“NATIONAL DAY OF ‘REASONING’ OR NATIONAL AGELESS-RECEPTION OF GOD’S REVELATION, REACHING OUT TO HIM, AND RESTING IN HIS BLOOD REDEMPTION?”
By. J.Farrell Fisher, July 22, 2016
Did you happen to catch the national TV exposure of Prince George of England’s picture of him (a three-year old!) feeding a dog from his ice-cream cone? A ‘brilliant’ (?) British citizen vowed: “I will not rest until Prince George of England is someday denied the throne for feeding a dog an ice cream cone!”
That’s like ‘intellectual’ university professors and ‘intellectual’ boards of directors declaring “belief in God here, validating Him, affirming Him, upholding Him, will not be allowed in this university or our corporate businesses”, while they continue to seal their own ultimate doom by unveiling their ‘intellectual’ stupidity – ‘ national kids’ or ‘dogs’ fed by the immature players of “godless governments”!
But, if there is a ‘man’, a ‘family’, or a ‘nation’ that “FEARS” the Lord, what is the ultimate result? In Psalm 25:12-21 we read, “Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. He Himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show “them” His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net. Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, for (apart from You) I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have (are, will be, about to be) enlarged; bring me out of my distresses! Look on my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins. Consider my enemies, for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred. Keep my soul, and deliver me; let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I Wait For You, the ONE TRUE AND LIVING GOD!”
“Nations” ‘taught’ in the way God chooses? Or “nations” dwelling in ‘spiritual poverty’? Are “nations” inheriting the earth or bankrupting themselves? Are “nations” recipients of the “blessings of the blood covenant in Christ” or blinded to those blessings? Are they “plucked out” of deathly situations or descending into them? Do their “troubles” enlarge or diminish, becoming “more desolate and afflicted”, or delivered by the very hand of God from them? Do nations today “wait upon the Lord”, yield to His sovereign leadership and protection and provisions, letting biblical integrity and uprightness preserve, sustain, and strengthen them? Is it “the Father’s world” or, temporarily, has it been confiscated by ungodly, unprincipled, selfish, self-indulgent ‘politicians’ and bankrupt citizens ‘trying’ their “best”, which does nothing but produces “godlessness” and introduces “divine judgment”?
Are you aware of how devoted many ‘nations’, ‘professors’, and ‘godless peoples and regions’ are, “devoted” to the ‘natural’ but incensed about the “supernatural”, opposed to the “seekers of divine Truth and His truths”, even “angry, resistant to, and diabolically opposed to national evangelism, mission, and allegiance to the God and Savior whose desire and intent is on ‘redeeming them’?”
Do you realize the choices, desires, programs, disciplines of spiritual nations in their willful intents of upholding, promoting, practicing, instituting, and honoring the God who birthed them, or fully aware of the “death-nail” deliberations, determinations, and decisions, that “God in politics” is unacceptable, un-national, and “not our ‘cup of tea’”! So they drink the “kool-aid” of “godlessness”!
Will it be the “movies” of the majority of Hollywood’s ‘brainless’, or the message of the revealed Word of God by His “privileged, appointed, anointed witnesses”? Will it be the “messages and basic principles of ‘ungodly professors’ and ‘proclaimers’ of ‘ungodly expositions’ of their “godless nations”, with the intent of constantly educating schools and universities and students in opposition to Eternal Truths, and especially opposed to “the Author and Finisher of True Faith”? Will it be in cities, states, nations, schools, universities, courts, the “expositions” of ‘godless men’ or the profound, prophetic, personalized “TRUTHS” of redeemed men, re-born servants of the Most High God, and available vessels of all the “Redeemer’s revelation- desires to save YOUR world”?
Will it be “living expressions, vibrant testimonies, miraculous occurrings and events and expectations, verbal declarations of transformation in the hearts and lives of men and women, inheriting the ‘good, acceptable, and perfect will of God’, and His mandate and His message and His “good news” to the warped, maligned, shamed images and opened-unveilings of sin’s captives and the devil’s disciples, with the clear, true, distinct proclamation of “new births”, “new names”, a “new covenant,” “new bottles” for the eternal ‘wine’ of holy presence, “new hearts”, a “new spirit”, a “new creation”, a “new name”, and recipients of a “new and living way” – and with all my heart and mind, I am fully convinced that Paul’s declaration in Romans 6:4 was God’s desire and intent, not only for individuals but nations: “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also (individually and nationally) should walk “in newness of life.”
Even in Romans 7:6 Paul informs us, both individually and, I believe, for the nations, “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we (as a nation or individually or corporately) should serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” “God, please, please, overrule the nations that do not want your compassionate governing and ruling and usher in the next “Great Spiritual Awakening” because of our heart’s desire and Your willful proclamation and willful intervention and divine pleasure!”
National days of reasoning, apart from God, are nations “void of divine counsel” and “victims of godless rulers” and, sadly, “veneers of superficial, fleshly appearances”, giving allegiances to their own ‘gods’, like Isaiah’s vision from God for His own ‘chosen nation’, Israel, (Isaiah 1:4), “Alas, sinful nation! A people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward.”
It’s really interesting as you’re reading through the Word of God to come to a passage like 2 Kings 17:24-29, then Verses 32-36, and see a “nation’s professors” yet remain ‘religious’ apart from “possession” of His Truths!
2 Kings 17:24-29 says: Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities. And it was so, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “the nations whom you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the rituals of the land; therefore He has sent lions among them, and indeed, they are killing them because they do not know the rituals of the God of the land.”
Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Send there one of the priests whom you brought from there; let him go and dwell there, and let them teach them the rituals of the God of the land.” Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.
However every nation continued to make gods of its own, and put them in the shrines on the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities where they dwelt. {Oh, how delightful! They are really religious, but totally unredeemed!} The “pretense” continued! Look at Verses 32-36!
So they ‘feared the Lord’, and from every class they appointed FOR THEMSELVES ‘priests’ of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. They feared the Lord, “YET SERVED THEIR OWN GODS” – according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away.
TO THIS DAY they continue practicing the former rituals; they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances, or the law and commandment which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel, with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying: “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them; but the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall sacrifice.”
[Dare I tell you? Hebrews 9:24-28 declares that the true redemption sacrifice is “Emmanuel” or “God in flesh”; THAT’s Christ Jesus!] Hear the Word! “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world;
But now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away SIN by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time apart from sin, for salvation.”
And dare I also say, because of one’s repentance toward God and faith in the Redeemer’s “finished work”, they become, you in Christ become, Temples of Holy Presence! “New Holy Temples”! You, me, the transformed, the redeemed, the blood-bought, yes, by “the blood of the Lamb of God” who is Christ alone!
But hear me! National allegiances to the world, the flesh or old sin nature, and, sadly, allegiances to the devil, the demons, or their dark, enslaving influences, are in many not simply ‘prominent’ but ‘preeminent’ over Holy God and His Holy Revelation and divine will, and in their lame assertions “men at their best efforts” deny Him, have no need of Him or His love, grace, and mercy, saying, “Why does your God think we can’t care for ourselves”?
Because in our own efforts there is no “blood redemption”, there is no “reconciliation”, there is no “seed” of “new birth”, and there is no fulfillment or blessing or miracle of divine transformation! This age of the 21st Century is fast becoming the “age of grey”, not black or white, but “do as you desire” without any consideration of or devotion to the God of our creation and His Word, His will, His ways – the “age of grey”! But “White”- that’s “washed in the blood of the Lamb” and divinely declared as “white as snow” – not the pigment of one’s skin but the purity of his/her heart! Glory! And black? Hearts fully surrendered and bond in sin and death, bondage and misspent opportunity to know Him, love Him, and serve Him, and ultimately eternal separation in Hell under the awful domination of the devil and his demons, and miserable existence eternally with the “shattered-by-God” because of their stubbornness, unbelief, disobedience, and distaste for the Savior and Redeemer, King of kings and Lord of lords! Enough of “the old man”, the “fallen creation of unbelief” and the “world of rejection of Loving, Caring, Merciful Holy God”!
WHAT ABOUT NATIONS MADE NEW? In Revelation 22 John said, after hearing Him who sat on the Throne in Revelation 21:5 declaring, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” “I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes (that’s overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil!) shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and ALL LIARS shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
[I believe I would contemplate about God Himself declaring “a second death” that never dies!] Have you never seen that Revelation 22:1-5 declares, not something “out there”, “maybe thousands of years away”, but that as “Jesus comes quickly” into “new born lives” and “redeemed nations”, with Verse 7 assuring us, saying, “Blessed is he [individual or nation!] who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book?” For the sake of nations, please listen, receive, claim, stand on, proclaim Verses 1-5 of Revelation 22!!!It says:
“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree WERE FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS.
And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.” ARE YOU “IN CHRIST” IN THIS VERY MOMENT AND FOR THE REST OF YOUR EARTHLY DWELLING TRULY ALLOWING HIS LIGHT TO SHINE THROUGH YOU?
GOD AND THE NATIONS OF FAITH? 1. God “designs them”: red, yellow, black or white, they are precious in His sight!”
2. God “delights in obedience or, yes, delights in separating alienating, and destroying the rebellious”!
3.God “delivers them” out of all their troubles, wars, famines, or from ‘godless’, disobedient, faithless rulers!
4. God “disciplines them” like immaturity, childish ‘brats’ until they become mature national “sons or daughters” of the redemptive faith.
5. God “dictates”! It’s His Word or the world’s highways, His Truths or the world’s temptations, His will or the world’s or the nations’ allegiance to their “free-from-God-spirit”!
Dare I apply Romans 14:19 to “nations” as well as “individuals, families, communities, states, or churches”? Paul said: “Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one (even “nations”?) may edify one another.” How do you relate, respond, or react, to the inspired word of Paul in Galatians 3:8-9 when he said, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you ALL THE NATIONS SHALL BE BLESSED’. So then those (individuals, families, states, and nations?) are blessed with believing Abraham,” which doesn’t insist all nations are submitted, surrendered to, or celebrate Holy God, but many nations KNOW the need of God as Savior, Lord, Redeemer, Ruler, Guide, Overseer, and Sovereign Administrator of their governmental affairs!
I want to close this teaching with a word from Barnabas and Paul about allegiances to “useless things”, (even “nations” doing so!): Acts 14:8-22, And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet!” And he leaped and walked.
Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose (pagan) temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes.
But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and we preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” And with these sayings they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them.
Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”
Does that tell us that, yes, even “God-blessed” nations have, do, or will, face trouble, tribulations, and trials? Without a doubt! But, “In Him”, “WE SHALL OVERCOME!”