I have been trying to think of a way to say what’s on my mind for a while now. It seems that no matter how hard I try, I keep coming across sounding like a doomsday prophet or killjoy. But what I have to say is important so I will do my best to present it in a way that is easy to digest. The past couple days, I believe God has been speaking to me about the times ahead. I believe there are some very interesting times coming our way as Christians and as Americans. It all starts with a preacher that I heard from Michigan a couple months back. Then, God brought me through a really tough desert time that lasted well over a month or so. And now he is speaking to me about Gideon.
How does this all relate? Well… I’ll tell you.
The preacher was a very humble man by the name of Doug Elliott. He is the pastor of about 10-20 people in a little church up in Michigan that you will probably never visit or hear about. He has been severely burned over a great portion of his body. He is in a wheelchair most of the time due to the disease that he has that is slowly crippling him. His wife has been struck by lightening causing her to become blind (which God healed her of). And he has sometimes lived on no more than about $50 a week. He even recently lost his church building and now has to have meetings somewhere else. Yet, through all this, the spirit of God was with this man in a way that I can only describe as amazing. When he opened his mouth to pray, the Spirit of God moved so intensely that I could almost barely take it. But it wasn’t one of those nice little times where you get a little rush and it lifts. No, it stayed the whole entire service, just as strong throughout. Never in my life have I experienced anything like it. What he spoke about was Ezekiel 47:1-5. He said that God has come in the past in ways that seemed manageable to us. He came in ways we could handle. But this time, He will be coming in a way that will be over our heads and out of our ability to control and that we need to be ready. I believe this time is coming.
Ok now skip forward a couple months. God recently led me through one of the toughest mental and emotional times in my whole life. It seemed like everything was messed up. I won’t get into too much detail here because that is not what is important. What matters is that through it all, He was teaching me to rely on Him. It’s so easy to say that you trust God and that He is in control but when you go through times where you are completely out of control, that faith gets tested, sometimes very strongly. I don’t know fully why I went through what I did. But I do know that God is faithful, whether we feel it or not. Even whether we feel Him or not.
And now on to the present. Gideon. I was reading the story of Gideon in Judges 6 and God began speaking some things to me. First, in 6:1, the bible tells us that the Israelites again did evil in the eyes of the Lord so he turned them over to their enemies, the Midianites, for a period of seven years. But it wasn’t until after the oppression had gotten really intense that they turned to Him for help. It says in verse 6 "Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help." Do you see how funny that is? It seems that God was kind of their last resort.
How this all ties together is this:
People have been intensely praying that God would bring this country back to him and that He would turn us from our wicked, adulterous, and idolatrous ways. If you look at examples in the Bible, what was it that God did time and time again to bring his people back to himself? He took away their wealth, he took away their self-reliance, he cleansed them from their idols, and he turned them over to their enemies. What I am getting at is that I am wondering if this recession lurking on the horizon isn't the work of God himself. I know, I know… I don’t seem to be inline with the prosperity doctrine. Sorry about that. But the truth is if we as a country continue to rely on ourselves and turn to idolatry, this country will face a time that will be so overwhelmingly oppressive that it cannot be simply managed. The only choice will be for us to turn from our idolatry and to cry out to the One that is mighty to save.
If the thought of living in anything but prosperity troubles you, I would suggest that you maybe refocus a little. And trust me, I am saying that as one who has lived that way for too long. It is God that is all that we need in this life.
If you are praying that God turns this country around and pulls it from its wickedness, don’t be surprised when you get what you pray for… even if it looks like something other than what you had in mind. Proverbs 3:25-26 says “Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.” And Psalm 33:18-19 says “But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
I’m no doomsday prophet. All I’m saying is be prepared. If famine or trouble comes upon this country, be ready to not freak out because your security was based on your idols and not on God. Be ready to point people to Jesus, the only one that can save.
