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from The Prayerline Newsletter by Darrell C. Porter

"America At War"

July - September, 2004

Voices all around are being heard today crying out against America: its politics, its president, its people. Sadly, these voices are not from outside our borders, alone. Many are right within our own country.

The most sure way an enemy can destroy a country is by the people who live in it. A nation, a family, a person can withstand many blows from without, and overcome them. But a deadly disease within is the worst enemy of all. Vile forces have brought America into a deep divide, politically, morally, spiritually. Like the bloody Civil War of the 1800’s we are at arms against ourselves, in heated debates, antagonisms and malicious criticisms. Two camps face off on the battlefield, placing their all to take this country in a different direction; each, determined to have their way. Like with that most brutal conflict, the American Civil War, only one side will win. The other will loose.

As in all such conflicts, confusion covers the country and much uncertainty. Sharply opposite reports are brandied about. People don’t know who to trust. A sort of mental shut-down sets in, which only aids the enemy. We are a nation at war! All the more reason we must hear the Word of God and grab hold of His will for our country.

When we see evil in our land it is not God’s remedy for us to tear down our whole country because of it. Rather, the Scriptures tell us to confess our national sins openly and turn to Him in sincerity and truth. (2Chron.7:14) There is a difference between stark criticism and honest confession. Both can reveal sin. Yet one only destroys while the other seeks to preserve.

Prayer is God’s preserving work through humble people. While evil minds aim to destroy no matter what; God’s mind is to make new. Even when He does destroy His goal is re-make. For He is the Creator. He is always at work to bring forth life. (Rev.21:5)

However, America’s enemies, in a mindless fervor, aim only to destroy it, as they do all things. They care not for its citizens or its welfare . These antagonistic spirits are found not only outside our borders but are in league together in our very midst and among our native born.

The true Christian understands that his role in Christ Jesus is to uphold what his Lord upholds. If the Lord does not uphold a thing then neither are we to uphold it. On the other hand if God has shown Himself to be for a thing and is still with it then we must stand where the Lord is. The Lord established, for example, and upheld Israel as a nation. (1Chron.16:13-17) After thousands of years He still honors the land and its people. This is in spite of the fact that Israel has had many enemies around it. Yet has Israel’s enemies convinced God to be its enemy also? Certainly not.

Likewise, will America’s enemies persuade God against America? God is not fickle or wishy-washy. He is clear and firm and faithful to His Word. Indeed our nation was founded in prayer and sacrifice and blood by men who honored God and feared Him as a God of truth and judgment. Our laws were designed to preserve our people from tyranny. It was their conviction that this country continue to honor God. John Adams, one of our nation’s founding fathers, wrote, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Yet many have rejected this course of morals and religion. They prefer the luke warm waters of un commitment, appeasement and pretentious "peace". Yet we are in a war. We are not going to war. We are at war! The battle lines have been drawn. The opposing sides have defined themselves; and no war is ever won without decisive commitment. Indeed, not only is our nation at war our very souls are in conflict. We are every bit at war spiritually as we are nationally.

There could be no greater prize to the kingdom of hell than the demise of America. Yet the enemy knows he cannot destroy this nation from without. He can only do it from within. In the garden of Eden Adam could not be deceived by the devil. (1Tim.2:14) Satan had to worm his way into the man’s house through one who’d believe his lies. Eve listened to something new and different, and entertained the enemy’s criticisms of God. She then turned her eye suspiciously against her very own Creator. Convinced of the devil’s new ideas she approached her husband with a contrary mind. He knew better. Yet he was morally weakened, being now at odds, not with the devil directly, but with his very own house.

He was baffled, disoriented, unable to take a decisive stand. He sought "peace". He got destruction. He fell; and now all in him are fallen.

If America falls the nations of the world, one by one, will fall into the hands of the one world government that will then be manipulated by anti-Christ, who is fully possessed by Satan. (2Thes.2:8-10) Therefore to tear down America is to play right into the hands of its dark enemy.

Are there wrongs in America, in our Churches, our cities, our families, our neighborhoods? Yes there are. Nevertheless, a major part God’s remedy for such evils is for us to lay before Him in prayer, and seek His face that He might purge and straighten out and correct our ills. For if we oppose what God upholds then will we not find ourselves opposing God? If you oppose God then who can defend you? Who can provide for you? Who can protect you when you have pulled away from the God of your defense, to walk alone? Wild demons will find you and tear you to pieces. They have done it to many. Many Christians have lost their peace, their joy, their soundness of mind and their blessed calm for entering into wrongful criticism against the things of God.

Prayer - not malicious criticism - is the remedy for things gone wrong. God have mercy on us all for the wrongful use of our mouths. (Jam.3:7-12) Things can go wrong in any situation. For these God gives us faith and prayer. He places the foundation of His written Word before us. This is our proven covenant that God will do what He says He will do. If governments do evil then do not reply with more evil, speaking vile things against them. (2Pet.2:10) Rather know God’s will for such leaders and His mandate for righteousness. Know His Truth in your heart and pray it over your government. (1Tim.2:1-2; Rom.13:1- 6) God will work according to His Word, not according to your criticisms. (Tit.3:1-8) Jesus did not bash the authorities who crucified Him. He submitted unto them AND unto His Father. He declared the Truth that their kingdom would not stand and that God would establish His own Kingdom.

Yet He did not tear them down. That He left into the hands of His Father. Nor are we to tear down our government. Those who do will stand in judgment themselves. Many people over the years have torn down our country because of this reason or that. In the past I sympathized with some. Yet I didn’t like what was in me because of it. I saw that while I was critical I also enjoyed the benefits and protections of my country. I felt I was being wishy-washy, weak and hypocritical. I was charmed on the outside, yet suspicious on the inside. If I didn’t like America I should leave it. That was the plain and simple truth.

Well I did leave. Over the years I’ve been to several different countries; and each time I was glad to get back to my own country. I realized this was my home and that God saw fit for me to be born and raised here. Now does this mean that God will not reckon with America’s sins? Absolutely not. God will reckon with us. For He judges all sin. To confess our sins is not being critical; rather it is the first step to redemption. (Jam.5:16; Matt.3:6)

No doctor can heal a patient without first knowing what is wrong. We, as a nation, are sick. We have murdered some 40 million unborn babies in the womb. We have celebrated homosexuality in all its filthiness and brought it to acceptance. We have denigrated manhood, created more whores out of our women, and abandoned our children. We have broken the laws of economics and spent far more than what we have taken in. We worship idols of entertainment - movies, music and their lewdness and filthiness. We have taken God, prayer, discipline and common sense out of our schools, out of our culture and more and more out of our government. We praise girls that have babies out of wedlock rather than mourn and grieve that another bastard child is born into the world.

We are on every kind of drug - government sponsored and non-government sponsored. We have lost self-sufficiency. We no longer know the difference between right and wrong. Church is an entertainment weekly that we flock to, to get our fleshly praise on or to soothe ourselves with soft-soaked religion that ease our guilt-ridden conscience for our do-nothing Christian lives. We are sick in need of a Physician. Yet we run to every pitty-annie preacher, rich and popular, yet impotent of God’s power; and despise those of substance who preach the very cross that Paul preached. We have abandoned our love for honesty, virtue and hard work. We’ve sunken in bed with the world, lusting for its produce. We watch and do nothing as all things righteous and honorable are ruined. The weak become strong; and the strong weaker. The worldly, the New-Agers, the effeminate, the Godless have grown like weeds. While the people of prayer, the faithful preachers have become less in number and influence. Indeed Americans have belched out more than enough bad air to bring on to ourselves the disgust of many both in our borders and around the world.

Yet, we are afar off if we fail to recognize that even here, in the midst of our national depravity, that there is a God Who is able and willing to be merciful and kind to us if we would repent from our wickedness and turn again to Him. For, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1Jo1:9) .

The Church must first take a stand for itself, to live right before God. Then we must take a stand for our nation - to stand up for it, to confess its sins openly before God and cry out that He might have mercy upon us. We must do this for love for God and our country.

What will win the national war is the same thing that will win the spiritual war - faith in our eternal Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We need preachers who will preach that, Christians who will believe it, believers who will act on that. The Bible says "no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." (Isa.54:17) That is God’s promise to His people; and one that can be claimed for the nation of His people.

For we are still one nation under God. Not because we are so Godly but because He is so merciful to us. It is God alone Who established this nation, raised it up on the sacrifices and prayers, faith and fortunes, courage and vision of many men of honor and women of virtue. These attributes are still present in the hearts of the faithful today.

We do not walk blindly ignoring our national faults; nor do we cast aside our country because of its faults. The Lord has given to us this country to live in. He saw fit that you and I should be born and raised in this land. It was also in this land - America - that most of us met the the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. Would it be His good pleasure that we turn our back on such a rich heritage as this? Is this nation not worth fighting for, believing for, standing up for - for His Name’s sake? Surely it is to me. This is the land that my God has chosen for me to live in, and someday leave from in glory. It is my home (as earthly homes go). And I will ever uphold this nation in prayer, that my God will keep it, preserve it, purify and strengthen it to the praise of His glory, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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The PRAYERLINE Newsletter is a quarterly publication of Darrell C. Porter Evangelistic Assoc., Inc.

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