Did you hear about the horrific Texas traffic accident involving over a hundred vehicles because of surprising glare ice on the road? A half dozen people died and over a hundred were injured, some with life debilitating injuries.
Now, if you had the knowledge that the road up ahead was so dangerous that it could cause the death of everyone going that way, wouldn’t you do everything in your power to stop everyone from rushing toward their destruction? Of course, you would. Who wouldn’t? That’s just common humanitarian consideration for our fellow man. You’d have good reason to question the ethics or sanity of anyone who wouldn’t do that, wouldn’t you?
The fact that the battle to preserve our society of liberty is a spiritual war against demonic principalities in high places is more evident now than ever before in our lifetime. The question is – will God’s people who are called by His name not only humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, but will they be the preserving salt of influence on our society or will they continue to be ‘trampled’ by society’s mountains of influence?
The Power of Keeping People in Darkness (ignorant)
The gross darkness of ignorance that prevails in today’s world results from one thing: deliberate re-education. Historic disciples of Marx, Lenin and Mao know very well that society-wide ignorance depends on the perversion of true history, and the censoring of moral truth found in God’s Word. Paul insisted that Christ followers “prove all things.” Why? Faith (in God, the Bible or all truth) comes by hearing the Word of God! Without a clear and spoken declaration of relevant, Christ glorifying words (Rhema) of God’s timeless truth, people are lost in confusion, deception, and pop culture entertainment. It’s all devoid of substance that challenges us to seek God.
More and more people in our country and in the world are awakening to the reality that we are all on the stage of the greatest spiritual battleground imaginable.
As the darkness of evil becomes increasingly invasive, the brightness of the Light of God’s Truth and Righteousness becomes all the more apparent to those who have eyes to see. Unfortunately, we realize from recent history that people who have been pickled in mass-media deception and coddled by a public indoctrination mindset that coddles the stubbornness to cling to their self-serving idolatry and wicked passions… those people are often too hardened to hear God’s invitation to repent and receive the peace of eternal life.
The Bible has a lot to say about avoiding deception and renewing our minds with the purity of truth and righteousness, which is a right standing with our Creator and Savior. In today’s world, the person who truly wants to follow Jesus and be led by the Holy Spirit has quite a challenge to sort out the influences in his life that can be potentially very dangerous and even lethal. It takes prayerful work and spiritual discernment to make the best choices.
It’s no surprise to most adults in our society that a highly sophisticated culture of so-called “elitists” are manipulating many aspects of public perception. You’ll find some helpful insights on modern day mind-control in several episodes I’ve posted at ReclaimYourLegacy.com. Our attention is drawn to the key verse in the Bible, warning believers to be on high alert to the life-threatening dangers of mind-controlling deceptions. They can easily draw us astray from the pathway of pure and undefiled faithfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ.
“WHO WILL RISE UP FOR ME AGAINST THE EVILDOERS? WHO WILL STAND UP FOR ME AGAINST THE WORKERS OF INIQUITY?” Psalm 94:16
Have you ever noticed the strong words God has for those who deliberately practice evil? They are sometimes referred to as “evildoers” in the Bible. Because we often tend to look at Scripture in a more personalized application, we can miss the fact that God’s word of condemnation often refers to the concerted efforts of organized evildoers. Likewise, it’s important for us to realize that our Heavenly Father is working in us corporately as His body to unitedly pray and work together to “destroy the works of (our enemy) the devil.” With that in mind, hear some of what God says about these enemy “workers of iniquity.”
What can we do to reclaim the virtue that fought for freedom?
You’ve probably heard it said that “If you Want Change, Change Begins with YOU.”
Do you remember hearing this famous quote by one of America’s most eminent founding fathers?
“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
Benjamin Franklin’s wise insights used to be a regular part in the lives of American children, growing up in the freest nation ever to exist on Earth. Franklin’s autobiography and the biographies of other notable founders were a deliberate part of education in a culture that understood the value of ‘common sense.’
As we look at our national society today, you get the feeling that we’re living in enemy territory, don’t you? Just look at the evidences of corruption and vicious behavior; behavior that Ben Franklin observed to result in increasing “masters.” But to make matters worse, it’s becoming increasingly obvious to all… that many of our generation’s “masters” are more corrupt and diabolically vicious than any of the everyday gang members on the streets of America’s cities. Do I really mean that?
When the crossroads of decision become a precipice demanding action, only the determined, ‘all in’ warrior overcomers have any hope of seeing God’s ultimate victory.
There are plenty of Scriptural parallels in God’s recorded history of His people to give us ample insights to the challenges of our generation today. Like God’s gift to the sons of Issachar in first Chronicles 12:32, we desire to have the insight of “understanding the times, to know what Israel – or God’s people today – ought to do.”
In previous episodes of Reclaiming Your Legacy, we’ve seen plenty of encouraging insight the Bible gives us to ‘choose this day to serve God’ as Joshua admonished the successful generation of Israel after the conquest of Canaan. His call is clear to be courageous warriors like David and his mighty men. We must be active watchmen on the wall for our generation as Ezekiel spells out so clearly. With our Lord’s help, we all must chose to courageously refuse to bow to lies. With the boldness of the Holy Spirit filling us, we can expose demonic deeds of darkness, rather than participate with those who have been deceived.
This post includes a Bonus posted as a separate audio file (see below)
1Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
The transcript for the Bonus extension program with expert witnesses is at the end of the main transcript below. Listen to the recording here…
We are in a war. More people than ever are awaking to the reality of that. And as we do, we realize there are key elements of warfare – especially spiritual warfare – that every soldier must be constantly attentive to. As Jesus trained his 12 and his 70, and his 120 disciples – learning to work in harmony with each other – so, He is training His modern-day warriors to seek God’s direction, to intercede, to boldly speak up… to cooperatively work together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit… to prayerfully and courageously pursue the expanding work of God’s Kingdom, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.
Just days after a distinctively special gathering of God’s people, earnestly expressing repentance and intercession for this generation, I was invited to watch something that I absolutely must share with you. It sounded like nothing I ever heard before. And that’s because our current context is a time like none of us have ever experience before. But, even more, it’s because witnessing the broken, heart-felt contrition of a large number of fellow believers from all over the world in a single public gathering is truly unique.
Hundreds of people gathered for this Day of Repentance in D.C. on Jan 31st and many more watched online. According to co-leaders Jim Garlow and Tony Perkins, “God showed up.”
If you’d like to watch a replay of the National Gathering of Prayer and Repentance, you can do so here: https://ngpr.org/.
Today, I pray the Lord will help me share with you at least a taste of this exceptional prayer time. I’ll say right from the start, that if you have even a single hour in this coming week to give yourself to praying with others to sincerely call out to God for help in our national time of need, you WILL be profoundly rewarded with renewed hope, and invigorated to invite others to a more intimate time with your God and Savior, Jesus, our Messiah and LORD.
Lincoln’s 1863 Prayer & Fasting Proclamation
Do you remember ever reading or hearing President Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation? Though it’s over 160 years in our past, How well does it apply to our nation today? Hear an excerpt of the text of Lincoln’s Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day, in March of 1863:
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
Every one of us who recognizes the desperate and seemingly hopeless condition of our world and nation in our time, can be tempted to fear, to extreme grief, and even cowardice and capitulation to the enemy.
Pastor Jim Garlow spoke some of the sobering realities of our time of global crisis.
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn speaking at 2024 D.C. Prayer & Repentance gathering
Rabbi author of the book, The Return of the Gods, Jonathan Cahn, was introduced by Pastor Jim Garlow to give a brief teaching to set the tone of the five-hour meeting. If you haven’t yet read that book, I think you’ll want to get a copy as soon as you possibly can.
Tony Perkins praying for congressmen 2024 Repentance gathering
After the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, reminded us of the prayer of Israel’s King Solomon for wisdom in the face of his challenging time, a slate of several dozen members of our nation’s civic leadership, particularly our congress, without formal introduction, were given time to give their sincere prayers of repentance and need. It’s fascinating to listen to the sincerity and brokenness of these men and women.
After that, time was given to several different types of group leaders. First were pastors who have stood boldly up to tyrannical persecution. You might recognize some of them for the courage they’ve shown to the world in recent times of unlawful government suppression, like Canada’s pastor Artur Pawlowski.
Many of those who prayed at this special prayer meeting that was hosted by the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., have suffered and experienced God’s miraculous deliverance from seemingly hopeless situations. A whole string of young people in various parts of society were also given time to pray on behalf of their generation.
Significant time was given to let representatives from many of the countries of the world pray on behalf of their nations. This was precious to me, just knowing some of the difficult situations that the people of those lands are enduring. It’s not just the US that has been enduring painful fruit of evil and tyrannical oppression.
When you take the time to actually sit down, listen and personally join in with the prayers of your brothers and sisters in Christ – even for a recorded, Spirit-anointed prayer meeting – it’s indisputably amazing to sense the presence of God, and be stirred in your innermost being with the reality that He is moving on people all over the world to call out to God for His mercy and intervention for His deliverance and salvation.
After listening and joining these many fellow believers in prayer, in the very heart of Washington D.C., I’m sure you will sense, as I did, that God IS not only stirring His contrite servants to voice their dependency on Him, but He’s also raising up a generation of courageous watchmen and warriors to stand for righteousness and expose the works of darkness. And that’s just the kind of providential intervention that will confound the works of the devil and all his minions. He’s raising up Daniels to influence rulers. He’s positioning Esthers to intervene and in the complex workings of governments. He’s preparing ordinary people to use their God-given gifts and positions of influence to change the battleground for a different outcome than our adversaries have planned.
There’s a tremendous difference between a generation of apostasy and a generation of humble ‘Image-Barrers’ of their Creator who cry out for God’s deliverance… even if it’s just a remnant.
As evil and dark as the horrible things being done by perpetrators of the enemy in our world ARE, yet God is using his humble children to stand against the wicked deceivers. That’s why we must not faint or give up in distressing times. This prayer and repentance gathering is a beacon of hope for us to share with others. Too many people that you and I know, don’t even know that such a meeting even happened. And they won’t ever know about it until you tell them.
Though we see all around us, what seems like an overwhelming ocean of destructive evil and godlessness, ours is unlike the time when God’s prophet Ezekiel had to prophecy a message of complete judgment and destruction upon Jerusalem. He said:
“And I searched for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found no one. Thus, I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads,” declares the Lord God. (Ezekiel 22:30-31).
God was looking for intercessors then but found none.
He’s looking for intercessors now, and many are rising up in humble repentance. As they are hearing like what Isaiah heard,
“Who shall I send and who will go for us?” Isaiah replied, “Here am I, send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).
There is a reason for the big difference between then (in the time of ancient Israel) and now. By His resurrection, Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18) and He has given to us His awesome authority over all the power of the enemy. He is still building His assembly, His family, His Ekklesia… and as they receive His authority and use it against the illegitimate powers raised up against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5), they will prevail over the gates of Hell and over all the deceptions of the evil rulers of this age.
With spiritual eyes, it is clear that the outrageous corruption of politicians is demonically inspired. So, how are the righteous to respond? The widespread deception of the news media is demonically inspired. The open dishonesty that has prevailed in this country’s indoctrination institutions that we call public education is demonically inspired. All this, now publicly obvious distortion of reality is crystal-clear evidence of a long-term war between Truth and lies. It can be a discouraging discovery of the spiraling conflict of good and evil – destroying liberty and increasing smothering captivity. It’s the very confrontation of devilish attacks against the kingdom of God, the King of all kings.
