The overall direction of this world, events regarding Israel and the current pressure for that tiny nation to give up more land, morality in general, and the fall from grace of the U.S., these and many other factors convince me that we as a world, are on a trajectory that cannot be pre-empted at this point.

However, there have been some very promising signs in the U.S. lately that I want to point out.  The backlash here in America, against the suspension of Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson has been heard loud and clear, and regardless of what A&E does about that in the future, one thing is clear, God-fearing people have just about reached the limit of what they are prepared to tolerate.  My husband has been saying for a number of years now that there will be another civil war in the United States.

Some individual members of Congress are now taking seriously the massive, gross flaws, risks and general chaos that Obama’s Affordable Care Act will usher in, some of which is already taking place.  The people never wanted it to begin with.

A third encouraging development that has come to my attention is especially encouraging due to the segment of America society where it has originated.  I am talking about the new Abolitionists.  This grass-roots movement began with our nations youth, who wisely recognize that abortion does not need to be regulated, it needs to be ABOLISHED, and this is their goal.  Read about them and join the cause HERE!

Sometimes even the devil can overplay his hand.

Really, that’s what he did in my life, and that is what drove me to my knees.

Long before I was blogging about these things, I was praying about them, agonizing, tearful on-my-face-before-the-Lord prayers, with fasting, repenting on behalf of the nation and the church,  pleading with the Lord, months on end, and I did so on the basis of Exodus 32 in which the prayers of one man, Moses, changed God’s mind on destroying a nation.  Now, mind you, I am no Moses.  I am just a soon-to-be fifty Mom, former nurse, God-fearing, Jesus-loving Patriot.  But I do know God listens when I pray and I do know prayer changes things.  I don’t think there are near enough of us in America who see prayer as more powerful than political action, or activism in general for changing a nation, but I do believe there are at least a few others like me out there, and I FIRMLY believe that effectual, fervent prayer has a greater chance of putting a halt to this downward slide than ANY and EVERY other activity combined.

I am not talking about a pretense of prayer.  Like what I disappointingly witnessed at the National Prayer event in D.C. a couple of years back.  I envisioned looking across the mall and seeing people on their knees, crying out to God.  What I saw was a replica of the average church on a Sunday morning with so-called “praise music” unceasing, most people chatting, admiring one another’s outfits, socializing, and one person standing at a microphone on one designated stage, reading prepared “prayers”.  Vain jangling.  That was when I knew for certain that the church in America has forgotten HOW to pray.  Before that I thought it might just have been an unfortunate common denominator of the churches I’d been to.

Let Tim Wildman put out a call, and the people are going to show up! But if you want to know what I think, I think it’s the prayers that are taking place in private “prayer closets” that just might be having this impact.  We don’t merit any credit, even then, because it is merely because God is kind and generous and merciful, and loves us, that when we come with broken hearts before Him, He is moved.

People, churches, like to believe, and give off the impression, that God is impressed by our numbers.  If we can just get a million people gathered in one place to pray, God will just HAVE to move.  Nope!  God doesn’t have to do any such thing.  Jesus didn’t die for a relationship with your church body.  God is a one-on-one God and He absolutely has the power, the right, the prerogative to change His mind about a punishment that He has warned will be forthcoming due to rebellion.  But just like the old saying goes, that punishment hurts Him too.  He’d much rather obedience than punishment.  He’d rather obedience than sacrifice.  2 Chronicles 7:14 has been quoted until people are almost sick of hearing it.  But you know what I have noticed.  For all the quoting, rather than applying it, everyone is looking around at other people as if it was written for someone else.  But are you praying?  If you have called congress, written letters, signed petitions, traveled to marches and rallies, donated funds and volunteered time to bring attention to all the things that are wrong and all the good things that are slipping away in this nation, that’s good! I have done that too.  But who’s getting the praying done?

Have you, personally and intentionally made a decision to go before the Lord and say: “Test me, Oh Lord, and see if there be any wicked way in me”.  Have you asked Him to show you what your own personal contribution has been, to the decline of the church and the decline of this nation?

When God says “if my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray” that phrase “humble themselves and pray” is not implying that the praying itself is a humbling act.

The humbling must take place before the prayer will even be considered. 

Secondly, you must seek His face.  What does that mean?  Well, when I talk to people, I need eye contact.  I need to know that they are concentrating on me, so they will not only hear my words, but they will see the feeling behind the words, and know the heart from which they emanate.  Sure God loves to give good gifts to His children.  You just had Christmas, I’m sure you gave someone a present.  Do you like it when the recipient snatches the gift out of your hand before you really have a chance to give it?  Do you enjoy the feeling you get when they toss your gift aside already forgotten in their greed for the next one?  Do you like knowing that your gift is completely taken for granted?

God doesn’t want you viewing Him as a cosmic Pez Dispenser.  As parents I’m sure you have felt that you work and work and work, you constantly feel like you have to beg/threaten/cajole/bribe the kids to get them to help clean up the messes they themselves helped make, put away the laundry they got dirty, help cook the food they are impatiently expecting, or wash the dishes they ate off of.  God is no different than any parent in that sense.

As a nation we have taken Him for granted far too long.  We have taken His blessings for granted and often not even acknowledged their Source, let alone said “Thank You”.

I see some glimmers of a turn-around.  Does that mean the rapture is no longer imminent?  It is no less imminent than it ever was.  Israel became a nation again in 1948.  That was a major prophetic fulfillment.  I am sure those who recognized it as such, got very excited about it.  I do not base my belief that we are living in the last of the last days upon what is happening in America.  Not in the least!  And too many people are doing that.  It is the events surrounding Israel, the Middle East, the growing power and influence of the EU and U.N. the precarious state of national economies of the largest and most civilized nations through out the world, and the presence in the tech sector of gadgets that make universal surveillance possible NOW, as well as the rising volume of the cry for global currency, world peace, and social justice.  Add to that, the current Pope is crying loudest of all for these things, and the fact that America, the last best ally and friend of Israel, has now turned our back on them, and most of the world is calling for her figurative “head on a platter” and the “burdensome stone” prophecy is all set.

I maintain my assertion that the fall of America is necessary before a global government can exist.  What I am hopeful about is that we CAN stop the hemorrhage, and maybe even restore some things we’ve just about lost, so that what remaining time we do have, won’t be devastating.  I will admit, I have had dread in my heart for the transition from 2013 to 2014.  There are, at any given time, all sorts of things one could worry about, but when pressure continues to mount, something does eventually blow.  Those are unscientific words, but the principle or law is established.

The prayers that we have been negligent in, can still be prayed going forward.  If you are a person who reads this blog on a regular basis, and have confidence in the integrity represented here, I am speaking to you right now.  All of my hours of bringing the news and sharing of my own testimony, struggles, my heart, this is where the rubber meets the road.  I honestly believe that if just ten or twenty people would decide today, commit to a season of private dedicated fasting and prayer that is devoted to, first self-examination and personal repentance, and then, to concentrated and intentional prayer and repentance for the church as a whole and for this nation,  there are any number of potential scenarios we might avert.  It is clear right now America is very vulnerable.  That is what happens when you venture outside of obedience.  You’re on your own out there.  You distance yourself from your Divine Protector, and offend Him to boot!

Christians don’t pray nearly enough.  It took the physical ailments that God has allowed me to suffer, to get me still and prevent me being busy, busy, busy with well-intentioned “doing” so that I might learn that lesson.  And of course there is plenty that needs doing.  But I think America, for the most part, has completely lost it’s understanding of the place and I do mean the critical role which prayer has played in the inception of this nation and all things that have made her great!  I think the discipline of prayer is becoming extinct in America and in America’s churches.  It’s been replaced by vain repetitions, babbling, euphoric “experiences” and “listening into the silence” as well as just noise that attempts to pass itself off as worship.

When the Holy Spirit dwelt in the tabernacle, there were very explicit and detailed instructions on who was allowed to enter into His presence, and the way in which they were to do so.  Worship in the temple from the inner court to the outer, was specified.  Cain and Abel brought different offerings.  Abel brought an offering that was acceptable according to the stipulations the Lord had established, while Cain mistakenly took it upon himself to offer something he deemed would do just as well.  God was clear.  Cain just chose to ignore what God said.  Cain was probably just as sincere in his sacrifice as Abel was.  But a person can be sincere, and be sincerely wrong!  We must follow the pattern God lays out, and even if we don’t understand it, we do so by faith, as opposed to “sight”.  Sight as in “I just can’t see the relevance in that, so I’m going to worship how I see fit.  This is operating according to one’s own “wisdom” rather than out of obedience.  A guy named Uzziah dropped instantly dead because the law said no man is to touch the ark of the covenant and yet when he stumbled, it was a reflex action to reach out to steady the ark.  When God says “no”, He doesn’t mean maybe.  Today people are holding church in pubs over designer brews, and calling that worship.  This is not worship.  Frenzied music which appeals sensuously to the emotions and flesh, is not conducive to repentance, which is necessary in order to draw near to God.  Today mood-setting “praise time” us employed as a “warm up” before the sermon much the same way that a front band or opener comedian does for a mega star musician and a headlining comic.  God doesn’t need to please you.  It is the other way around.  We need to please Him!

In regards to the direction and future hope of this nation; there are folks who retain a positive outlook, that America has always pulled herself up by her bootstraps and always will.  I don’t think that is an informed or realistic way of looking at it.  No nation is infallible, and what is going on in the rest of the world also cannot be ignored.  America has been a light to other nations.  We have been exceptional!  And we have been exceptionally blessed.  Therefore, we ought to have known better.  We should never have allowed this.  Those kids who want to abolish abortion have it right. You can’t compromise with evil and lessen how evil it is.  Evil is evil. Period!  And I don’t think anyone ought to assume God will let us off easy, because to whom much is given, much is required. The blood of millions of babies cries out to God from the ground.  Drained from the sewage system of thousands of clinics, the literal blood of those babies bears witness to our guilt, and literally has made its way into the soil and water.  Think of that when you eat your organic carrots.

Still, as one who has done due diligence on her knees, and I have recommitted to that one most critical brand of activism, I dare say that if/when the tide finally starts to turn, it will not be due to the political process, it will not be due to the marches on Washington, it will not be because of which voting block any party managed to conquer.  I believe it will be because somewhere, someone recognized that they needed to put their faith back upon the Faithful One, and direct their appeal there.  In my opinion, what difference does Vacation Bible School, Worship Service, Christmas Pageants, soup kitchens, and all the other wonderful things that many churches do, what difference will those make if we allow this nation to continue to slide into the abyss, where the mere use of the phrase “Merry Christmas” can result in someone losing their job, and where a Christian is not allowed to mention Jesus outside the doors of the church.  Not that a lot of them do anyway, but my point is, we’ve got the cart before the horse.  We’ve got priorities all backward.

I am making a rededication to that commitment today.  I hope that readers will do the same.  None of what we do in church today will make a difference if America is no longer America and make no mistake our freedom of worship will be taken away right along with everything else. Come to that, neither will your sixty-hour-a-week and your carefully guarded nest egg mean anything when the government confiscates all you have worked for.  There is a time for action, but all the writing, talking, petitioning, posturing, and rallying aren’t changing anything.  It’s simply not working.  Someone has recently said that the counter-revolution has begun.  I don’t know.  I think this nation is as divided and polarized as it has ever been.  I am not sure how large the numbers are on either side, but I do know that one man plus God can conquer a giant, 300 plus God can conquer 5,000.  I like those odds and I think America even in the shape she is in today, is still worth dying for.  I really don’t want to see it come to civil war.  The silent majority is no longer silent or sleeping but still also not praying like we need to.  Change that, and it might just change everything!