2/28/19

Babies, The Bible, and The Bottom of Our Society

So shall they fear the Name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.  ~ Isaiah 59:19

This week in America we entered new territory as a nation, a deeper dimension of evil previously not thought possible. The United States Senate failed to get the required 60 votes to pass a law that would keep babies surviving abortion alive. All Republicans present for the vote supported the proposed law. Democrats, with the exception of three, voted against it thus defeating the bill. A couple weeks ago the State of New York signed into law the legalization of killing babies up to actual birth with the approval of mother and one physician. 


The Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973 has progressed from making abortion legal to making infanticide legal. The Democratic Party has become the governing party of death in America. They call themselves ‘progressive’. Yes, they are progressively evil in the governing of the people. 


While there may have been prophetic voices in 1973 predicting the slippery slope of Roe v. Wade, most of the church was not aware of the issue. While Southern Baptists, the largest protestant denomination, are now pro-life, their leadership has admitted that the denomination supported legalizing abortion in 1973 given the argument of health for the mother. 


Before her death Mother Theresa said "Abortion kills twice. It kills the body of the baby and it kills the conscience of the mother. Abortion is profoundly anti-women." "A nation that kills its children in the womb has lost its soul."


Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King has said, "Abortion and racism are both symptoms of a fundamental human error. The error is thinking that when someone stands in the way of our wants, we can justify getting that person out of our lives. Abortion and racism stem from the same poisonous root, selfishness."

But there are lights shining in the darkness as many State governments push back against abortion including Tennessee which recently approved the ‘heart beat’ law which prohibits abortion after detecting the heartbeat in a baby. President Trump recently approved revised rules for using certain federal grant monies that will now prohibit abortion provider organizations like Planned Parenthood from access to those tax dollars. 


The difference of perspective on this issue across America is whether or not a Biblical worldview influences government. Where state and federal government are not influenced by Biblical values they will be influenced by satanic values. There is no middle ground today. Satan will never be satisfied with small victories. He wants every person and every nation to bow to him and his value system of death. Yielding to his value system is a progressive road to destruction. Christian leaders and believers have clear choices as to the government they choose.
 

There is a standard and a shout to El Shaddai arising again across this land that we must be a nation that embraces life for the innocent. "So shall they fear the Name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him ( Isaiah 59:19)." To lift up a standard in the Hebrew means ‘to cause to flee, to cause to go away’. It is time to cause the enemy to flee!!!

America must be a ‘sheep nation’; to follow the footsteps of Jesus and the apostles of the church speaking forth redemption and restoration in the nation.  A prophet of old said “Declare among the nations, Proclaim, and set up a standard; Proclaim—do not conceal it— Say, ‘Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed. Merodach is broken in pieces; Her idols are humiliated, Her images are broken in pieces’ (Jeremiah 50:2).  It is noteworthy that the pagan god Merodach, whom Jeremiah spoke strongly against, literally means ‘slaughter’.
 

The remnant of the church must arise. It is time to come out of the shadows and cast light to dispel the darkness. Speak from the pulpit. Speak to those governing. We must rise up against government approved practice of slaughtering the innocent, inside and outside the womb. How we vote and whom we support reveals our worldview and the alliances within our hearts.

2/8/19

Seeing From God's Perspective


But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. Matt. 13:16, 17

As I entered the New Year I was seeking what the Holy Spirit would say to me about the year 2019. I was not clearly seeing, perceiving, hearing or discerning His direction for a couple weeks. Then He began to show that the need for His body, the church, is ‘to see as the Father sees.’ As I discerned and digested that phrase I was weighed down with the magnitude of what the Lord desires for me, our local church, and, I believe, His church at large. One thing He desires is for this year is to increasingly see from His high perspective, from an altitude where things are not tangible and the earthly tangible things are understood from HIS perspective.


In Matthew 13:17, 17 Jesus told his disciples they were ‘blessed’ to see and hear that which the forefathers and prophets longed to see and hear, but did not. But many who saw Jesus with natural eyes did not see him with spiritual eyes. Many witnessed the miracles, attended His parade as he rode into Jerusalem before Passover, but they did not attend His crucifixion. Many sat under his teaching on the hillside, but did not sit in the upper room with the 120. They saw as men see rather than as the Father sees. They could neither see nor perceive the greater magnitude of what was revealed in tangible signs and events. 


We live in a time when our spiritual eye sight, a kind of prophetic insight, must increase if we are to see and understand natural events and circumstances. We must see the visible things as God sees them. This will require our five natural senses to move to the background and our spiritual perception to the foreground. 


There was a time when Paul was speaking to Jews in Rome while he was under house arrest. He was trying to convince them of the truth of Jesus as Messiah and Savior. Some believed but others did not. Those that did not left after his last words to them. Included in his last words were, “‘go to this people and say, “you will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never
perceiving.” For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.” ’ (Acts 28:27 NKJV) Paul’s quote from Isaiah 6 revealed God’s perspective of those that did not believe….they would not or could not SEE that which the Father God had done and was now doing. Healing in this context was not so much physical but spiritual...healing unto revelation, redemption, and discernment for a people operating by their intellect. 


There have been times of trial and trouble in my life where I could only see the natural circumstances, most of which were a great trouble for me. I could not get past the natural to see what God was doing in the midst of those troubles. In hindsight I discovered a great work He was doing, not because He caused the trials, but because He used them to move me into a new place of seeing and understanding, of perceiving and discerning; a place I had yet to occupy.
 

We must develop our spiritual eyesight as we look upon personal and national circumstances around us. We must see His perspective of event in our nations. We must see how He using leaders in government and in the church to bring Kingdom alignment when it seems chaotic. If we only look and see with natural eyes we can be deceived and disappointed, not seeing what God sees from high above. There is vision beyond the natural. It is a spiritual insight, perspective, and perception. As we move through the coming months I challenge you to seek and pursue God’s eye sight. This is an active process, not an instant transformation. Discover in His Word the mysteries that bring understanding to the natural things. Perceive in events and circumstances which the natural eyes cannot see.

Want to read more about discernment?  Click here!