Will God's Judgments Be Stopped By Prayer

Occasionally I find something really awesome on Rapture Ready, the premiere website that focuses on the teachings of Jesus in the Holy Bible especially regarding the future, a period of time known as the Great Tribulation. Without further detail, I'll lead into today's post, a sermon by Daymond Duck, a United Methodist pastor in Tennessee who's the co-operator of Prophecy Plus Ministries with his wife Rachel. And as Rapture Ready itself encourages what's available there to be disseminated “via mail, e-mail, airmail, oral conversation, billboards, carrier pigeons, pony express, smoke signals;” etc., as long as I give the author credit for his insight, I'm safe. And I'm honored to turn the duties over to Pastor Duck today.


David :)


http://www.raptureready.com/featured/duck/dd84.html


Most Christians have heard II Chronicles 7:14 quoted so many times they couldn’t count them if they wanted to. The verse goes like this: God said, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Even though God used this verse in reference to drought and pestilence in Israel (see the preceding verse in II Chronicles 7:13), it is almost always taken out of context and applied to revival in the Church and just about any nation other than the nation of Israel. This is especially true of the United States. Mention that the United States has become a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah and the judgment of God is falling (or will fall on America) and someone will quickly quote II Chronicles 7:14 and suggest that it won’t happen to the United States because the Church will do what God says.


All things are possible with God and few people doubt that God would spare the United States, if the Church would humble itself, pray, seek Jesus and repent of its sins, but it seems that most Church members are overlooking the fact that humility, prayer, seeking and repenting in the Church must come before God hears, forgives and heals our land. He even says if my people will do these things, THEN I will do the other things. If the Church will do its part, THEN God will do His part. But more often than not, instead of doing what II Chronicles 7:14 says, most of those in the Church sit on the sidelines and do little more than complain about what is going on. God’s judgments could be stopped by prayer, etc., but it won['t] be stopped by a lack of prayer.


The story of Sodom and Gomorrah caused me to start thinking about this. God asked that famous question, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do” (Genesis 18:17)? The answer is obviously ‘no’ because God told Abraham He intended to investigate a great cry and grievous sin in Sodom and Gomorrah. Two angels started toward Sodom. And Abraham asked God another famous question, “Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked” (Gen. 18:23)? Abraham seemed to imply that the presence of a few righteous people in Sodom would be enough for God to withhold His judgment. That’s the way it is in the United States today: many seem to believe that a few righteous people in the United States is enough for God to withhold His judgment (so prayer, etc. is not needed).


Abraham asked God if He would spare Sodom if he (Abraham) could find fifty righteous souls in that wicked place. God said He would spare Sodom for the sake of the righteous. Abraham took God on down to ten and God still said He would spare Sodom for the sake of the righteous. It’s just my speculation, but I believe God would have spared Sodom if there had been only one righteous person in that awful place. But when the time came for the fire and brimstone to fall from heaven there were no righteous souls in Sodom because God had sent angels to remove them. The fire and brimstone fell and “the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace” (Genesis 19:28). Thus, we see that the pleadings of God’s friend Abraham didn’t stop God from judging the sick sin of Sodom (II Chronicles 20:7). And the pleadings of the Church won’t stop God from sending the Tribulation Period because He will remove the Church in the Rapture first. Remember the words of Jesus, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36).


Pres. Obama rightly said America is no longer a Christian nation. But Church members need to realize that America can’t go from being a Christian nation to being a non-Christian nation and expect there to be no consequences. Church members are wrong to think that America can cross no line with God; wrong to think that the sin in America can reach no limit with God. Church members need to give up the illusion that our godless government is going to solve our problems without God’s help. Without His help our government will make our problems worse not better. In the days of Joshua, the entire nation of Israel suffered because of the sin of one man at Ai (Joshua 7). If 30% of the people in the United States are saved (a debatable and probably high figure), then, 70% are not saved. If God would chastise Israel because of one man’s sin, what will he do to America because of the sin of multiplied millions?