Spiritual Drought: Judgment for sin

2Ch 7:13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
2Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
No rain, No Life
Water is commonly known in scripture to represent the Holy Spirit and it’s cleansing power in the Word of God. Without the water of the Holy Spirit, the land of the heart becomes parched, and dry unable to sustain new life. Throughout the bible God has withheld his favor and blessing for disobedience. He has shut up the heavens time and time again causing the crops to fail and famine to permeate the land. Today we are living in such a land. The preaching is largely dry and parched. It is void of vital nutrients and full of vanity and great swelling words of carnality tickling itching ears and wayward hearts. The preaching power of the past has been replaced with the crackles and thunder of rainless clouds. They resemble the real thing, but they contain no substance. They are not producing what they naturally should be producing, life giving water. Instead, a putrid, acid foul mist of deception has crept over our land beguiling many and causing great harm upon the spiritual landscape known as America. Not only in America, but also around the world is felt the harmful, eroding presence of a putrid doctrine called self-indulgence. The feel good gospel of prosperity and wealth has replaced the Holy Spirit powered preaching of the past. Today’s hipsters permeate our TV’s with false hope, false visions, and false prayer all with the aim of separating the naïve from their money. Somebody needs to pray for rain, Holy Ghost rain from heaven and revival with power from on high! America is largely in a spiritual drought.
2Ch 7:13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
Notice the judgment God pronounces upon a disobedient people, a judgment, which removes the health and prosperity of the Land. God is sovereign over the creatures of the earth and they move at his command. Once he causes the locusts to move in, they devour the crops and leave the land barren and useless. Death and disease is soon to follow without the life giving substance of water on the land. Then comes the pestilence of disease to kill, steal and destroy men’s souls and drag them into everlasting destruction. Can you smell the stench of death in America? It is no wonder the world largely views us as a money hungry, wicked nation because we have gone the way of Rome! We are self-indulged, sensual, perverted and vain! Judgment has come to America long ago and we are now seeing the consequences of it. God shut up the heavens and spiritual drought has taken the land. The locusts have brought their moneybags and filled them up with substance stolen from the simple minded who are ignorant of truth and void of understanding. These false teachers tell fabricated stories of great spiritual visions and happenings and woo audiences with their magnetic personalities. They work their crowds like a smooth snake charmer works his serpents. They weave their spell of manipulation upon the masses they cast their black magic and voodoo. It is true, God hates all workers of iniquity. But he also uses what the devil does to kill, steal and destroy to try our faith and purge the land. Do not be mistaken, God is not happy with America. As a nation our filth stinks in his nostrils. I am not a gloom and doom preacher and I am not condemning any and all religion and believers in this land. But the large part of the United States has gone astray and our churches are filled with false professions, easy-believer conversions without repentance. They come as they are and leave just the same way. They peddle the gospel of universal love and acceptance and put on plays and concerts to entice sinners to come among them. Once they attract them, the teach them God loves them just as they are. That is not the truth! He loves them where they are at, but he doesn’t love them as they are. He proved this essential by dying on the Cross that we may be changed. These so called ‘seekers’ need to be taught repentance from sin. Some would have you believe repentance is a work of man and not needed for salvation. The bible teaches just the opposite. We are commanded in Acts 17:30 and warned in Luke 13:3 that unless we repent we will perish. The bible has much to say about repentance being a requirement and prerequisite to salvation. The forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist taught that all men should repent everywhere and be baptized. He also taught another would come after him which would baptize in the Holy Ghost. Notice what came first, the baptism of repentance. The law convicts men unto death, for without the law we have no knowledge of sin and transgression. The law came and we are without excuse and apart from Christ, destined to hell. But then came the savior to save the repentant sinner from hell and death. Jesus Christ promised eternal life unto all who would believe on his name. John 3:16-17 Peter commanded men in the book of Acts 2:38 to repent and be baptized and only then would they receive the Holy Ghost. We become a child of God when we receive the Holy Spirit.
Rom 8:9 ……….. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
You can’t get to the cross unless you pass thru the gates of repentance. You can’t drink of the Holy Water of the Word of God without first being cleansed in the baptismal waters of repentance. Do not misunderstand me, I am not preaching baptismal regeneration, I am preaching the doctrine of repentance from sin and faith unto God. This doctrine has all but perished in America. The doctrine of repentance has been shelved and called legalism, works of men and a false gospel by the proponents of easy believism. This false teaching is causing many to miss out on true conversion and in many cases, sending men to hell in ignorant bliss. Truly, the pestilence of false doctrine, false worship, and false conversion has eaten up our once great country. This great judgment on America has come about due to our disobedience and complacency. We kill babies in the name of freedom of choice. America’s children live lawless lives and are taught from a young age to look out for number one. They respect no one not even themselves and have turned away from God to Wicca and self-worship. What a great tragedy which has befallen America. She has become the haunt of every unclean bird.
Some believe America is not mentioned in bible Prophecy, but I am here to tell you all workers of iniquity shall be judged. America’s day is coming, and what a fear-filled day it shall be. We have to look at this thing objectively. The bible says the Roman Empire will be revived in the last times and is one of the signs of the end spoken of by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let’s face it, The Revived Roman Empire ruling the world has to either include America as it’s head, or America has to be taken out of the way for the empire to come to power. I am just a simple minded kind of guy, so forgive me for my backwoods thinking, but there is no way our nation is going to relinquish power to the Third world entities united under one great global empire. America will have to be at its head or America will have to be out of the way. The 18th chapter of Revelation speaks of a city, which is very similar to America and speaks of a once great city that falls in one hour. A great and powerful nation once feared by the whole world and marveled by all for her wealth and prosperity, and great exploits is left a burning shell of it’s former self in 60 minutes of time. Years and years of prosperity and mercy ends with the resounding echoes and fallouts of what seemingly appears to be a secret nuclear attack. The whole nation is left is flames and ashes and across the seas the whole world weeps and laments at such terror come upon such a great nation in such a short period of time. In the time it takes to go grocery shopping, the whole nation is wiped out without warning.
God has an antidote for those who wish to escape such a tragic end. Let’s look at our text again and find the solution.
2Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
We must repent, it takes great humility to admit you have wronged someone, our pride just doesn’t wish to bow down and surrender it’s place on the throne of our hearts and minds. But God says he will resist the proud, and give Grace only to the humble. We must humble ourselves and pray, seek God’s face fervently that God would heal our land. Perhaps we cannot stop the prophetic future of America and it’s eventual demise, but we mustn’t remain complacent with so many yet to repent and be converted. Shall these lost souls be blood on our hands? Not so we should rise up and bow down together in haste beg God to forgive us for our self-indulgent materialistic lifestyles. We should pray that God forgive us for the grave sin and disobedience, which has taken our once Great Nation from favor to condemnation. May God have mercy on our souls. God’s Grace is our only hope and his Grace comes from the fruits of repentance. May God help us to surrender to the testimony of the Holy Spirit’s conviction in our hearts and seek his forgiveness to heal our land.
Rev. Charles Peterson