FAMINE IN AMERICA!!!

FAMINE IN AMERICA!!!

How can that be? America is the greatest nation that has ever existed. “In the realm of food, The United States remains at the top, unchallenged. The United States has the position of being the largest producer and exporter of food.” [1] That being the case, I still stand by my statement! There is FAMINE IN AMERICA!!! So what kind of famine am I talking about if it is not a food famine? What other kind of famine is there? Hear the Word of the Lord!  Amos 8:11: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I WILL SEND A FAMINE IN THE LAND, NOT A FAMINE OF BREAD, NOR A THIRST FOR WATER, BUT OF HEARING THE WORDS OF THE LORD.”

Those days have come for America! America is reaping what she has sown. God has been “excommunicated” from official society in America. The Bible and prayer have been greatly restricted in our public schools, our military, and apparently our courts. The First amendment of our Constitution has been turned upside down. Do you know what the First Amendment of the Constitution actually says? Here it is: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Do you see anything there about “The separation of Church and State?” If you would like to know how this phrase came to represent the meaning of the First Amendment in regard to religion, I highly recommend you purchase and read ORIGINAL INTENT, The Courts, the Constitution, & Religion by David Barton.

Our government and its courts have used this misrepresentation of the First Amendment to remove God from public life in America. This is never what our founding Fathers intended. “The entire foundation for America’s successful political existence was given by George Washington in his ‘Farewell address” when he declared: ‘Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness.’ ” (Barton, p325). George Washington said, “RELIGION AND MORALITY ARE INDISPENSABLE SUPPORTS” but they have been knocked out from under us by those who would throw off God’s restraints! We are living Psalm 2 in America: Psalm 2:2-3, Amplified Bible: “The kings of the earth take their places; the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and His Anointed One (the Messiah, the Christ). They say, Let us break Their bands [of restraint] asunder and cast Their cords [of control] from us.”

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

Ravi Zacharias in his radio broadcast, “The Search for Absolutes in a Pluralistic Society: Part 1” explains:

“Somewhere in the middle of this century [the 20^th century] the consciousness of western culture particularly, began to get radically transformed. You can gain that from the writers who began to express a sense of uncertainty in what was happening in our world, because we were well underway now into the bloodiest century in history. I’m not sure if you are aware that the twentieth century indeed has shed more blood than any other century in history, and by some counts may be more than the first nineteen put together”

“What is the principle idea then that has woven itself into our consciousness that has created such a cultural struggle in our time?”

Zacharias goes on to say that the idea of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) that “God is dead… has now woven itself into our social theory.” Quoting Nietzsche he continues “…God is dead and He remains dead and we have killed Him…must not we ourselves now have to become god simply to seem worthy of what we have done? …What are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of a dead God? …God is dead. We have killed Him!”

 Zacharias explains, “Nietzsche was speaking philosophically, of course, that philosophically God could no longer survive the metaphysician’s blade and that the twentieth century was going to be a century that came on the heels of an atheistic world view.” Because America has “…absorbed this kind of thinking… the culture is in crisis in terms of a loss of reason.” He goes on to say that America’s culture has become secularized which he defines as “…when religious ideas, institutions and interpretations have lost their significance.” [2]

How better to “… break Their bands [of restraint] asunder and cast Their cords [of control] from us” than by declaring that “GOD IS DEAD!”

If you are familiar with the several great revivals that took place in North America at the end of the twentieth century you would know that laughing was one of the characteristics that was manifest in these revivals. I can remember being in a Rodney Howard Brown meeting in Columbia, South Carolina where the laughing was contagious. But there were protesters there who put down the laughter because they said, “God would never laugh at what is going on in America.” Apparently they have never read Psalm 2 because verse 4 says, “He who sits in the heavens laughs…” Are you aware that we are seated in the heavens with Him? Ephesians 2:3-6: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and MADE US SIT TOGETHER IN HEAVENLY PLACES IN CHRIST JESUS.” Have you ever been around someone who is laughing? It’s contagious and besides that, we are His body in the earth, so if He is laughing, does it not follow that We would laugh also?

It is very significant to me that the early church faced similar restrictions from their government in their day. In fact, Peter and John were being commanded “…not to speak at all nor teach in the Name of Jesus.” (Acts 4:18b). In fact, after they were let go, they gathered with the local church to pray and in that prayer they appealed to God on the basis of Psalm 2.

Acts 4:23-31: “23And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. 24And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: 25Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? 26The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 27For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 28For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. 29And now, LORD, BEHOLD THEIR THREATENINGS: AND GRANT UNTO THY SERVANTS, THAT WITH ALL BOLDNESS THEY MAY SPEAK THY WORD, 30BY STRETCHING FORTH THINE HAND TO HEAL; AND THAT SIGNS AND WONDERS MAY BE DONE BY THE NAME OF THY HOLY CHILD JESUS. 31And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. 32And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. 33And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.”

God answered their prayer with a shaking and a fresh filling with the Holy Spirit. They went out and spoke the Word of God with boldness and He confirmed His Word with signs, wonders, healings and miracles in the Name of Jesus!

BREAK THE FAMINE!!!

Father, in the Name of Jesus, hear their threatening’s against your Church. Grant us boldness and a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit that we might speak your Word with boldness. Shake your church to awaken us and then confirm Your Word, even as you did for the early church, with signs, wonders, healings and miracles in the Mighty Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have mercy on America and break the famine of hearing the Word of God. Thank you for another Great Awakening in our land!

Blessings,

Tom and Jeanie Graves

Works cited:

[1] Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_power

[2] Ravi Zacharias radio program,

Link: http://www.rzim.org/let-my-people-think-broadcasts/the-search-for-absolutes-in-a-pluralistic-society-part-1/

Barton, David, ORIGINAL INTENT, The Courts, the Constitution, & Religion, 5^th ed. July 2011, Wallbuilder press.