Daily Devotional for Monday July 31, 2006

The Spiritual State of the United States

(2 Kings 22:1;, John 3:36; Romans 2:8; Ephesians 5:6)

THIS IS A VERY DIFFICULT WORD TODAY. DIFFICULT FOR ME TO DELIVER, AND DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO HEAR. PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT AND PRAY, ASK GOD TO PREPARE YOUR HEART FOR THIS MESSAGE. WE CAN'T HIDE FROM THE FACTS, BUT MUST ACCEPT THEM FOR WHAT THEY ARE. NOW MORE THAN EVER, THOSE WHO KNOW THE LORD JESUS CHRIST MUST RISE UP AND BE COUNTED AND TAKE OUR PLACE AMONGST THE FAITHFUL WHO HAVE GONE ON BEFORE US. OUR ONLY REAL LEGACY IN THIS LIFE ARE THOSE LIVES WE IMPACT FOR CHRIST! MAY GOD US THIS WORD TODAY TO STIR YOUR SOUL AND CHALLENGE YOU FULFILL HIS CALL ON YOUR LIFE!!! READ THE VERSES BELOW!!!

"Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD's anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us." (2 Kings 22:13)

"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36)

"But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." (Romans 2:8)

"Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient." (Ephesians 5:6)

The spiritual state of the United States at the end of July 2006. Because of the unique and special work God has called me to do for the Kingdom these past 7 years, being in a position to get feedback daily from over 40,000 people who email us with their needs, having taken over 6,000 live phone calls from viewers of the Liveprayer television program these past 41 months, there may not be anyone in this nation today as qualified as I am to talk about the spiritual condition of the United States in July of 2006. This is an honest, raw, and rare look at exactly where this nation is today in relationship to the God of the Bible, His Word, and Jesus Christ.

I doubt that in your life you will ever meet anyone as positive as I am. I have found it particularly difficult over these past 16 years of serving the Lord to obey God and declare His coming judgment because of our rebellious and hardened hearts. It is not a job I enjoy, but if you really love someone you love them enough to tell them the truth. God is a God of love, and grace, and mercy. God is also a God of judgment. I can tell you today without any equivocation that it is ONLY because of His love, grace, and mercy, He has not unleashed His wrath and judgment on the United States. My friend, as I type these words today I can assure you there is NO OTHER REASON we have yet to experience God's judgment.

As a nation, we not only deserve God's judgment, we are due God's judgment. Actually, we are OVERDUE! As you read through the pages of the Old Testament, you see God over and over patiently calling His people to repent and turn from their wicked ways. When they continually ignore God's pleas, He eventually has no other choice but to unleash His wrath upon them. Now don't forget, we are talking about the children of Israel, God's chosen people. Let me proffer this to you today. If God spared not His wrath on His own children, why would you think He would spare His wrath on the United States?

This is a nation in the year 2006 that worships and bows down to all of the false and imaginary gods of the world. This is a nation in the year 2006 that has cast God our Creator aside and has done everything we can to eliminate Him from the daily life of our country. This is a nation that has chosen to live in complete and utter rebellion in every way imaginable to God's Word. This is a nation that has rejected the free gift of everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ. In July of 2006, the United States is a nation that has rejected God, rejected His Word, and rejected His Son!

Instead, this nation has given itself to satan Hear the words of Paul in his second letter to Timothy when talking about the signs of the last days, "People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God- having a form of godliness but denying its power." Sound familiar?

This nation has rejected God's Truth for the lie. Every kind of perverted form of sex man can dream up is readily available and socially acceptable. Legal and illegal mind-altering substances are promoted, glorified, and easily accessible to the masses. Life has no meaning or value when people sit back and allow over 4,000 innocent babies to be executed every day. Ethics, morals, and simply be kind to one another are seen and portrayed as being weak and foolish. God's Holy Institution of marriage has been redefined and reduced to little more than a legal date. God's plan for the family, the foundation of our society, has been destroyed and decimated. Even the church mocks the very God they claim to worship by accepting, condoning, and glorifying all kinds of sinful behavior!

Saddest of all, those who have been called to represent God in our nation have sat back and shut their eyes to the spiritual deterioration of this country. Instead of fighting for the soul of our nation, they have spent millions on grand palaces to hide from the world in. They have taken the "salt and light" out of the marketplace and created a Christian subculture complete with TV and radio stations, books and magazines, movies and music, all designed for and marketed to other Christians in the subculture. Most have become fat and bloated, using their fortune to build great buildings as monuments to themselves, fly around in private jets, and live the lifestyle of a ruler of a small nation. Instead of feeding the spiritually hungry, they opt instead to feed their own egos and empires.

Let me move from the nation as a whole and talk specifically about the people. We have the better percentage of over two-full generations, with a third one on the way, who have never even been inside of a church. Generations who have grown up their entire lives in homes void of God and Biblical Truth. You have young adults who for the most part deny God's existence, thoroughly reject the Bible as being the Truth it is, and scoff at having a "personal relationship" with Jesus Christ. Most now have grown up in broken and blended homes and have had unstable childhoods. A larger percentage than people want to admit have been abused in some way, have never had the nurturing of a mother and father which is vital to the development of any child, and through the years have developed a cold and uncaring heart.

The 20-50 crowd has decided they can run their life better than God can. Other than possibly a token hour a week in church, a prayer here and there when they have major problems, they have no time for or use for God, His Word, or Jesus. Rather than driving themselves for the eternal things of God they drive themselves each day for the temporal things of this world. All of their time, effort, talent, and treasure is geared towards achieving what this worlds calls "success." In trying to fill the spiritual void in their lives, they turn to drugs, alcohol, gambling, illicit sex, shopping, food, smoking, and anything else they can do to numb the pain and escape from real life.

Those 50 and older for the most part are tired of a lifetime of struggles and pain and heartache, and have little joy in their life. Their hearts have become so hard from all the years of rebelling against God, they are literally marking time until they die. Those seniors who do have a relationship with the Lord are in a season of their life when they physically can't accomplish as much as they want to, have little strength left to fight the world any longer, and are content to just sit back and wait to go see Jesus.

My friend, in July of 2006, satan has a firm and tight grip on the soul of this nation and is dragging this country down to a place where very soon God will step in and unleash His wrath and judgment, exactly like He did on the children of Israel so many times. This nation today is so spiritually bankrupt it no longer has the desire or goal to "turn back to God." The vast majority in this land have rejected God and His authority to govern our lives, rejected His Word as Truth, and have thoroughly rejected giving their lives to Jesus. From children to senior citizens, the soul of the United States has been sold to satan and a Holy and Righteous God will have no choice but to judge this land. It is no longer a matter of if He will, only when He will.

I love you and care about you so much. Now let me give you the good news. God always has a remnant. God always has a people who refuse to bow their knee to Baal. I submit to you today that the ONLY thing that has prevented us from experiencing the judgment of God we deserve for our gross wickedness is that faithful remnant. It is faithful pastors and men and women of God He has raised up to lead the people in these last days who have given their lives to serve others, not be served. Faithful men and women who honor God with their lives not for earthly treasure but Heavenly rewards. Godly men and women whose goal is not to build their kingdom but build God's Kingdom!

It is young adults who know and love the Lord and live their lives as a living testimony for Him each day amongst their peers. It is men and women in the prime of life who put the Lord first in all things by honoring their marriage vows, raising their children in the admonition of the Lord, have a home where God is revered, work as unto the Lord in their careers, and give their time, talent, and treasure to further God's work. It is senior saints who pray, serve, give of all they have to allow God to keep using their lives right up until their last breath.

God has His faithful remnant in every school, every office, every factory, every profession, to proclaim His Truth and the hope and love we have in Jesus Christ. It is that faithful remnant which will rise up and be the hope for this nation when God's wrath is unleashed. You see, revival never comes before the judgment, it comes AFTER the judgment. If you study the children of Israel, they NEVER turned their hardened hearts to the Lord before His judgment, only after. So it will be in this nation. It is God's faithful people who will lead this nation back to God and many to Christ when God's judgment comes upon our land.

Perhaps now you can understand better where my driving passion comes from each day in what God has called me to do through Liveprayer. While we reach down into each individual life to minister to the immediate needs of those God brings to this ministry every day, I am in position to also look out and see the big picture. It is a picture of people dying every second and going to hell. It is a big picture of people's damaged and destroyed lives from sin. It is a big picture of a nation whose soul belongs to satan and operates in complete rebellion to God every second of every day.

My drive each day to reach more people through the Internet, to reach more people through secular television, is only because I know Liveprayer is a tremendous last-days instrument of God to reach this nation with God's Truth while reaching the hurting with the hope they can have in Christ and the lost with the power of the Gospel. I pray every day for God to give me the physical strength, the wisdom, His favor and blessings to be able to faithfully serve Him until I take my last breath, when my work here is completed and I enter into His presence for all eternity.

Let me leave you with this encouraging word today from God's Word. For those who know Jesus as their Savoir, we know that our citizenship is not of this country, we are citizens of Heaven. We are simply "passing through." Our time here is very short, but while we are hear it is to serve and glorify God and fulfill His purpose for our lives. God has called us to live our lives in obedience to Him and His word and to be faithful. That is to be the legacy of the child of God, to live a life of faithfulness. I pray today that you will be obedient and faithful to God and that as you experience those final moments in this life before going on to your rewards in Glory, you can look back on your life and be counted with the faithful spoken about in Hebrews Chapter 11.

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:13-16)