May 6, 2015 National Day of Prayer Word

I have a word for us this National Day of Prayer. This word is not that we need to repent as a nation or that we are facing a dire future. I do not agree with the various voices that are saying we are standing at a precipice as a nation. I do not believe we have been losing our moral bearings as a nation, nor do I believe we are facing an urgent need to “humble ourselves and pray” so as to avoid serious judgment. I think the voices that are giving out that message are greatly out of sync with God’s heart and thoughts for us at this time. There are rabbis, prophets, and pastors all missing it on this one. It is hard for me to hold back from naming names, but I will because I love and respect many of them. They are blinded only by their limited perspectives on a great and merciful God.

Frankly, I have a significant fire in my belly at the gross distortion of spiritual reality, and I can no longer contain it. If there is one thing we need to repent of, it is of our inability to connect to His heart of hope and grace for us as a nation. It is borderline stubborn disobedience—to keep insisting that we are near some precipice of doom as a nation. God is not having to be restrained from judging America at this time!!! Read that again. If America has supposedly slid in its morality then somebody please tell me when was the time we were in this utopian place we have fallen from? What and when was the “moral” generation? I ask this question everywhere I go and no one seems to be able to identify it. If we go back more than a generation, the racism and sexism was so severe as to render meaningless the fact that there was less pornography or sexual misbehaving. If we look at the last generation we cannot say the adults of the 60’s were more moral than the adults of this time. Pastors and counselors can verify that the last seemingly “holier” generation was just much more hypocritical and dishonest in their sinful ways.

Here are some facts: Teenage pregnancy is down to it’s lowest level since 1940 when studies on that societal problem began. Abortion is down almost 50% from 1990, and is below the estimate of abortions from the year BEFORE Roe vs. Wade. 73% of all abortion clinics have closed since 1990 including 87 last year. Violent crime is way down since 1990, and almost all serious crime numbers are significantly down to the lowest in over 50 years. The divorce rate has dropped significantly since 1990. Bullying is down. Discrimination is down. Sexism is down. Furthermore Christians in all areas of society are being spotlighted as never before. Multiple Christian candidates are running and winning election races all across the land. This is a relatively recent phenomenon. Multiple Presidential candidates this year will be true, born-again Christians. Many sports stars in every sport are avowed and open Christians. There are more Christian themed movies coming out of Hollywood than ever before. Leaders in every area of society easily identify as Christians, and there is almost no area of society were prominent believers are not at the forefront. We have hit reality TV programs like the Duggars, Duck Dynasty, and others that are a phenomenon not seen a generation ago or even two decades ago. God is being discussed all across the board of America—and it is an increasing reality. A lot of it is exposing our hypocrisy and our meanness, but there is no shortage of Christian voice in every area of society. We vent and complain and act like we are a diminishing minority, but the increasing reality is that we are not. We act like homosexuals and a homosexual agenda are threatening to take away our country and its greatest institutions—yet the most credible government released survey and report (July 2014) shows that homosexuals are only 1.8% of the population and another 1.1% identify as bisexual—whereas a 100 years ago those numbers were double that. We have seemingly rallied all our troops to stop the 1.8% from trying to cope with their deep sense of rejection. Meanwhile, many of our most famous Christian leaders have been exposed as those who struggle with homosexuality and many more could be as we have not been successful at manifesting enough unconditional love to adequately heal sexual dysfunctions. We will get better at this.

As a nation, we still lead the world by a long ways in funding the advance of the gospel and the support of 500,000 missionaries world wide. We are always quick to respond with money, manpower, and resources of all kinds when there is any disaster—and it is a constant that we do the majority of the contributing towards these rescue and assist operations. Despite world persecution for many believers, this reality would be at a much more extreme level if all nations did not have to face the consideration of what America might do if they raised the persecution another level. The fear of American retribution keeps down misbehaving dictators and terror groups all across the planet. Furthermore, it has been the American economy that is most responsible for the whole world not crashing economically, and still that which keeps global economic devastation from taking place. Increasingly civilized societies are rising all across the planet, thanks to the American prototype—despite all of its significant deficiencies. We spend billions each years and risk thousands of our own lives trying to keep people all over the world from killing each other. We are constantly accused of conspiring to take away other nation’s oil or resources, yet we never do.

Here is my point and my conclusion: Not only is the United States not in any grave danger of spiritual extinction or divine, serious judgment—but we have actually been going in the right direction on almost everything—except our brand of Christianity. Forget pointing at President Obama and his policies; forget about pointing a finger at the homosexual agenda; forget about pointing at the “liberal agenda”; forget about pointing out any negative social trend. The problem lies not where our fingers are being pointed, but it lies in the distortion of God’s narrative that is being promulgated by so many Christian voices, and with no exception to the Charismatic/Spirit-filled/Prophetic niche. This narrative is brought on by a greatly distorted perspective on who our God is. Most of us seem to be serving a God-view that has Him looking over our shoulders, about to judge us for our imperfect ways—and therefore, we extend that same God-view to society. For this reason, many in the church have now targeted the grace messaging as the most dangerous message in the church. There is a panic among religious leaders that if we remove the guilt conscientiousness of our congregants that sinning might go up yet another level. Many of us have become hard, finger-pointing, judgment-fearing Christians. We obsess with God judging America for our President’s sin, rather than realizing that if He releases judgment, it will begin in His house with His—grossly misrepresenting of Himself—leaders. 

The truth is God is immensely more patient than most of us have any grid for. He did not strike down Communist Russia even when their leaders (Lenin, Stalin, etc.) killed many millions and enslaved millions more. He did not strike down Hitler despite his killing of millions of His very chosen people. He has let despot after despot and wicked godless nation after wicked godless nation not be quickly judged or destroyed, despite their horrific sins. He is still working on America, her character, and her call—but she is still the most righteous-lead nation He has ever dealt with in the history of mankind. Read that again.

So then, here is the truth: God is not about to destroy or severely judge America. He will continue to discipline America as needed because He loves her—and He really, really loves her and wishes His sons and daughters would do so as well. Satan will keep plotting against America. ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other demonically inspired groups will continue to threaten and dent America from time to time. We will have stormy weather at times; we will have earthquakes at times; we will have droughts as times; we will have very hot weather at times; we will have very cold weather at times. We will experience the devil trying to destroy us from without and from within. He will try to kill our economy and he will try to kill our people. He will manage to bruise our heel from time to time, but as long as we have the tens of millions of true believers in this country that we presently do, this country will overcome all these attempts by the enemy and will instead only become stronger. We are in no danger of severe judgment from God! Read that again. Yes, we had 800,000 abortions last year—but China had at least 13 million abortions and the world total was over 60 million. What nation is postured to take the lead nation denomination away from America? None.

This nation’s best days are right ahead of her. If we could get the Christians on board with believing, declaring, and living as if this were so, this would all be greatly expedited. It only requires that we believe this is our God’s heart towards us. It only requires we just have a little bit better of an understanding of His heart and love for the world and His heart of love and mercy for America. It is out of His great love for the world that He has poured out grace on America and will continue doing so—and America is God’s gift to the world. She is a sign of His mercy and kindness to them—even while they rebel and are slow to respond. He will patiently work to win their hearts, and He hopes to start with those who already know they are His. Will you be one of those who will finally stop hearing the enemy’s lies and accusations against the United States, and be one who contends for the goodness of God in the land of the living? If so, the grace over us can be accelerated, and the whole world will be quickly and positively impacted. I say God bless America—and through us may God bless the nations of the world!