America The Beautiful
In 1979 I was given a most profound experience. I was taken into a trance and saw the United States seal turning end over end as it moved ever closer to me. The closer it moved the larger it became until it was the size of a man. Then everything disappeared. Then I saw the Cross. Again, it started a long way off and moved ever closer to me until it was right in front of me. When it stood right in front of me the words appeared over it at the same time I heard a voice as the sounds of many waters trumpet: "Liberty through Christ Jesus" Then the Spirit gave me Galatians 5:1.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
That experience made such an impression upon me that I remember it today as though it had only just occurred. One year prior to that experience I traveled across the United States with my daughter, Ricci, on what was supposed to be a vacation. The problem came when all I could do was weep. I felt so much love for America that I wept from sea to shining sea. I had no idea what that was all about at all. In fact it wasn’t until a few years ago that I came to understand to the fullest that the tears I was crying were intercessory in nature. If the love that seemed to rise up from within my heart daily like a geyser was in any way a taste of the Father’s own love for our nation, no heart, not even that of a Christian can understand the depth of His love for our country. His love isn’t so much because of anything we as a nation have done or not done; it is because we are His children. He loves our nation because He loves us. He saw America and saw that the land was good and thought in His heart that I would like to give this as an inheritance to my Church. It never was His heart to dispossess the First Nations people but to bring the Kingdom of our Father to their needy hearts and give the nation as a whole to His Church, which would include the newly born again First Nations People. That was His kind intent, but somehow the wires got crossed, and the lines confused, and we have lost the vision. We see ourselves as pilgrims on this earth, but do we realize that Christians in the New Millennium will inhabit even America. We must learn to take the dominion in love today by standing for righteousness. If we adopt America as our earthly nation, we must be willing to repent for her misdeeds as Job repented for the misconduct of his children when they were wrong. We must be willing to stand in the gap for it and for the government of our nation to bring forth righteous decisions that the Lord may be pleased and in turn bless us with His goodness.
Let me share a little with you about the America that I saw that eventful summer back in the late seventies. In every state through which we traveled we saw beautiful people doing what Americans do. We saw them working in the fields. We saw business people driving in their automobiles to and from appointments. We saw mothers with their little toddlers, and fathers playing in the ball fields with their sons. We saw parents in the stores buying groceries. We passed them in the recreation sights such as the great Teton Mountains and at the sights of the geysers of Yellowstone as they enjoyed their children expressing their great wonder at nature’s incomparable beauty. We watched as families played together on our magnificent beaches. We enjoyed watching the joggers in nearly every state, in the cities, suburbs and in the country. Everywhere we saw tourists from other countries taking pictures and standing in awe of all that they beheld in our great nation. We passed by subdivisions and farms and viewed family life, little pets and big farm animals alike as America passed before our eyes. We watched in awe as the magnificent forests such as the big redwoods of California, the ponderosas of Nevada, the thick woods of the east passed by our vision in our car as well as our long walks and bike rides through these incredible parks. We saw canyons so beautiful it would stagger the imagination, mountains so majestic few words can adequately describe their scenic wonder. We enjoyed crisp blue skies and cloudy skies. We ran in the rain and walked in the last remains of the winter’s snow in the high peaks of our nation. We, too, played in the ocean and sat quietly by beautiful peaceful mountain lakes. We passed by grain fields blowing in the wind and saw vegetation of all kinds being planted, cared for, awaiting harvest, and being harvested. We looked and we saw. We walked through and around monuments dedicated to brave and devout men of our nation, and I wept. We traveled through the Black Hills and saw the daring architecture of a man on Mt Rushmore, and I wept. Everywhere we went I wept for the love that was filling my heart for America and its people. We rubbed elbows with First Nations people, Chinese, African Americans and seemingly members of every people group in the world as we crossed across the awesome topography of our nation. As I wept, I thought, "This is America. This is America! This is the nation I learned about in school when my teachers kept calling it the melting pot of the world." We took a young German student with us through part of our trip. He told me just before we parted company that in school, back in Germany, they are taught things about America that causes the students to have a sort of disdain for this nation. But, he concluded, I have now seen America through your eyes, and I will never be the same. We all wept as we parted company, and we were never the same either.
I have never forgotten that summer. It changed me in ways and for reasons I don’t understand even today. All I know is that I love America and will never quit loving it until the Lord takes me home. When I had the vision of the destruction of America in 1989 I kept having flashbacks of the America I had seen in 1979 throughout the vision. I shook in awe of the majesty of Yahveh, and I wept long into the morning hours for the America that I loved. I didn’t want to see it destroyed. I wanted to see her safe and prospering in holiness. But, I felt helpless to do anything about it. I knew we were a nation steeped in sin, and our heavenly Father was justified in all that He was saying. Still the knowledge of our future left a deep wound in my heart that I would never know how to explain to anyone.
I have watched in the last 12 years and seen America plunge deeper into sin and ungodliness, and I have wept many times asking the Father to forgive us and for ungodliness of the Nation that I love. I know the Church is proud and has much sin in her heart, but she is still His Church and she represents some of the best America has. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, have been men of valor, men of unchangeable nobility in an office that could have corrupted them. Men like E.M. Bounds, A.W. Tozer, came out of American soil and became like bright lights of hope and possibilities to the American Church. What about the Missionaries that have given up a life of ease in America to travel across the world to carry the Gospel to third world countries? They were and are people of honor born here in America. What of those who work hard all week long and keep their lives simple making weekly sacrifices to support the spreading of the Gospel in other lands unknown to many Americans? What of them? What of our Christian Presidents who have fought for righteousness when it wasn’t popular to fight for it? What of the Vice Presidents, Cabinet members, members of the House of Representatives, Governors and Mayors, Judges of the Supreme Court who have been Christian and have lived godly lives in an ungodly climate suffering much for their stand? What of the soldiers who died on American soil and those who died overseas fighting for America because they believed in our Nation and what it stood for? What of those who died as martyrs in America because they believed in a righteous America and in the Father whom we as the Church serve? What of those who have been martyrs in other countries but were born in America? I remember a time when I had lunch with Loren Cunningham, and he shared with me the first time he had to tell a parent that their young person who went to a foreign nation with Y.W.A.m. died there for their faith. He said he never cried so hard. Each time he has had to repeat such a visit to a parent the experience is never without the same intensity of pain. This is a part of America and the American Church we hear little of. My dear Friends, what of their blood? Is it of such a value as to make us who are left behind fight for our Nation? There is much sin in the American Church, but there is also the caliber of righteous Christians that makes the Father’s heart glad. Can we as Christian Americans let our country go to the ungodly without a fight? How can we but weep and mourn and lament over the ungodliness and weep that Yeshua (Jesus) will restore godliness to our shores, if not for our own sakes, for the sake of all those who have gone before us and fought the battle of righteousness in their own way and those who have already poured out their blood for our Nation? What of the teenage martyrs who have poured out their blood on America’s soil for their righteous stand in the last couple of years? Will we let their blood be for naught or will we fight for a revival of righteousness to honor their dedication and devotion?
What about our own children? It is breaking my heart to see my grandchildren raised in such a godless society. They are temporarily attending a public school, and I have learned something through this experience. My grandchildren are rubbing elbows with children who cuss and swear all day long. Ricci goes into her children’s classroom three times a week. She says that just about every child in the school swears and even uses the Lord’s name in vain often. Connor, my oldest grandson, told me recently that he only knows of two Christians in his whole grade level. Kacie is not aware of any in her grade level. I was shocked. When I went to school, it was abnormal for someone not to be a Christian. When my daughter went to school she always had a large source of Christian friends from which to choose to play with. My heart breaks that so few children know the loving, kind, and gentle Father above. And so many only know His name as a cuss word. We need revival in our schools! It is little wonder that the school situation is as bad as it is. Between the godless curriculum and the godless homes from which these children come there is little chance of a revolution in the schools without Messiah and a national revival.
Who will fight for America if not the Church? How can we fight except in a united front? The American Church is like none other in the world. When you go to India you see Christian Indians. When you travel to China, you see Chinese Christians. When you travel to Africa you see African Christians. When you stand in front of the Singaporean Church you see predominately Singaporean Christians. But in America you stand in the pulpit you see African American Christians, Chinese Christians, First Nations Christians, you see American Jewish Christians, you see Hispanic American Christians, American Portuguese Christians, East Indian Christians, Arabian Christians, Australian American Christians ~ you see every kindred, every tongue, every nation on the face of the earth represented in the American Church. It is the most marvelous thing in the world. Our wonderful Father above has brought people from every land here to find faith in Messiah. But in doing so He brought them here to find a refuge in Messiah and in His Church. Unfortunately, many from other lands have come to America because they see on our coins, "In God We Trust", but when they arrive they find prejudice and divisions and little love to heal their wounds. They find sin and they wonder what happened. Our Father’s vision for these last days is to see a nameless, faceless Church consisting of Jew and Gentile without division of color, race, or any other such thing exemplifying the virtues and glories of Messiah. In short the One New Man! Messiah once said, "When the Son of Man returns to earth will He find faith?" He will if He can find unity in love, the Church striving shoulder to shoulder for the sake of the faith. In a vision I saw people from every race, every nation standing arm linked in arm for the sake of the Gospel. It was beautiful there was no more Jew, Arab, Indian, Chinese or Caucasian, only Messiah alive and aglow in His people.
There is a destiny yet to be fulfilled of every people group in the world, and it can only be fulfilled in the Church. Messiah will bring it to pass. The deep hunger in our hearts will never cease until each destiny in each people group is fulfilled. Unbeknownst to us our inner man cries for this day and night. But, the answer can only come in unity and love as Messiah comes to His Church to be seen through His Church in the nations of the world, and I think it needs to begin here in the melting pot of the world, the United States of America.
America has forsaken the call to the "Fatherhood of the Nations." We were blessed to be a Father to the nations for their good and to ours. We were meant to nurture and guide the nations in tender mercies and in righteousness, as a loving Father. But, we have perverted our authority and used it oft times to the undoing of nations. The reason, "the Church has forsaken her call to America!" When she returns to the nurture of this nation in righteousness, America will return to the proper Fatherhood role it has been called to among the nations of the world.
The Father is saying, "Come let us reason together, then though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow." As we come and bow down before Him in repentance and return to intercede for America in righteousness He will cleanse us and lift us up and make us a nation respected throughout the earth. But, we cannot do it as a people separated. America is a people from every nation under the sun, therefore, the American Church must be represented by all her people.
II Chronicles 7:14 says:
If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, and seek, crave and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.
In case the whole thing feels a bit overwhelming I want to give you a big encouragement. What I am about to say comes straight from the throne of our heavenly Father.
II Chronicles 7:15
Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer offered in this place.
There is such a thing as a Kairos time in our Lord’s government. If we move in obedience in His kairos time, our obedience will have effects such as at no other time. If we will humble ourselves now, if we turn from our wickedness now, if we will pray now, if we will seek His face now, He will hear us and heal our land. That is His promise. That is the promise He has given me. He told me that if we would move as a Church representing our nation and fulfill II Chronicles 7:14 He will perform according to 7:15 and heal our land. Not only will He heal us, but He will further set His glory upon our Nation. And America has never been so beautiful as when the Ark of His glory rests upon it and we are walking in righteousness.
To quote the song:
Oh Beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain.
For purple mountains majesty above the fruited plains.
America, America, God shed His grace on thee
and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
Oh beautiful for patriot dreams that sees beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cites gleam undimmed by human tears
America, America, God shed His grace on thee
and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
America, America, God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
Every time I hear that song these days I weep and weep for I feel the Lord’s love for our nation all over again. I feel His providential care, His yearning heart to heal and bless our nation, and the joy of His love brings tears of gratefulness that He has not left us alone.
I cannot do it alone, but we can do it together, my dear friends. With your help, your prayers, your physical and financial support we can prepare America for revival, a revival for all people, all nations as represented by the Church in the United States of America.