America, Listen Up!

Oh beautiful for spacious skies,
for amber waves of grain, for purple nountains majesties
above the fruited plains
America, America, God shed His grace on thee,
and crowned thy good with brotherhood,
from sea to shining sea.

I have always loved this song from a child to now, but sadly, this song is nothing but a wonderful memory of days gone by. It is truly a blast from the past. The landscape of America is still beautiful, the plains, rolling hills, mountain vistas, deserts, the Great Lakes, rivers, mesas, the mighty Grand Canyon, the Badlands and the beautiful Atlantic and Pacific Oceans We live in a visually beautiful country if we can see through the forest fires, tornado or hurricane ravaged towns, drought stricken farmland and floods. The heat is unbearable in most of this country right now as we experience August temperatures in June. The land is expressing itself because of the spiritual state of man. Man's evil has reached a crescendo that the world has never experienced before. The Bible says that the whole earth groans for the redemption of the sons of God.

It doesn't matter who becomes the next President, because the truth is, nothing is going to change until the hearts of man change. I feel sorry for those who rise to the heights of our government to become President, because they come to the hard reality that they can change laws, but not the heart of man. Our current President has been disrespected by those who have a different view of how to lead this country in ways I have never seen in my life. He has been treated horrible, which has released a spirit of disrespect and dishonor toward all leadership, even trickling down to children disrespecting their parents openly. Pastors children are even calling the police or newspapers on their own parents or grandparents. No wonder the children disrespect their parents; it's displayed all over our television from comedy programs to reality shows, but we have seen it in our government. When there is no longer respect for those in authority, whether in the church or the world; then there will be no order.

We are witnessing disorder where there was order, in nature, in the homes, in the church, in cities and states and in the hearts of man. In the past neighbors watched out for one another's children, now we get on the Internet to see how close predators live to us. My young cousin lived in a building in a large city that had an explosion because someone had a meth lab in their apartment. Apartment dwellers have to worry about their neighbors, if they are cooking dinner or drugs and will they be blown up or caught up in a fiery inferno during the night or not. Drugs to alleviate allergies or colds can't be purchased over the counter anymore because someone thought of the bright idea that the drugs were good to get high with.

The hearts of man has become perpetually evil and because of the condition of the heart, we are experiencing murders, destruction, mental illness, fear, selfishness, discord, hatred, ethnic group against ethnic group, family meltdowns, and out of control sexual perversion whether heterosexual or homosexual.

Those in the ministry should be the shining light of glory on the earth, but even in the Church, we are seeing ministers who are out of control. Many are selling their gifts, or trying to, as they advertise themselves to Churches as being "anointed" and have the gift of laying on of hands or prophesy, as well as sending out videos of themselves preaching and ministering as the people they touch fall out. We are singing to the choir. I am not against conferences, workshops and guest speakers, all this is good for the Body. I am speaking of those who seek speaking engagements instead of being "sent ones." All of the leaders in Fire and Glory are anointed to do kingdom exploits as are the leaders in other churches. It is a given, we believe God and do what Jesus did. We are not impressed with a person with the gift of prophesy because we hear from God. Yes, we have prophets, but we also know that God speaks to His people. We do not advertise our gifts for preaching engagements; our gifts make room for us and take us places we never thought we would go. Your gift will make room for you and take you before great men. Church stop pimping yourselves!!!!!!

It is becoming apparent that the grace that God shed on America is no longer. America along with the rest of the nations of the world is on a moral and spiritual downward spiral. But, there is hope, for the Word of God tells us that if God's people, who are called by His name, would HUMBLE themselves and pray, seek His face and turn from it's wicked ways...yes, the Church turns from it's wicked ways. Yes, you got some stuff that you need to stop doing and realize that God sees. Every sin that is named in the world is named in the Church. The reason these problems exist in the Church is because we don't want to be transformed and become a worshipper. There it is, right there, we don't want to bow our knees and worship because we worship our selves. Our own anointing, our own gifting, our own preaching and our gift of prophesying, that don't even belong to us, they belong to God for the edifying, encouraging and maturing of the Church and to a lost world.

Word for the Church...get over yourself! Being kingdom minded is not building your own kingdom, but God's kingdom on the earth. It is time to step it up and produce light in the dark places. America, listen up! You need the Church in order to flourish and have the grace of God on you. You will dry up without the prayers of the people of God. We need grace to return to our shores and the Church need to get on her post as a watchman and intercessor.