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Our Nation Under God

 

I am amazed and in awe of what just happened. The greatest political upset in my lifetime and perhaps in the history of the United States has just taken place. With all the speculation as to why, I believe more than anything, God has answered the prayers of Christians. My wife and I together prayed for a reversal that humanly speaking seemed impossible. People throughout our church fasted and prayed. We met at 5:00 AM with prayer warriors at our church on election day. Not only our church, but as I have traveled around the country and observed, the people of God came to their knees, not to surrender to man, but in surrender to God for mercy upon our country. At 4:45 am yesterday on the way to pray with our people at church I heard a word, which I believe now, was from the Lord, “Today will be a day of surprise.” And what a surprise it was! The Lord promised, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7). Under severe needs such as in the case of Esther, fasting coupled with prayer becomes not only necessary, but intensifies the weapon of prayer to accomplish God’s overall purposes. God said in Isaiah 58:6, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” When the disciples asked why they could not cast out the demonic power holding a young man, the Lord Jesus answered, “…This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). Not much is being said about this truth. Everyone is astounded, yet ignoring that the main ingredient in this overturn was an intervention of Almighty God. And although there are many reasons God intervened, please do not discount prayer, real prayer that gives all glory to God. “…The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16b). Thank you to my good friend, Attorney Dr. David Gibbs and other preachers who encouraged our churches to fast and pray.

May the Lord be praised! Now that the ball is back in our proverbial court, we have a greater responsibility than ever to keep this land of the free a God-fearing Republic. Ben Franklin was asked by a lady when he was exiting the Constitutional framing Convention, "Sir," she inquired, "What do we have?" He replied, "Madam, we have a Republic, if we can keep it."

I find myself so encouraged on several fronts:

1. God willing, now we will getting an immediate replacement for Antonin Scalia, the late Supreme Court Justice who will be like Scalia. God willing, Ruth Bader Ginsberg will be the next to be replaced by a conservative justice, not another extreme liberal like herself. And there are more appointments to follow! The Supreme Court has the opportunity to once again become what the founding fathers intended it to be, i.e., upholders and enforcers of the Constitution, not interpreters and redefiners of the Constitution. The ramifications: Hope for the unborn! An actual chance to one day reverse Roe verses Wade! We can now hope for rejection and pushback by the new court against the propaganda and threats from the gay/lesbian community. And the Lord willing, a renewal of the definition of marriage, which is biblically defined by God between one man and one woman. This new court could also insure a better chance of upholding the rights of businesses who are run by Bible-believers who have staunch convictions about the rights of the unborn and their rights not to finance the killing of babies, the rights not to patronize the gay/lesbian demands and the common decency to enforce men and women to use separate restrooms. I am not exaggerating what I am about to quote. I actually heard this. A talk show hostess of a main network was informed that she believed God heard the prayers of His people. And this well-know talk show hostess replied, “Well, that is well and good for people that have relationship with God or your God, but for people who don’t have relationship with God, what are they gonna do?” Do you realize what was just declared? By innuendo, this talk show hostess, was declaring had the election gone the other way, it would have been most favorable to people who have no relationship with God. May we be so bold as to say, she and her fellow unbelievers may not know what they are going to do, “…But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15) with abandonment!

2. God willing, we have been delivered from socialism. I remember having our teacher Mr. Cook back in Lakeland Jr. High teaching us in a class called, "Americanism" that socialism is the first major step toward communism. My college professor, Dr. John Stormer, author of None Dare Call It Treason and Death of a Nation warned so clearly of the dangers of the trajectory that leads down the trail of governmental intrusion. Under Hillary Clinton we could have easily morphed into a full-fledged government state. The book 1984 could have become a reality, i.e., "Big Brother" is not only "watching" you, but also "controlling" you. Middle class and above would have been staring down the barrel of half (or better) of their income being taxed and those below medium income would have become so completely dependent on government subsidies, they would not only vote in upcoming elections to keep the government hand-outs, but would riot in the streets should you try take away their benefits. To borrow the words of President Reagan’s first inaugural address, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Today the big government ideal has fallen like a Goliath at the hands of an unpredicted David. And the David I am referring to is much more than the candidate who just won office of the president, but the people. The people won. Even better, I believe God has won, as I would like to discuss next.
3. God willing, Christians have a much better chance of practicing the faith once delivered (Jude, verse 3) with greater abandonment. Many do not realize how close churches were coming to losing our tax exempt status. Many churches could have been taxed so severely that they would have to hock their buildings to pay their bills or pull back their benevolence toward worldwide missions and charity at home to pay their bills. Make no mistake, President Obama and Mrs. Clinton were already threatening churches telling us to “change or else." The Democrats would have interpreted a win as a mandate that would give them permission to break down the wall of separation and strong arm their wicked way against practicing Christianity. Once again, the words of Jesus promising in Matthew 16:18b, have been fulfilled, "...the gates of hell shall not prevail against It (the Church)." Sola Deo Gloria!

Conclusion: Please know I am aware very aware that the man who just won the presidency either needs to be saved or to grow in grace. I would not argue this point. However, God raised up Cyrus (Ezra 1:1-4) to make a decree for the Jews to go back to her promised land and start putting their country back together again after 70 years of bondage. The ways of God are bigger than our understanding, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). Never forget, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Proverbs 21:1). And that verse is applicable for a government by the people and for the people as well. Now, more than ever, let us pray for President-elect Donald Trump, his running mate Michael Pence, the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court. We are under the command in I Timothy 2:2, to pray “For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”