God on Fire

“Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
(Isaiah 33:14)

The Bible contains over 500 references to fire, linking it with God ninety times. God in action is like a blazing fire, we are told. “The people shall be like the burnings of lime; like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire” (Is 33:12). Lime burns slowly and thorns quickly. The fire of God has the same effect on all it touches. Fire is His essential characteristic: “The Lord your God is a consuming fire” (Deut 4:24).

Ezekiel, for example, often uses the language of fire to talk about God, e.g. “I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord” (Ezek 22:31, NIV).

Is your God like that? A God of fire is the only one there is. Our God is like a forest fire, not an iceberg. He is never likened to the moon with its cool light, but rather to the sun, radiating warmth. His dwelling is the light of rising suns. What He does He carries out with intense desire and blazing purposes. He cannot abide anything tepid. There is nothing pastel pink in His presence, pale or anemic, neither one thing nor another.

That is God. Can you take it? Isaiah asks, “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Is 33:14). Who indeed?

Elijah presents us with a real challenge: “The God who answers by fire, He is God” (I Kgs 18:24). Well, if you want to be another Elijah you have to have the God who answers by fire. Can you get along with that sort of religion – incandescent Christianity, hot Gospel, the “fire in your bones” type of faith? Or do you want a casual, easygoing God? The God of Elijah and of Isaiah is never half-hearted, but a God of tireless vigor and total commitment. He is an enthusiast! What He does, He does with fervor: “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (2 Kgs 19:31).

Isaiah 33 speaks of God’s consuming anger against wickedness; God being a devouring fire to Israel’s enemies. Then comes the crunch: the fire will have widespread effect. “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. ‘Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Is 33:14). Either in or out of Zion He is a devouring fire.

God Does Not Change

God is the same God to everybody, both in the church and in the world. The God who is angry with sinners every day is the God we deal with. He does not change. True partnership with the Lord means being on fire; the God of fire has no fellowship with icicles. He does not get on well with mild, cool, flabby folk who are undisciplined and haphazard and who work in fits and starts, blowing neither hot nor cold. No matter who we are, God does not adapt to please us; we always have to adapt to Him. Is God too much for you? Too zealous, too unremitting in His activity?

Church leaders and pastors represent God, the God of fire. Our ministry is to bring that God into people’s lives, putting fire into their hearts.

Jesus baptizes with fire (Mt 3:11-12, Lk 3:16-17). John the Baptist said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Scholars question whether John the Baptist ever said such words, and if he did what he meant. Some say that his words about Jesus baptizing in the Holy Spirit and fire refer to cleansing Israel and judgment. I am sure they are wrong. When John spoke of a baptism of the Spirit and fire, it was a promise, not a threat, although it was also a kind of forewarning of things to come. Throughout Scripture the fire of God comes both to purge and to bless.

The fire of God is not given to make us cozy, but holy, and to stir us up. When Moses saw the burning bush God first warned him that he was standing on holy ground, and then told him of the great thing He was about to do, to release Israel from the captivity of Pharaoh (Ex 3). When Isaiah was in the temple and it filled with smoke of the burning holiness of God, his awareness of being unclean preceded God’s equipping him to be His messenger.

If the God of fire takes over, it will not be a comfortable experience for those who sit at ease in Zion. The idea of being filled with the Spirit is not to give us nice emotions and lovely church meetings, but to set us going for God. In giving power, Jesus makes His purpose clear: “You shall be witnesses to me” (Acts 1:8). It is glorious to be anointed, but it is for service, not for nice services

Life Without Fire

Can we live without fire? Not on this earth. Primitive people believed fire was a gift of the gods, and we can certainly appreciate that. As part of God’s preparation of this world for human habitation, fire is as essential as water or air. Without essential warmth, half the population would freeze to death. Without fire there would be no cooking, no metals, no gold and silver jewelry, no glass, no sunlight, and no manufacturing; we would never have seen a steam train or steam ship. We could not imagine a more terrible world. Nobody would want to live on this planet, and in fact nobody could.

The universe is full of fire. The sun is a great globe of incandescence, every star shines by its own fires, and even the center of our planet is fire – a molten iron core. Every volcano is a dynamic illustration of God’s character. He is a Vesuvius of goodness, life and energy.

Some think God is extinct and have published books which claim to demonstrate just that. What happened to God? They may as well ask what happened to the stars. If they are not visible it is because of modern pollution in the atmosphere. That is the price we pay in our great cities – lots of lamps but no stars. These days, the Magi would be hard put to find a star to guide them to Bethlehem. But this is a modern-day parable. People are not finding their way to Jesus because of pollution. We are too clever by half. Nobody can see God through a polluting cloud of doubt and sin. But He is still there, shining for ever.

On the day of Pentecost there was not only fire but also wind. Wind disperses fog and mist. It clears the atmosphere just as surely as fire warms it. The disciples had doubts galore even after Jesus had risen from the dead and spoken to them. We read that Jesus appeared to the eleven as they sat eating a meal together. Some had believed reports of His appearance but others had doubted; Jesus rebuked them for their hardness of heart. But when the winds of God tore the heavens open and swept into the Upper Room, no doubts were left. The tornado and the tongues of fire on every head were no hallucination. Jesus had reached the power center of the universe, just as He had said. He had kept His promise.

Power Beyond the Grave

Jesus did all these things after He had gone from the earth. What a Jesus! Dead? Forgotten? How can a dead man set 120 living people aflame all at once – and first thing in the morning, too? However, He did not come back, stand among them and say, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” You would have thought that for such a historic, vital occasion He might personally have supervised the event. In fact, He did not. The Holy Spirit had come in His place – the Other Comforter. He could be and do all Jesus was, and did. In fact, all Jesus had ever done was by the Spirit.

That is the scale of Pentecost. It is not an insignificant or minor event. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the coming of the Comforter took place in Jerusalem, and the coming of the Holy Spirit occurs in each individual as a personal experience. It is as if Jesus Himself was back again and we are His disciples. To be continued.

Article By: Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke

Prepared for the Coming Tribulation

The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers.

Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence here, things will change.

My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room.

We may have been the Lord’s only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” We too, are to be overcomers - bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.

Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages. I can now come to shouting “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” for I have found where it is written that Jesus said, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things: and I will be His God, and he shall be My son.” This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive - but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world.

Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick. “Yes, the Lord will heal me,”, Betsy said with confidence. She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day.

It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy’s death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.

There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution. In China, the Christians were told, “Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated - raptured.” Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, “We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes - to stand and not faint.”

I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next.

Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus’ sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, “Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation.” Then I write it down and learn it by heart.

When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, “Nothing could be any worse than today.” But we would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy. “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you; on their part evil is spoken of, but on your part He is glorified.” (I Peter 3:14) I found myself saying, “Hallelujah! Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!”

In America, the churches sing, “Let the congregation escape tribulation”, but in China and Africa the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation.

Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district were being systematically murdered.

The fourth day I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, “Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?”

The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story out of my childhood.

“When I was a little girl, ” I said, “I went to my father and said, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a marty for Jesus Christ.” “Tell me,” said Father, “When you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?” “No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.” “That is right,” my father said, “and so it is with God’s strength. Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need - just in time…”

My African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing, ” In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.” Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed. I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago.

But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.

How can we get ready for the persecution? First we need to feed on the word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.

Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the right hand of God.

We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.

In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other. But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian’s life.

Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the horrible nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the tribulation also. But then I read the Bible and I am glad.

When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him, for I know that to all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life. Hallelujah!

Posted on February 3, 2008 by pjmiller

Written By Corrie Ten Boom in 1974.

Steel yourself against the world's strong magnetism. The world has now taken to itself
powerful instruments to beguile each of us. Think of television,that lighted rectangle. What
does it do? It lies and lies and lies to you. It would have you believe in fornication without tears,

Violence without death, death without judgment and indulgence without responsibility. Lies, all lies! Against these lies, you must be strong. Perhaps it is time to put a sign on the TV set that says,

"This is the voice of Satan." The world's slick magazines should have a sticker on the cover saying,

"Baloney!" Ah, the dulcet voice of this world believe it not! This world don't fall in love with it!

1Jo 2:15 Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.

Sure hope that this thread has spoken to your Spirit man to get you to rethink where you are at with the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't want to like the world or we will be judged with them at that appointed time. We are suppose to be acting like Jesus Christ did when He was on the earth, being set apart from the WORLD.

From: The Revolutionist His Bondservant Forever In Christ Jesus

And do not complain as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. (1 Cor. 10:10)

Do you complain? Don't be too quick to answer this one. Think about it for a minute. What are your comments about the weather usually like? How do you speak about your spouse? What kinds of things do you say about your job? Do you complain about someone who didn't treat you the way you thought you should be treated? Almost everyday I hear complaining. Religious people are some of the biggest culprits. Examine yourself in this. Are you thankful for cold weather, hot weather, rainy weather, cloudy weather, and sunny weather? Do you complain when it snows a lot or when there is an ice storm? Have you ever complained when the weather "ruined" your plans? "A man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps" (Prov. 16:9). Are you truly content with what the Lord determines for you?

In 1 Corinthians 10 we read about the Israelites after they had been delivered from Egypt. In verse 10 we read that some of the Israelites complained and that God was angry enough to destroy them. Under what circumstances did the Israelites complain? On one occasion they went without water for three days. One time they found water, but it was bitter. They complained when they didn't have food. They complained when they had manna, but no meat. Put yourself in their situations. Do you think that you would have a right to complain about lacking water for three days or eating the same food day after day after day? God sent severe judgments for complaining even in situations that we might think it justified to grumble.

How much more do people deserve the wrath of God who complain about minor complications such as the weather (sent by God) or another person being inconsiderate.

"Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15).

The Overcomer demonstrates the preeminence of Christ over sin, self,and satan. How is preeminence demonstrated if we are still trying to fight our way to victory? We must stand in victory, not battle for
it. If we do fight, we fight FROM victory, not FOR victory. It must be to us an accomplished fact, not a future hope, and just there lies the difference between those who are still waging warfare and those who are quietly resting in Christ and steadily praying His Will into the earth.
From: The Revolutionist His Bondservant Forever In Christ Jesus \0/ 

GRA'TEFUL,

1. Having a due sense of benefits; kindly disposed towards one from whom a favor has been received; willing to acknowledge and repay benefits; as a grateful heart.
2. Agreeable; pleasing; acceptable; gratifying; as a grateful present; a grateful offering.
3. Pleasing to the taste; delicious; affording pleasure; as food or drink grateful offering.

UNGRA'TEFUL,

1. Not grateful; not feeling thankful for favors.
2. Not making returns, or making ill returns for kindness.
3. Making no returns for culture; as an ungrateful soil
4. Unpleasing; unacceptable. Harsh sounds are ungrateful to the ear.

The nation in which we live is VERY Ungrateful for what they have. The people that are living in this nation only think about themselves and not others.

We have the tendencies to focus on ME, all about us and what we can get for ourselves. The technology of today’s age is all about convince to us. We live in a very Materialism world. The time that we spend watching the T.V. it puts thoughts into our minds that feed the flesh. Then our self centered nature the fallen man try’s to take over telling us that we need to own this thing that will give us the happiness that we are missing.

We are to take captive all the thoughts that come into our mind. 2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

So as you can read here in the scriptures that we are to guard our hearts by taking captive the thoughts that don’t line up with the word of GOD.

We as a nation especially this time of the season which is Christmas. We are just going about trying to find the RIGHT gift to give to someone so that we can feel good about ourselves. We are missing the whole concept about giving; we are supposed to be doing that all year long. But the thing that should be first in all is putting Christ first. Do we even put GOD first in the things that we do all of the rest of the year? We as a nation has missed this, we need to be getting back to putting God the very first thing on our list of things to do.

So in all we should be grateful and thankful to GOD for what we have as a nation, personal. Here is also what we should be doing:
1Th 5:16 Rejoice evermore.
1Th 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
1Th 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
1Th 5:19 Quench not the Spirit

has given.

From: The Revolutionist His Bondservant Forever In Christ Jesus      

Practical steps that will "REVOLUTIONIZE" your Christian walk:


For many years now I have studied the accounts of past Revivals 
and Revivalists. But when you study this topic, one of the things 
you see very quickly is that we in the church today are living well 
below the level of Christianity that should be considered ‘normal’. 
(-Even a lot of "Spirit-filled" believers today). When you see what 
kind of Gospel was preached and what kind of Christian life was 
lived in the Revival days of old, you start to hunger for that kind of
Christianity again. And you start to see that there is a kind-of 
"Revived" life that is very attainable for us all today - but so few 
are walking in it - or are even told that it exists. 

In many ways, what I am talking about is the ‘Normal’ Christian 
life. It is nothing else but the "new creation" life found in Romans 
chapters 6 - 8. There is nothing "amazing" about it at all. Yet it is 
so far above the kind of Christianity that we have been led to 
expect, that many think it "unattainable". How very sad - because 
it is the free gift of God to us all. 

Is it possible to walk before God in a constant state of being 
‘clean’ before Him - and knowing it? Is it possible to walk with a 
totally pure heart and clean conscience as our "normal" state - 
every day? Is it possible to live in true victory over sin - at a 
practical level? Is it possible to have the strongholds of sin and 
pride in our fallen nature so dealt-with that they hardly bother us at all? 

The answer to these questions is ‘Yes’. And one of the key things 
that our website has to be about, is how to come into this kind of 
Christianity - how to literally have a "personal Revival". 

STEP ONE - MAKE a "LIST" 

As all Scripture and Revival history shows - a true Revival begins 
with "Deep Repentance". And in our personal lives, it so often 
begins with making a "list" - literally - of ANY sin or compromise 
or "cloud" that is in our life - and confessing those sins to God 
with real sorrow and repentance. Any person who cannot make a 
'LIST' like that - and spend time confessing their sins before God 
(-and forsaking them!) - is not really serious about becoming 
'Revived'. This is the first place to start. 

In fact, please stop reading this right now. Please find a piece of 
paper and write down a List of every sin or 'doubtful' thing in your 
life. Ask God to "shine His light" into your heart and show you 
everything that you need to repent of. Then simply get alone with 
Him and go through that List - repenting of each thing one by one - 
deeply confessing and forsaking them before the Lord. 

I believe a lot of people will have a "Personal Revival" just through 
doing that! -In fact, I know of many people who have literally been 
'revived' through this simple process. So please - DO IT NOW! This 
first step is so important that I do not believe there is any point 
reading further until you have gone through it. 

THEN - "WALKING" in it: 

Now, after you have been through this Repentance process, what 
you are left with is a CLEAN CONSCIENCE. [-This is assuming 
that you have already been through the other basic steps found in 
Romans 6 - 8. ie. WATER-BAPTISM (-a "death" to the old life) 
and also RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT (-without which we do 
not have the 'POWER' to walk in a truly 'Revived' state). Please 
see my other articles for more on these two steps if you need to]. 

Assuming that you have these basic things in place, and that you 
have now REPENTED DEEPLY by confessing your sins to God 
one by one, you should now sense a RENEWED COMMUNION 
with God through having a totally CLEAN CONSCIENCE before 
Him. Is that what you are sensing? 

The Bible speaks many times of having a conscience that is 
"sprinkled clean" by God. -And what a precious thing this is! In 
fact, it is fair to say that the Christian life consists of- (1) GETTING 
a clean conscience, and (2) KEEPING it clean! -It is pretty much 
as simple as that! 

So how do you "walk" in a 'Revived' state before God? -Simply by 
walking in a way that KEEPS YOUR CONSCIENCE CLEAN. That 
is what Romans 8 is all about! -That is what 1 John 3 is all about! 
-Keeping your heart PURE before God. -Getting a clean 
conscience and WALKING IN IT - by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Below I have compiled a number of testimonies from readers - 
telling about their experience of this continual "clean" state before 
God - and how it happened. Remember - this is a "GIFT" from God - 
and to experience it we MUST have His Spirit. The testimonies 
are below:...

(-To read the rest, please click on the article "HOW TO HAVE a 
PERSONAL REVIVAL" directly below the Message Board at the
following website-
http://www.revivalschool.com )

God bless you all.

Andrew Strom.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Brother Andrew Storm is right on in the article that he has written here. He was led of the Holy Spirit to right this article which is very much inspiring to our Spirit man that is inside of us all. We need to be led by the holy spirit in everything that we do. Jesus Christ needs to be the LORD over you life, seeking the face of God in prayer in our secret place each an everyday of our lives. Time is to short not to be doing our self centered things that we do each day of our lives. So look up His return is near. From: The Revolutionist His Bondservant Forever In Christ Jesus \0/

In a sermon delivered in 1989 at Times Square Church in New York City, Pastor Dave Wilkerson electrified his audience with the proclamation that America has passed the point of no return in its rebellion against God and has thus been destined by God for final judgment. He began the sermon with the following words:

America is dying! The country's wound is incurable. It is now in the final throes of a terminal disease. The great empire is crumbling!

The Message Summarized

The crucial points make by Wilkerson in this historic prophetic declaration were as follows:

1. America is a sinful nation that is currently experiencing the judgment of God.

2. God has raised up many prophetic voices to call America to repentance and to warn that continued rebellion will lead to doom.

3. America has refused to listen to these prophets. Instead, the nation has stiffened in its rebellion against God.

4. The result is that America has passed the point of no return, the point of "dread release," when God delivers a nation from judgment to destruction.

5. And thus, the wrath of God is about to fall on this nation, most likely in the form of an economic collapse from which there will be no recovery.

A Mocking Nation

It is an ominous message of truth that Americans, even Christians, will rebel against. The Christian community will reject it because it has compromised its values with the world, it has wrapped itself in the flag of patriotism, and it has deceived itself with its pollyanna gospel of health, wealth and prosperity.

When God sent prophets to Israel and Judah, calling them to repentance, the people mocked the prophets. "We are God's Chosen People," they reminded the prophets. "God will never allow our nation to be destroyed." (See Jeremiah 5:12-13 and Micah 3:11.)

For the past thirty years God has been raising up prophetic voices in America voices like Dave Wilkerson calling this country to repentance. We have reacted in the same manner as the ancient Israelites. We have mocked the prophets by arrogantly reminding them that we are a "Christian nation."

A Nation under Judgment

But the truth is that we are anything but a Christian nation. Our behavior as a nation makes a mockery of Christianity. We lead the world in every abomination known to man - abortion, alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling, divorce, child abuse, violent crime, pornography, and yes, even child pornography. Worse yet, we export our violence and immorality to other countries through our sleazy movies and television programs. We have become the moral polluter of planet earth.

And we are reaping what we have sown. The judgment of God is upon this nation. Read Deuteronomy 28:15-48. The curses of a nation under judgment are listed there. The passage reads like a detailed description of American society cities in chaos, youth in bondage, government in confusion, a foreign policy in retreat, rampant disease, epidemic divorce, agricultural calamity, and increasing foreign domination.

A Nation in Rebellion

Yet, despite these judgments, we have refused to repent. In fact, we have stiffened in our rebellion against God. In our schools we have abolished prayer, removed the Ten Commandments, and banned the distribution of Bibles. We have terrorized our teachers into believing they will lose their jobs if they mention God to their students. We have even mandated the teaching of atheistic evolution and have prohibited the truth of creationism.

We are in the process of legalizing and even encouraging sodomy. We are handling out condoms and needles to our youth. We are going out of our way to protect every expression of profanity and obscenity. Our state governments are encouraging immorality by promoting gambling in every conceivable form. And our artists are wallowing in blasphemy, using every form of artistic expression to mock and ridicule God.

America is thumbing its nose at God. The Supreme Court is in rebellion against God. Our Congress is hardened against God. Our Bureaucracy could care less about God. Our educational system has banned God.

A Nation Facing Wrath

The chilling thing about our behavior as a nation is that the Bible teaches that when a nation under judgment refuses to repent, it will ultimately reach a point where God will deliver it from judgment to wrath from discipline to doom. The Bible further teaches that when this terrible point of dread release is reached, the nation cannot be saved even by the prayer of the Righteous! Read Ezekiel 14:12-20.

I call this the "Nahum Principle" because it is so clearly taught in the prophetic message that God gave to Nahum to deliver to Ninevah, the capitol of the Assyrian empire. Nahum pronounced that the nation's wounds had become "incurable" (Nahum 3:19). Jeremiah used this same terminology when he later pronounced God's doom upon Judah (Jeremiah 10:19 and 30:12).

Nahum identifies the point of no return in chapter one, verse 11. He says it occurs when a nation's apathy toward God or rebellion against God is transformed into war with God. In other words, it is one thing for a nation to ignore God and another for it to rebel against God. These actions will provoke the judgment of God. But when a nation goes to war with God, that nation beckons the wrath of God and thus seals its doom.

Has America reached that point? Dave Wilkerson, God's Jeremiah for our time, says we have. I think Wilkerson is right on target.

How will God's wrath be manifested toward us? Initially, it is most likely to come in the form of an economic collapse from which there will be no hope of recovery. Ultimately, it is likely to be consummated in our destruction by nuclear weapons.

As we face the consequences of our war against God, let those of us who are Christians do so with hope in our hearts, remembering the words of Nahum 1:7 "The Lord is good. He is a stronghold in the day of trouble. And He knows those who take refuge in Him.

In Chapter 8 of Nehemiah, we read what God did through Ezra. He took the Word of God and gathered all the men and women and children who were above the age of understanding. He then conducted a 6-hour Bible study for them! And it says there that "all the people were attentive to the book of the law"(v.3). They began their meeting with a time of praising God (v.4). And then Ezra took pains to explain to the people the meaning of everything that he read from the Word (v.8). Obviously Ezra had spent many months and years studying the Word himself to have been able to explain it all so clearly to all of them. God has prepared him in secret for this time.

Revival broke out and the people began to weep for their sins (v.9). They were then exhorted to share with others the good things that God had given them. In doing so, "the joy of the Lord would be their strength" (8:10). The people went out and obeyed that exhortation. The next day Ezra had a Bible-study for the leaders (v.13). When they saw that the Word of God had commanded the Israelites to celebrate "the feast of booths" every year in the seventh month, they obeyed it immediately. This was the first time this feast was being celebrated in about 900 years – for this command had not been obeyed since the days of Joshua (v.14-17). Even David, the man after God's own heart, had not got the Israelites to obey this command. Ezra continued to have Bible-studies for the people for the next seven days (v.18).

In Chapter 9 of Nehemiah, we read what God did through Nehemiah. The chapter begins with the Israelites fasting, confessing their sins and separating themselves from the heathen (v.1,2). Then they had a three-hour Bible-study time and three hours of praising the Lord and confessing their sins. It was revival all over again (v.3). Then the Levites stood up and cried to the Lord with a loud voice (v.4). From v.6 to v.31, we have the longest recorded prayer in the whole Bible. The Levites then rehearsed the history of Israel from Abraham's time, and their failure during the forty years of wandering in the wilderness and during the times of the judges and the kings and acknowledging that every judgment that God had sent was just and right. They repented and signed a document before God, with Nehemiah signing first of all (10:1).

All of this came about through the influence of these two God-fearing men, Ezra and Nehemiah. Their joint ministry was almost exactly like the functioning of a new-testament being led by two elders. What an example for all of us to emulate today.

From: The Revolutionist His Bondservant Forever In Christ Jesus \0/

Learn To Identify Those Whom God Supports - Zac Poonen

In Numbers, chapter 13, we find that the Israelites came to Kadesh Barnea at the border of Canaan - the land that God had promised them. It was now two years since they left Egypt (Deut.2:14) and God told them to go in and posses the land. The Israelites sent twelve spies to survey the land. All twelve of them came back saying that the land was indeed a wonderful land. Ten of them however said, "But there are huge giants there and we cannot conquer them." But two of them - Caleb and Joshua – replied saying, "The Lord will help us to conquer those big giants". But the 600,000 Israelites listened to the majority.

What do we learn from this? First of all, that it is dangerous to follow the majority – because the majority is invariably wrong. "The way to life is narrow and very few find it," Jesus said. The majority still go on the broad way to destruction. So if you follow the majority you will certainly be along with them on the broad way to destruction. Don't ever imagine that a large church is a spiritual church. Jesus’ church had only 11 members in it.

When ten leaders say one thing and two say the exact opposite, whose side will you take? God was on the side of the two here - Joshua and Caleb. Unbelief and Satan were on the side of the other ten. But the Israelites foolishly followed the majority – and that was why they had to wander in the wilderness for the next 38 years. They did not have the discernment to see whose side God was on! God and one person are always a majority – and that is where I want to stand always. We find in Exodus 32 that God is on the side of just one man Moses, when all the Israelites were worshipping the golden calf. But of all the twelve tribes, only the tribe of Levi could see that then. And now when God was with Joshua and Caleb, even the tribe of Levi could not recognise it!

All of this has lessons for us today. Christendom in general is full of compromise and worldliness. Here and there, God raises up a few who stand for the truth of God's word without any compromise. If you have discernment you will recognise that God is with those few, and you will stand with them against the majority. You will enter the promise land with them.

How do you identify the man with whom God is standing? He speaks the language of faith. Joshua and Caleb spoke the language of faith: "We can overcome." We can overcome the giants of anger, sexual lust, jealousy, murmuring etc., we can overcome Satan. God will crush him under our feet. That is the language of the man with whom God stands. The man who is not with God says: "We must not take the Bible so literally. After all, we are only human. We will be defeated until the end of our lives. You have to understand human psychology." I tell you, I couldn't care less for all this human psychology. I believe God’s Word.

Many Christians go astray exactly like those Israelites- through human reasoning. God has hidden these things form the clever and the intelligent and revealed them to babes. If you use your human reasoning and your cleverness and your intelligence to study the Bible, I can guarantee that you will go astray. You need the revelation of the Holy Spirit. That's why Jesus picked fishermen to be His disciples, and not professors like Gamaliel and his students. He did pick one of the students later - Paul. But the Lord had to take him into the desert for three years to bring all his pride to nothing before Paul could get revelation.

God was so angry with those Israelites who doubted His power that He told them "Surely all these people before whom I performed all these signs will never enter the promised land. They will all perish, these people who have put Me to the test ten times" (Num.14:22). "Ten times" was not an exaggeration. They had actually rebelled ten times. God gave them nine chances. They took advantage of His forgiveness – just like many believers do today – not realising that the ninth chance was their last. God's patience had run out and they were punished when the rebelled the tenth time. There was no way to go back then. They repented when they heard their punishment and asked for one more chance. But it was too late (Num.14:39-45). Many believers will also find one day that repentance also has a limit.

From: The Revolutionist His Bondservant Forever in Christ Jesus \0/