A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. - Proverbs 25:11

America the Beautiful: A Fading Flower

Our Judgement and Hope

By Dr. Malcolm Hill, Jr.

     The wonderful experiment called America, with its uniquely tweaked democracy, founded by our forefathers at the birth of the nation, has fallen on very hard times lately. Established as a republic (a people governed by the rule of law), and managed by elected officials who are to govern by that rule of law—America was to have a better than average chance for long endurance than any other nation that has ever existed except perhaps for Israel. Yet it seems her days are now numbered. Rule of law has taken a back seat to clamorous special interest groups, as well as to black-robed judges who feel it is their right to change laws and seasons rather than interpret cases by laws that have already been established by duly elected officials. Woe to these pompous blasphemers! “Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune, which they have prescribed” (Isaiah 10:1). Case in point: The supreme court of California recently decided to overturn the majority will of the “voting” people and pass a law that allows for same sex marriages to begin taking place by June 17, 2008. This is another case where America’s judges “write misfortune” for our nation. Woe to them! The supreme court of Heaven will soon deal with judges like these, judges who disregard the moral codes found in the Bible!

Many blame America’s demise on the liberals, others on the conservatives. Some accuse the oil companies, and others blame the neo-environmentalists. Elitism and American pride is to blame, some argue, while others point to our peace-at-all-cost politicians. A lot of blame casting occurs when people feel themselves sinking down, yet only the prophets of God are able to put their finger on the primary source of a nation’s woes. I therefore lay the blame for America’s worsening condition on a thing called sin—collective sin! The Word says, “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is the reproach of any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Our reproach, beloved, is due to our sin!

By and large, Americans are a licentious and idolatrous people! Intelligent, yes! Sophisticated, yes! Generous, yes! But like ancient Sodom we also are a proud people, a gluttonous and full people, and a people guilty of the wrong kind of idleness—spiritual idleness! (See Ezekiel 16:49.) As a result we have become terribly immoral, lazy and demanding, and far too preoccupied with vain amusements. We are no longer a people who “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), and as a result, America the Beautiful isn’t so beautiful anymore! Like Israel of old, our once glorious beauty is now a fading flower (Isaiah 28:1). 

 

What will we see in the future?

I believe America is presently experiencing frightening forms of God’s temporal judgments. There is no nicer way to put it. A temporal judgment is one that is not directly delivered by His hand, but is rather executed by a nation’s enemies with His permission. God is allowing the kingdom of darkness to hit us hard on several major fronts. Many things we see occurring across the nation lead us to this unpleasant conclusion. Hopefully something good will come out of it in the end. 

The prophet Isaiah declared, “For when the earth experiences your judgments, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9). This simply means that God’s righteousness demands that justice be served. In fact, some versions translate this verse that way: “When the people experience your judgments, they will learn justice.” God therefore says, “At the time I have planned, I will bring justice against the wicked” (Psalm 75:2, NLT).

It is always God’s hope that when judgment befalls a nation, its citizens will turn to Him in repentance. Unfortunately, “learning” about God’s justice and “doing” something about it are two different things. Although a nation’s inhabitants may be forced to “learn” what God’s will is through judgment (true prophets explain it to them as judgment unfolds), not many respond to it properly. If they refuse to honor His Word, being reproved and instructed by it (2 Timothy 3:16), then their own rebellion and backsliding will reprove and correct them (Jeremiah 2:19).A door is opened to the enemy to enter and bring great affliction upon them until they turn to God and make things right.

Even amidst temporal judgments, as the kingdom of darkness is unleashing tribulation on an obstinate people, the Lord still holds out His gracious hand to them. He gives them life’s basic necessities, and allows them the breath and heartbeat they need to survive until they make things right. But rather than thank and draw near to Him, they usually gripe and complain bitterly as pressures intensify. The Word says, “Let grace be shown to the wicked [amidst temporal judgment], yet he [still] will not learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:10). During seasons of intense judgment, many people simply harden themselves beyond repentance. When this happens, greater judgment is always the lamentable result.  

  

Increasing Waves of Judgment

Judgment comes like waves pushed ahead of a massive offshore storm. The waves get bigger and more violent as the storm comes closer. This is what is happening in America today. Judgment is being felt in every realm of human experience. We hope that this will turn the hearts of many Americans back to the Lord.

Judgment is clearly seen in the natural environment. Stranger-than-usual weather patterns and natural disasters are increasing in both occurrence and intensity, decimating peoples’ lives and livelihoods.

Judgment is clearly seen in the economy. The instability of our markets has everyone wondering what will happen next. Rising gas and food prices have everyone on edge.

Judgment is clearly seen in the unraveling of family life. America’s divorce rate is at an all-time high. There are now more single-parent homes than two-parent homes. Our nation’s kids are bound by innumerable evils, fulfilling a judgment verse in Deuteronomy: “You shall beget sons and daughters, but you will not enjoy them, for they shall go into captivity” (28:41).

Judgment is also seen in the pathetic leadership we are now seeing in many key government positions. “I will give children (inexperienced novices) to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them” (Isaiah 3:4, 12).

Judgment also is seen in the flood of illegal immigrants flooding across our borders and burdening our economic system. Not only that, but wealthy foreign individuals and companies from across the oceans are buying up our real estate and many of our businesses, gaining the advantage over our citizens without becoming Americans themselves. Jeremiah bemoaned this fact, saying, “Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens” (Lamentations 5:2).  

 

When God Lifts His Hand of Protection and Blessing

One day Jesus stood on a hill overlooking Jerusalem, the political and religious center of a stubborn defiant nation not unlike America. As He gazed down on Jerusalem’s glistening eastern wall, the Lord bitterly lamented:  

If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace (how great it would have been!) But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you to the ground, and your children within you, …because you did not know the time of your visitation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate!

Luke 19:42-44; Matthew 23:37-38 

Like Israel, God has visited America with blessing time and time again, yet it seems the majority of those living here refuse to acknowledge Him, failing to recognize His visitation. When this calloused response persists, He hides the truth from their eyes and they slide into greater darkness and error. I hope we haven’t reached this point as a nation, but I am afraid we are close.

In times past God supported our armies, blessed our farmland, upheld our economy, prospered our healthcare, and made us a happy and prosperous people; yet most Americans have continues to ignore Him. Many may have given lip service to the Lord, but they have never given their hearts to Him. As religious Americans they have merely had a form of godliness, but denied the power thereof (2 Timothy 3:5). Their words and actions belied the profession of faith that they made. Deluded, they believed the lie that they were okay, and as hypocrites they lived a lie. Even so, God sent times of refreshing to His Church; seasons of awakening and unmerited grace on the people we call Americans. But He hasn’t been doing this as much lately. In fact, it appears that He has lifted His hand, and just as enemies once surrounded ancient Jerusalem, our enemies have now surrounded us. The economy is tottering like a drunk man, our armed services are exhausted and depleted by a long war, special interest groups have a stranglehold on political leaders, and government schools are brainwashing our children right beneath our noses. Americans of all colors are aborting their descendants, are enslaved to rampant sexual exploitation via the Internet, television and the movies, are suffering beneath exorbitant fuel and food prices, and are terrified by neighborhood gangs and ruthless terrorist cells. Not only that, but a growing drug pandemic is capturing many of our youth, and we are becoming a people without the will to do anything about it! America appears to be sinking fast! 

 

War in the Gates

I was reading a passage in Jeremiah recently, and these words jumped out at me:

 And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children; I will destroy My people since they do not return from their ways.

Jeremiah 15:7

  

As I read these words describing the horrible judgment that came upon backslidden Israel—a judgment where they were winnowed in the gates of the land—I was reminded immediately of Deborah’s words in Judges 5, where she describes how awful conditions were in Israel prior to the great deliverance God wrought through her. Speaking of fellow countrymen, she said, “They chose new gods; then there was war in the gates” (v. 8). History has proven that no nation or empire can last that does not serve the one true God. Even Israel—God’s chosen people—fell when it replaced Him with other gods. Whenever people choose wrongly, they invite war into their gates, and the result is that “her gates lament and mourn, and she being desolate sits on the ground in total defeat and grief” (Isaiah 3:26, amplification).

Biblically speaking, the term “gates” represents a nation’s seats of authority. A gate represents the place where the leaders of a city or nation meet to hash out policy and make important decisions. When new gods replace the Lord in a nation, invading enemies appear out of nowhere, grievously afflicting the people. A nation’s gates should remain strong against the enemy, protecting its citizens from forces that would invade and plunder. But in America today, we have chosen new gods and war has entered our nation. Our politicians have rejected the Word of God, rejected Heaven’s standards, embraced foolish and harmful ideologies, and cursed the very nation they were elected to defend. What happened on September 11, 2001, symbolizes the new vulnerability America lives with today because of its blatant idolatry. The attack by Muslim extremists coincides with the massive demonic attack the nation is presently facing from the forces of darkness—forces that are affecting our weather, our fuel and food supplies, our economy, and our good sense. And to top it all off, America is becoming a nation of spineless cowards.

  

Surely your people in your midst are women! The gates of your land are wide open for your enemies; fire shall devour the bars of your gates.

Nahum 3:13  

  

Where Does Our Hope Lie?

America’s only hope lies in returning to the Lord with all sincerity. Thankfully, it doesn’t take an entire nation to return to the Lord and garner His hand of favor; it only takes a strong committed remnant of righteous, prayerful believers. If ten righteous residents of Sodom could have stayed God’s hand of judgment, just imagine what a few million righteous Americans can do for this country if they seriously intercede for it?

I am encouraged by God’s word to the remnant of His people in Isaiah 28. To them He promises to be “strength for those who turn back the battle at the gate” (v.6). Spiritual warriors who are willing to sacrifice time and effort to see God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven can win the battle that is presently being waged in the gates of our nation.

Paul Billheimer expressed God’s intention for us when he wrote:

  

The Church holds the balance of power in world affairs. Even now, in this present throbbing moment, by means of her prayer power and the extent to which she uses it, the praying Church is actually deciding the course of human events.

  

What a powerful statement! Our prayer power is unlimited if we will position ourselves correctly. While desperate people look for men of standing to lead them into the Promised Land, God looks for men of kneeling. Has He found you?

   

So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap (through consistent prayer) before me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it…

Ezekiel 22:30 

The Lord is always searching for wall warriors, for those who will make up the hedge for the people among whom they live. But he cannot use just anybody. One of the great neglected truths of the Christian life is that revelation, inspiration and unction are morally conditioned. God can only reveal things to a man who is capable of receiving and utilizing what He gives Him. Therefore, when Jehovah Sabaoth (the Lord of armies) numbers intercessors, He doesn’t look for great talent or intellect. He looks rather for those who are morally able to stand in His presence, receive what He offers, and battle for the people. Their prayer power comes out of the “beauty of holiness, from the womb of the morning.” A favorite verse in the Psalms says this:

   

Your people shall be volunteers—shall be willing—in the day of your power; in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.

110:3 

  

This verse tells of a beauty embedded in holiness. The beauty of holiness attracts the Lord’s special attention, and releases His irresistible power. The beauty of holiness only comes out of a place called “the womb of the morning.” This refers to the secret places intercessors carve out for themselves—places of prayer and true devotion. They are places and times where they steal away for intense refinement and empowerment, and for strong intercession and warfare for the nation. For such people, prayer becomes “a shield for the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan” (Bunyan). Herein lies our nation’s deliverance. It has always been this way. The salvation and long endurance of America will come not by its politician’s ingenuity or the might of its military commanders, but by the strong hand of the mighty God responding to the prayers of His holy people! If this remnant stops praying, America is doomed. 

  

What to do

  

I encourage each of you to locate the praying remnant in your area and join yourself to it. Link up with other intercessors and get to work on your knees. If no such group exists, then start one with one or more like-minded people and pray for our nation like you never have before.

Also, immediately schedule your own personal times of prayer, and do it daily. These times don’t always need to be lengthy, but they do need to be intense. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much!

In seclusion (indoors or out), take the first 5 minutes to worship and praise God, telling Him of your love for Him. Next, take 5 minutes to pray in the spirit. This edifies your spirit, hones your mental capacity, and focuses your attention on the proper things about which to pray. Finally, take 5 minutes or so to make your requests to God concerning the nation. If you follow these simple steps in your times of private devotion, you will leave your prayer closet after 15 or 20 minutes, feeling strong, involved, and satisfied that you are doing something important for the future of your people. So start praying, beloved; your prayers really do matter!