The Seven Stages a Nation Goes Through That Leads to Destruction by God (The Prayer Motivator Devotional #93)
Summary: Our prayer motivator verse for today is 1 John 5:14, which reads: "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us." <br><br> Our thought for today is that praying to God is the most we can do in any situation. <br><br> Our prayer motivator quote for today is from A.J. Gordon. He said, "You can do more than pray after you have prayed; but you can never do more than pray until you have prayed." <br><br> Our prayer motivator devotional for today is titled THE SEVEN STAGES A NATION GOES THROUGH THAT LEADS TO DESTRUCTION BY GOD from J. Gordon Henry: <br><br> In the book, "America: To Pray or Not to Pray", author David Barton has postulated seven stages a nation goes through leading to eventual destruction by God. In the first stage, God convicts His people of their sins. Second, He warns them of sins. Third, He applies remedial judgment of sins committed. In the fourth stage, God withdraws His presence. In the fifth stage, He takes away the wall of protection and allows disasters to come upon His people. In the sixth stage, He gives His people over to sin, failure, and depravity. In the seventh stage, He destroys His people. Barton, believes America is in the fifth stage. <br><br> Decadence, crime, violence, the recent onslaught of natural disasters, and an ecological system that is failing are signs God has turned His back on America as a nation. There is abundant evidence that God removed His wall of protection away from America sometime around 1963 when our Supreme Court ruled that prayer and Bible reading have no place in the schools. <br><br> What will turn the tide? II Chronicles 7:14 is the text that tells us. It is spoken to Christians --- "My people called by My Name" (which happened to believers at Antioch, Syria when they were called Christians first in Acts 11:26). There is an "If...Then" arrangement. God says to Christians "if" you do these things, "then" here is what I will do. Under "IF," He lists four things: (1) become humble which means dependence upon God--not ourselves or anyone else; (2) pray which means to ask in the sense of God's hand to move; (3) seek His face for worship; and (4) turn from sin. Under "THEN", He lists what He will do: (1) He will hear from Heaven---which is headquarters where all the resources that will ever be needed are in stock; (2) He will lift and remove the heavy load; and (3) He will heal the land. This is what will turn the tide for America or for any nation. <br><br> Remember that INTERCESSORS are literally "go-betweens"---standing between God and someone else or some circumstance. We need INTERCESSORS for America. Many of you are already intercessors and others want to become intercessors for our land. The assumption is that you will be on praying ground by having all sin confessed and forsaken and you are yielded to the Holy Spirit with Him in control---which is what Spirit-filled means. No believer can help turn our nation back to God unless he is clean before God. I would encourage you to get on your knees and ask God to make you a person He can use. <br><br> + Plus, listen to Dorothy Norwood singing "It's Praying Time"
