery, the assination of Lincoln.  Also, the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, again another president assinated, John F. Kennedy and then his brother Robert, the nominee for the Democratic Party in 1967-68.  However, I was only about seven years old, yet I still have memories of looking across the Detroit river from Windsor, Ontario and seeing the smoke rising from the riots where buses were lit on fire.

Then in the 1980’s the attenpted assination of Ronald Reagan. A true visionary for the Republican Party.  Lessons could be learned by both nominees this election, for neither has a hopeful vision of what they see for America.

So, as I look through all the history of America I see a nation that underneath there is a cauldron seething with rebellion.  It seems to simmer for quite some time, only to find the cauldron reaching a boiling point and pouring over the top onto the streets of the United States.  2016 is one of those times.  Unrest it seems is everywhere.  Anger seems to be the emotion that is on the lips of every person and voter.  African Americans angry because of all the deaths of black men dying by the hands of the police who are sworn to protect them.

The older white population that feels time has forgotten about them as they see their America slip away being replaced by a much different color of people.  News pundits call it “the browning of America”.  The blue collar worker sees their jobs fall by the side of the road either by being outsourced to another country or by technology that is much more efficient and cheaper.

Then there is the biggest fear that is on the minds of every American that remembers what happened on 9/11.  The largest terror attack on American soil since Pearl Harbour.  They realise that The United States is no longer a safe place, and now the terrorists have landed on their soil.  So they are angry with Capitol Hill, both Congress and the Senate.  Neither side of the isle willing to make the first comprimise so that some goal can be achieved to bring safety back to the homeland.

Politicians are stoking fears about those who may not have the same faith as those they know.  Fear not from knowledge, but that which comes from the root of ignorance.  They seem to forget that every young, old, man, woman, child has someone in their lineage, maybe just one generation back, that came to the shores of America from another country, who was seeking a better life for those that would follow in their footsteps.

I started my last post by quoting scripture about rebellion.  Rebellion is a powerful gripping entity that takes hold of one person, or a multitude of people.  America’s rebellion started as they demanded they did not want to be ruled by and elite group, family, a person who sat in a palace somewhere that made all the rules.  Where the population had no voice in what happened in their country or nation.

They wanted a different type of nation, one where the people’s voice decided who would be their government.  The war between the United Kingdom and America was hard fought.  Eventually though British troops withdrew and the republic known as The United States was born.

This planted a small seed within the spirit of America one that has cried out every once and awhile and gives way to anger on the streets of the nation.

Scripture tells us that ‘rebellion is as of the sin of witchcraft’.  Paul writes in the book of Ephesians that the child of God does not war with human armies, but of spiritual wickedness in high places.

It is my opinion, that this same war is constantly fighting over the nation of America.  The only way it can be brought to nothing is for the Body of Christ to regain that which they have lost because of being intoxicated with greed and power.  Paul instructed the church to pray for its leaders.  As I have said in prior posts or on my Twitter feed, every time that people of God became close with government, they landed into the trouble of being captured and becoming slaves to their captor.

I truly believe when the Body of Christ in North America wakes up from it stupor of greed and power and shakes off this rebellious nature that has them enslaved they can bring about the falling of the rebellion that lies within the shores of America.

We were given the armour of Christ.  The Body of Christ cannot fight with the armour of the world, for like King David it has not been proven.  The Body of Christ must put on the full armour of God.  Cast of the armour of politics, wall street, and false doctrines and become what God would have it to be.  If not,  it may be just too late to see any reprisal from the path the nation of America is going down.

Instead of warring against those of different religions, begin to show compassion, and love. If we are strong in our faith of Christ Jesus, then nothing can shake you.  We were told to build upon the rock, not upon the sand.

I pray and hope that maybe the divisiness of the election of 2016 is that last election of its kind.  If not, somehow I see America, like empires before it, begin to decline and fade into the books of history.

There is another empire in the wings just waiting to come to full fruition, one that will declare war on the saints and on Israel.  An empire where a leader known as the anti-christ will take his place to rule the world.

Just one last question, ‘Are you truly ready for what is to come upon this place we call earth?’