Heed the Counsel of God
The decision voiced by our president yesterday concerning marriage should break the heart of every person of faith, all who believe in the God of the Bible and have any confidence in His Holy Word. Marriage was the first institution put in place by the Creator, even before the church. It has been recognized and accepted by all civilized societies throughout history. Decisions like this coupled with the destruction of more than 54 million precious unborn babies should bring us to our knees in brokenness and repentance or our freedom and future security as a nation will be lost. We will have given to the enemy the land along with the lives our Father in heaven entrusted to our watchcare. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” We do not have to give one moment of our lives or one inch of our land to the destroyer.
Not for one moment am I condoning or encouraging any unkind expressions toward those enslaved by unhealthy attractions, desires, or addictions. Unkindness is uncalled for. Make no room for bullies, but don’t be bullied into abandoning Godly convictions. Jesus reached out to the most troubled and defeated individuals on this planet to offer forgiveness and hope, but He said clearly, “Go, and sin no more.” We do not have to live defeated, deceived, and downtrodden.
I believe we are about to witness the necessary great move of God. I certainly see the darkness, but I see the light of God’s glory about to shine forth through His people. I have never been so encouraged as I talked to church leaders across America in the past few days. This week I talked with Dr. David Jeremiah, Senior Pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in San Diego. I thanked him for the wonderful love and truth-filled prophetic and encouraging messages he has been preaching. I thanked him for his recent books including one he released last year I Never Thought I’d See The Day referencing issues that have been brought to the forefront like abortion, same sex marriage, sexual immorality, and infidelity promoted as the norm while commitment and responsibility are ridiculed.
Well, let me joyfully announce, I never thought I’d see the day when so many Christians are being resurrected to stand up like a mighty army in the face of the enemy’s onslaught. I never thought I’d see so many believers truly love one another and love their neighbor including those often considered enemies, while consistently and without compromise speaking the truth in love. The effectiveness of the assault on faith, family, and freedom is about to be stopped by true believers who will reclaim the land and watch God through His grace set captives free. To God be the glory for all He is about to accomplish through yielded lives!
Here is the truth we must receive and the lessons we must learn. Jesus said His sheep know His voice. All of His sheep can recognize His voice, but the only way to reliably discern sounds in the spirit world is by knowing His Word – the Scriptures. To know Him—His character, nature, and ways—you must search the Bible as a sincere, yielded seeker.
Believers, however shallow or serious they may be, will also hear the voice of the deceiver as clearly as they do God. For example, examine the conversation recorded in Matthew 16 between Peter and Jesus. Simon Peter proclaimed, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and he was told by Jesus that, “Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my Father in heaven.” In the same passage, the next time Peter opened his mouth disagreeing with Jesus, he was quoting Satan whom he had obviously heard just as clearly as he had the Father. Jesus rebuked him, “Get thee behind Me, Satan, for you focus on the things of man, not of God.” This re-emphasizes the absolute necessity of knowing the written Word in order to recognize the voice of the Shepherd and our Father in heaven from that of the deceiver who can masquerade as an angel of light.
Everyone who has lost their life in Christ’s purpose discovers life in all its abundant glory. The truly godly will have only one agenda, which is living for kingdom purpose. However greatly blessed by God they may be, they do not worship the blessings or the possessions they may be given to oversee. This includes wealth, reputation, personal belongings, and ministries. We must all seek to be totally committed to the will and kingdom purpose of God. These are the people who can offer the wisdom and counsel so greatly needed at this time. All rulers, including presidents, kings, prime ministers, and representatives, must have wise counsel in order to point to the best direction, decisions, laws, and policies.
The mistake comes when we make any good, effective leader or political power the source of our confidence and trust, such as Israel did with Pharaoh, who had received wise counsel from Joseph resulting in decisions that benefited the people. They erroneously began to trust Pharaoh and literally sold out to him, trying to secure their security, and rapidly found their way into bondage. The same thing happened again in the Promised Land when they wanted a king so they could be like the nations of the world. Big mistake! May I mention, as Americans, we are living in a land of promise. When we make blessings idols, we choose the yoke of bondage. We experience personal bondage any time we yield our lives to the enemy by believing his lies, and he produces his painful fruit in us. Pestilence, briars, predators, birds of the air, and beasts of the field unceasingly attack. The result is the fruit of our rotten, rebellious flesh. In the book of Joel, invading locusts came as a plague on disobedient and rebellious people to also consume the fruitfulness of their land. Today in similar fashion, our economy is being consumed because of bad decisions and ungodly practices. The fact that fruitfulness, productivity, and blessings are destroyed every time individuals and nations put any source above God is confirmed in every book of the Old Testament and clearly re-emphasized in the New Testament. Read Romans 1 and Second Timothy 3 for two examples.
Consider Job when the “hedge” was removed. Remember post-Katrina New Orleans when the dikes broke and the floods of destruction came in. The Word and wisdom of God, security, and safety for our lives and family are found in the shelter and shadow of Almighty God. He desires each of us to be His cultivated field. When yielded to Him, we will produce abounding spiritual and beneficial fruitfulness overflowing with a spirit of joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God honors us when we commit to the Him our communities, all the fields of opportunities, our states, and our nation.
If, however, we believe the lies of the enemy, we forfeit the blessings, productivity, and our prosperity will be consumed as revealed through the message delivered by the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament. Like Job, we are all vulnerable when the hedge of God’s protection is down. America has forfeited many of freedom’s blessings and the assurance of a secure future because most professing Christians never suited up or showed up for the battle. The hour has come when those who hear the clarion call of God from those who are raising the trumpet on the holy mountain and are lifting up a standard for all to behold to come together in supernatural unity and stand against the forces of deception, division, and destruction.
This article was written by James Robison
8 comments:
Acceptance of same-sex marriage represents a paradigm shift in American culture, and may well signal the beginning of the end of western civilization. The enemies of Christ would “glory in their shame” (Phil. 3:19). Same-sex marriage may be the ultimate shame because it is a blasphemous counterfeit of the God-ordained institution of heterosexual marriage, which Paul tells us, is a temporal manifestation of the eternal mystery of the union of Christ and His Church (Eph. 5:31-32). We should acknowledge that we could indeed learn many things from other cultures. We should never fall into the belief that our culture has all the answers. No culture has a complete monopoly on the truth. If there are no absolute values that exist trans-culturally or externally to the group, how are different cultures to get along when values collide? How are we to handle these conflicts? Moreover, is there ever a place for courageous individuals to challenge the cultural norm and fight against social evil? The Bible provides a true standard by which to judge attitudes and actions. Biblical standards can be used to judge individual sin as well as corporate sin institutionalized within a culture. By contrast, culture cannot be used to judge right and wrong. A changing culture cannot provide a fixed standard for morality. Only God’s character, revealed in the Bible provides a reliable measure for morality.
More than 2,500 years ago, a lonely prophet watched as the nation of Judah spiraled downward into the depths of spiritual and physical depravity. His heart broken and his soul wretched, Habakkuk mourned: Why do you show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me, There is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, Therefore perverse judgment proceeds. (Habakkuk 1:3-4)
God’s will is not swayed by political or governmental action. God’s hand is moved only by the prayers of His people. God promises us in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
Wake Up Church!!! Wake Up America …we are almost out of time!!!
Marriage licenses are issued by the state, not the church. No religion is necessary for a marriage to be legal, valid or recognized. The USA per the 1st Amendment is not a Christian only nation. To place civil law based on the Bible would abolish this freedom of religion for all citizens. An atheist couple, agnostic, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Pagan, Wiccan, all can be legally married without proclaiming Jesus Christ as their savior as it is a civil contract entered into by two people not a church contract.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN,
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOUR CONCISE DISSERTATION OF HOW GOOD CULTURE CAN ONLY BE SHAPED BY THE SOUNDNESS OF BIBLICAL STANDARDS AND PRINCIPLES. IF THE FOUNDING FATHERS, WHO LAID DOWN GODLY RULES AND LAWS TO GOVERN THIS GREAT COUNTRY, SAW WHAT WE WERE SEEING FROM “THE THRONE OF WASHINGTON” , THEY WOULD BE SHATTERED BY OUR GREAT DESCENT FROM TRUTH INTO A QUANDARY OF DISMAY, DECEIT, AND VIOLENCE.
YOU KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER : WE MUST PRAY DAILY WITH THE FERVENCY OF PEOPLE GOING DOWN WITH THE SHIP . IF WE DON’T , HELL WILL RULE IN AMERICA. .
I feel as a pastor I am being sedated so that I will accept social issues as right even when they contradict the Bible. I feel like I am fighting to stay conscious and awake while the IV of political correctness starts to numb my spirit. Trusted church leaders are telling me to soften my stance or I will become irrelavant and ineffective. How can I be okay with something God clearly isn’t okay with? Who is out there to encourage pastors to stay strong. I am tremble to think that I would let the truth fall because I fear the rejection of men. I want to please God.
Pastor James, please remember the pastors of small churches in your prayers. We, many times, have no one to father us or mentor us. We are despised and are treated as though we have nothing important to say to the Body because of our church size.
Please pray that we will stay strong. Please pray that we would have the heart of a prophet.Please pray that we will always take God’s side on every issue.
Thanks.
Today, in the United States where American citizens are theoretically protected by the Constitution, the persecution of anyone for their religious beliefs is a violation of constitutional law. Very clearly, the 1st Amendment of the Constitution says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” What that says, in simple everyday language that constitutional lawyers should not trip over, is that the government cannot deny anyone the privilege of exercising their religious beliefs in any way they chose . Further, the Constitution assures us that we can worship as we choose without interference from the government. But it is right here that the new American religiosity clamps its hands over its ears and refuses to hear. America wants God’s blessing. America wants God to protect us from more horrific visions of airliners flying purposefully, relentlessly into our national monuments. We want God to be near us as we board our aircraft. We want Him to protect us from the horror of thinking about what it was like when the towers collapsed. But what America does not want is a God who is holy, who is just, and who has revealed His will concerning how we, His creatures, are to live. America is a land soaked in blood. We glory in violence. We are so selfish, so bound in our avarice, fornication, and sexual lust, that we murder our own offspring in the womb (or at birth as in partial-birth infanticide). Our hands are covered in blood, and yet we think lighting a candle and lifting them up while mumbling “God Bless America” is going to bring God’s favor?
Wake Up Church! Wake Up America!
Well done James another excellent well written article. Like you James I was stunned when your president declared his support for same-sex marriage, it definitely broke my heart. The first president to ever do this. America was established on Godly principles and standards, but now all these are being eroded away gradually. However I believe like you James that if all true believers stand as one big army then gradually the darkness will disappear, and a great move of God will come upon America again.
L.Agius (Sydney, Australia)
Halleujah! Thank you so for much this article. This is a time of separation between those who will “Stand for God” and those who will not. There is no room for compromise!
With his announcement about gay marriage the President has thrown his weight behind something that true believers will never support, as a matter of principle. President Obama’s decision has created a firestorm of response from both sides of the issue. Many commended the president for coming out in support of homosexual marriage, and have already insisted that he do much more to make gay/same-sex marriage the same as marriage. He took the wrong decision, in my view.
Mr. Obama says his reasons for the decision are “personal.” He states that he has friends, associates and members of his administration in “committed monogamous” relationships, who seem to be happy and stable. Therefore, by his reasoning, if people are together, committed and happy, they should be afforded the distinction of “married” if they want it. The President argues marriage is a matter of “fairness” and “equality.” He is wrong. Marriage cannot be adapted to include same-sex unions. Constitutional equality for all citizens is not at question.
The president offered no biblical, moral or historical perspective on marriage, only a “personal” view. Not only is this not a justification to change the definition of marriage, it is an argument that is not sustainable when applied to many other contexts in nature and life. This “relational” justification for gay marriage is likely more a matter of not wanting to displease gay friends (and financial supporters!), than holding to a well established principle in society.
I have friends who deeply love and respect me. However, if (more likely “when”) I do or say something wrong, I expect my friends to correct me and hold me to a standard—not change the standard to keep my friendship.
Franklin Graham said that the president “shook his fist at God” with this decision. I found Rev. Graham’s statement unhelpful for two reasons: 1) It sounded like hyperbole: God cannot be threatened or harmed in any way, by anyone. 2) This statement was likely a politically motivated statement designed to put President Obama in a worse light than his political opponent, Gov. Romney.
I think that adherence to Mormonism, which is an unbiblical cult, that has no relationship to historic Christianity, is also a “sin” and in the spirit of anti-Christ. If we could classify sins as “bad” and “worse” (which is difficult, if not impossible to do), then “being” a Mormon is worse than “saying” you support same-sex marriage. If fact, both the president and his presumptive GOP opponent have deficiencies in one are more areas.
[FYI – Mormons believe: God is an exalted man of flesh and blood; Faithful Mormons become gods; Book of Mormon and Bible are equal in authority; Garden of Eden was in Missouri; Jesus was conceived normally; et. al. All beliefs are easy to research]
Some decry the president’s statement as the end of America, and an indication of impending judgment from God. All this, as if slavery, the Civil War, legal abortion since 1973, and all the sins committed every hour of every day in the USA were not worse than the president’s announcement about gay marriage. America, and the whole world has been under judgment since Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden. We seem to forget such truths as: 1 John 5:19, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
I love America as much as the next citizen, but let’s be clear: We are not the Apple of God’s eye–only Israel (And no, America is not Israel!). We are not exempt from 1 John 5:19. We are a Christian nation, and yet look at all the sin and foolishness we allow. Therefore, we do not have the luxury of transferring all our sense of guilt and outrage FOR OUR FAILURES onto President Obama or “liberals.” We don’t have any “saviors” in the GOP either.
The result of marriage is a man and woman who become joined together as “husband and wife.” Wife-wife or husband-husband is not the result of a marriage. My opposition to same-sex marriage is not personal, but natural, anatomical, and biblical. Neither, president Obama nor state law can change the definition of marriage. We can only affirm it.
Since neither the President, nor political parties can, or should, provide spiritual leadership for people in our nation, it continues to be our responsibility to speak the truth in love, serve all people and hold up principles and standards, such as marriage, that are bigger than our selfish interests.
2 Cor. 13:8, “…For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.”