By Pastor Mitch Horton | October 2004 | Posted in • Archives | (0) Comments
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14: 34).
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn”(Proverbs 29:2).
In last month’s issue, we discussed the importance of our nation honoring God and His Word, and how the blessing of God on the United States as a nation hinges on our allowing God and His Word to continue to provide the foundation for our civic laws and personal behavior. When God is left out of private life and public policy, destruction and decline are the result. God is leading the believers in our nation to repentance, so that He can in return bless us as He has in the past.
God had a legal complaint against Israel because they compromised His Word, and went selfishly on their way without Him. In Hosea 4:1-6, God warns Israel of what will occur when they refuse to allow His Word to govern their lives. What He said to Israel has a direct application to the United States in our day.
Notice what God says to Israel in Hosea 4:3, “Therefore the land will mourn; and everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea will be taken away.” Disobedience causes the blessings of God, His favor and protection to be withdrawn from a nation. Even the climate of a nation will be affected by disobedience, and the natural land will suffer. Could the fires, the floods, the tornadoes, the hurricanes, and the extreme weather patterns of the last few years in the United States be a result of our turning from God toward our own selfish, sinful desires? We as a nation have God’s favor and protection only when we obey Him. Otherwise, through national disobedience we allow the enemy to steal, kill, and destroy. God could have prevented the attacks of September 11th, 2001. Could they have been allowed by our overall disobedience to God and His moral laws as a nation? Do they now serve as a wake up call for believers in the USA?
God holds believers in a nation responsible for the sins in a nation! Notice the often quoted verse in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
Notice that God does not tell the unbelievers in a nation to repent of their ways, but He tells the believers in the nation that if they will humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, that He will then hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. AS GOES THE CHURCH, SO GOES THE NATION!
The real battles that we face are spiritual battles with spiritual forces. And the only way to win is ON OUR KNEES. Prayer is more forceful than bombs, guns, and tanks! We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood. Yes, we need the natural protection, but we also need the spiritual resources to back them up!
The elections that will take place next month could easily be the most important elections in the history of our nation. The person we elect as president will either lead us as a whole in support of the Judeo-Christian values that formed our nation, or farther away. Quite literally, towards blessing or cursing! And the stand we take for or against Israel now will literally determine the fate of our nation. The president that we elect must support Israel!
I urge you today to take your stand and pray for our country. Proverbs 21:1 reads, “The kings’s [President’s] heart is in the hand of the Lord, like rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.” 1 Timothy 2:1 reads, “Therefore I exhort FIRST OF ALL that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. (2) For kings [Presidents] and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” Don’t forget that “.the earnest, heartfelt, continual prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available - dynamic in its working” (James 5:16b, Amplified Bible).
I want to leave you this month with a few quotes from former U.S. Presidents. I urge you to vote next month. I urge you to repent of any known sin in your life so that your light will shine brightly. Don’t be part of the problem, be part of the solution. Pray for our nation and the election, BE the SALT and LIGHT that God has called you to be, and be bold to speak the truth in love as the Spirit of God leads you and opens opportunities.
“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
- George Washington“It (the Bible) is the rock on which our republic rests.”
- Andrew Jackson“A studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands.”
- Thomas Jefferson“To the influence of this Book (the Bible) we are indebted for the progress made in civilization, and to this we must look as our guide in the future.”
-Ulysses S. Grant
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