777 - SEVEN DAYS OF PRAYER (JULY 1-7, 2014)

DAY 7 - RESTORATION

Come, and let us return to the Lord;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.
3 Let us know,
Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.
His going forth is established as the morning;
He will come to us like the rain,Like the latter and former rain to the earth....(Hosea 6:1-3)

Our rebellion against God is breathtaking. As a people we are more broken, more corrupt and more in desperation than anyone can imagine. The people meet in high places and bow down to strange gods. They dance around every green tree and burn incense to foreign gods, then come before the Holy One of Israel and think He will be there for them. We take His changing the weather patterns, because He can, and call it "climate change" or "global warming", when all we are doing is what Lucifer did when he tried to mount a mutiny with 1/3 of the angels in heaven and got tossed out - as recorded in Isaiah 14.

Decades and decades of turning away from the God of the Bible is now coming home to roost.  America and the world are facing a future and a judgment of horror while they - we - bury our heads in our respective sand castles. We pretend this is not happening and it will all go away. We pretend God is okay with all our sin. We are people broken by sin and torn apart at the seams. But there is hope!

God showed His Prophet Hosea how he should pray as an example for us, on a day of fasting and prayer, how we should go about doing what 2 Chronicles 7:14 says "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".

So Come Let us return to the Lord - Father God, most Holy One in Heaven, we repent in the middle of our sin for all we have done to cause You pain. We cry out as individuals and a people and plea that as we repent, You will accept our confession and bring us back from the precipice of hell as a people. Though we in the remnant may be personally saved, too many of our brethren and our entire country are being led off the cliff by those who should know better. So we pray that as we cry out, many will hear this call and want to turn back to you at this very hour in Jesus Holy Name, amen

He has torn us, but He will heal us - Father God, I believe that with all my heart as we approach you in the spirit of Brokenness. Break us now, bend us now that we may be remade, remolded and restored in Your Image, for Your Glory, forever and ever, amen.

He has stricken, but He will bind us up - Lord we are a people under the Judgment of Heaven and are too blind to see it. Open the eyes of our heart Lord, that we may see You the One True God of the Universe, and surrender to YOUR Will for our Lives, in Jesus Holy Name.

On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight - Holy Father, just as You raised the King from the grave, three days after He was crucified,  You will revive, resurrect and restore if we seek you NOW...if we see Your Restoration NOW and as we do that Lord, may You accept our sacrifice of praise and let us live in Your Sight once more. We beg and beseech You, oh Most Glorious God in Heaven to the Praise and Glory of Your Name, oh God Who revives and restores, amen and amen.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO ANNE GRAHAM LOTZ FOR HER LEADERSHIP IN THIS POWERFUL AND INSPIRATION PRAYER MOVEMENT ACROSS THE FRUITED PLAIN!

HOW WE REGAIN FAVOR WITH GOD, PART 2

1. Come, and let us return to the Lord;

For He has torn, but He will heal us;

He has stricken, but He will bind us up.

2. After two days He will revive us;

On the third day He will raise us up,

That we may live in His sight.

3. Let us know,

Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.

His going forth is established as the morning;

He will come to us like the rain,

Like the latter and former rain to the earth 

                                            HOSEA 6:1-3

Come let us return to the Lord – this acknowledges how far we have moved from Him, that we have to make a solidly sincere effort to come to our senses (just like the Prodigal Son); relent and repent (change directions from destruction to restoration) and seek reconciliation. This is the first step to genuine and permanent reunion with the Holy One of Heaven.

He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken but He will bind up – we are a wounded people, with 100% self-inflicted wounds. God had nothing do with the poverty, evil, cultural sleaze and church corruption. God had nothing to do with perverting justice, 55 million abortions and same-sex “marriage” and whatever else. It was all unsaved men and women who sought to satisfy the flesh because their spiritual eyes are not open. 

So if God had nothing to do with any of this sin, how are we “torn” and “stricken” by Him? Simple -  our sin violated His statues and we are torn apart and AWAY from Him in Spirit. The corporate soul of the people is terminal unless miraculous divine intervention takes places. God is the Repairer of souls; the Healer of broken hearts and spirits and the Restorer of the Nations. But He will only be all of that to a people whose heart is repentant and are seeking Him on His terms.

After two days He will revive us and on the third day He will raise us up – This is a prophetic reference not just to the Resurrection on the Third Day after Passover of 30AD but the coming Resurrection of the saints at the Rapture. This is the event that we, who are called by His Name, look forward to!

The Father has given all of this in His Word to show us the Way back to Him. He has given us His Son and His Grace.  Those who are not born again reject  and refuse any or all of it their own eternal peril. 

Therefore, as Verse 3 instructs, do the following: 

Pursue the Knowledge of the Lord: do this by not just reading the Word of God (the Bible) with intention and passion. 

Key into a real small group Bible study or better yet, meeting with a more mature believer. 

Develop relationships with some person(s) who can assist in discipleship and mentoring so the man or woman of God can before more acquainted with the Greatness of our God, through His Love Letter to Mankind- The Bible!

This is the ONLY way we can know Him.

This is the only way we can recognize His work in our lives.

This is the only way we can learn of His goings-forth into the Kingdom realm

This is the only way we can receive healing and living water which He offers to those who repent and seek Him with longing and thirsty hearts.

This is the only way we regain favor with God.

Amen. 

AMERICA....GONE WILD, PART 1

CARRIE UNDERWOOD ABANDONS
 BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY/CHURCH
ENDORSES GAY 'MARRIAGE'

(PART OF AN ON-GOING SERIES ON THE IMPLODING OF AMERICA - SPIRITUALLY, SOCIALLY ETC....)

Due to some incredible events, currently in the news here in the States, I take a short  detour from our  series leading up to Father's Day to call your attention to this. It is a microcosm of what we, who are called prophets of doom by those who hate Biblical Christianity, have been warning about for years now.  In this short essay, which I humbly submit for your consideration,  may I ask you to compare the next several things in light of the Meaning of Life, which we have been discussing in the past 3 or 4 days? Thank you!


Let it be known, that this once great country of America is sinking in the quicksand of filth, degradation and depravity not seen in such a potent mixture since the slow burn of the Roman Empire 2000 years ago! What is happening to the very fabric of the United States make King Solomon's corrupt life appear like a walk in the park. We know better. We have been handed the Scriptures and the Oracles of God by those who founded this incredible experiment - and we let the devil take the wheel from Jesus.


Exhibit A- CANNIBALISM: Who would have thought this would be front and center on the pages of a so-called civilized society like ours? Yet it is! It is not just the more publicized case of the Haitian immigrant in Florida, who was shot to death on a highway by police (this past Memorial Day), after literally eating the face off another man, but incidents in Louisiana and Maryland with more reports coming in! Some have been voodoo influenced, others have involved just plain perversion, chemically enhanced illicit drugs and more.  All of them have been the result of no moral compass and no God.


EXHIBIT B - CELEBRITIES & GAY AGENDA - In the past 48 hours, beloved (by many millions of Americans) and what they assumed was a good Christian woman -  Carrie Underwood, shocked everyone in the pro-family arena, by announcing her full support for "gay marriage"! Even worse was the revelation that what authentic Christians thought was a wholesome (and former Baptist) young woman, has been been attending a "gay friendly" church in Nashville with her NHL hockey-playing husband! Her reasoning is just as biblically illiterate as all those leading politicians who say the same thing...."it's about equality" or "Jesus told us to love one another"....or "it's the (nowhere to be found in the Bible) Golden Rule!' 

Dallas preacher Haynes on Sunday

EXHIBIT C- CORRUPTION IN THE CHURCH - Then in further examples of the apostasy and falling away by false prophets in the christian church, some preacher in an African-American baptist mega-church - Frederick Haynes III, ripped his OWN church for supporting the Biblical definition of Marriage found in Genesis 2:24 and not the stance of the current president in support of some such union! A preacher! Then comes news last week that a US Navy chaplain, from the liberal Disciples of Christ denomination, performed a same-sex union INSIDE of a chapel, desecrating a house of God! If that were not enough, prosperity gospel preacher Creflo Dollar, was arrested in Georgia in an unfortunate domestic disturbance problem involving his 15 year old disobedient daughter.

LEE GREENWOOD'S GOD BLESS THE USA - OUT
JUSTIN BIEBER'S 'GIRL QUIT PLAYIN' - IN

EXHIBIT D - CENSORSHIP IN THE CLASSROOM - Against all tenets of the US Constitution and just plain common sense, the principal of NY Public School #90 - the Edna Cohen School - just banned the singing of "God bless the USA" from the kindergarten graduation ceremony, which the children had spent months practicing!  To make it worse, the school principal Greta Hawkins, replaced the song with a teenage romance song by Justin Bieber, after changing her story. She said that the words of the Lee Greenwood patriotic classic would offend other cultures, then said that the words of God Bless the USA were too adult for five year olds! What is obvious with these people and liberals is not just their dislike of American traditions and the Constitution, but their complete disrespect and foul hatred of Almighty God in Heaven! The incident has led parents and the few remaining patriotic politicians in New York State to speak out against cultural brain washing. This also follows quickly on the heels of a similar ban, on the same song, by another public school in Massachusetts earlier this year!

MEGACHURCH PASTOR
ANDY STANLEY

EXHIBIT E - CHAOS IN THE COUNTRY - Up is down. Right is wrong. Good is bad. Evil is good. Every man is doing what seems right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25b). We see the trend towards hedonism more and more. We see no spiritual leadership from well-known American pastors who should be calling the nation to a prophetic declaration of the need for prayer and repentance. Instead we see Dr. Charles Stanley's son, Andy, depart from the faith of his father and seemingly promote alternate family lifestyles in his multi-campus wealthy megachurches, so as not to offend anybody. He sees no problem offending God. We see another best selling pastor saying that we get to hear the Gospel too many times, while many people have not even heard it once. We see America's biggest celebrity pastor Joel Osteen proclaiming everybody is a Christian no matter what their belief system or conduct....and on and on.


America has gone wild. America has not only lost its collective mind, the country is in danger, real danger of losing its collective soul. It used to be that the prayers of the saints would uphold the country....and in some sense, this is happening in some parts of the country where the faithful still live in concentrated pockets. But in the major populated areas and in even some areas of the once solid Bible Belt,  America has gone wild for the god of this perishing world in their blind stupidity and abandoned the One True God in Heaven. As a result of all of this and more, one day, those of us who worship Holy God and know the fierce anger beating in His Chest, are afraid we are getting close to the point of no return.

The only solution - 

       “Come, let us return to the LORD;

for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 6:1-3 ESV)

(images courtesy google)