Pray, Fast, Vote Ebook - Harvest Community Church

Pray Fast Vote The hands of America on the threshold of the Church

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Table of Contents Section I Consider It

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| A Nation at an Intersection in Time

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| The Ability to Outrage 8

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| A Point of Reference: The Truth About Our Heritage

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Section II Take Counsel

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| Beware of Dissipation 20

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| Four Prophetic Parallels: Protected

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| Four Prophetic Parallels: Prosperous

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| Four Prophetic Parallels: Passionate

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| Four Prophetic Parallels: Prepared

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Section III Take Action

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| Speak Up 42

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| What Breaks Your Heart—What Moves You

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| The Urgency For The Hour We Are In

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| History Makers 56

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P R AY F A S T V O T E

Section I Consider It For the saddest epitaph which can be carved in memory of a vanished liberty is that it was lost because its possessors failed to stretch forth a saving hand while yet there was time. George Sutherland (1938)

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Section I


1 A Nation at an Intersection in Time

George Sutherland was one of four Supreme Court nominees of then President Warren G. Harding in 1922 and served as Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court between 1922 and 1938. His quote so perfectly illustrates the truth of our modern times. Sure, it proves that history has a way of repeating itself, but at a deeper level, it illustrates that the enemy to freedom and liberty is a constant enemy, and one as old as the Garden of Eden itself. Sutherland is best known for helping draft the Equal Rights Amendment and for introducing the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex which culminated the women’s suffrage movement in the United States. Yes, there was a time when women were not even allowed the right to vote, as well as anyone who was not a white male. Injustice is not a new concept, and oppression is not an invention of our modern day society. Neither is sin. Neither is evil. Neither is Satan. While the concepts in this book are timeless, there will be many more elections in our lifetime. I believe this is the most important election we have faced as a nation in modern history. God has laid upon my heart some very specific truths to communicate for such a time as this. Just four years ago a

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pro-life, pro-Israel, and a pro-traditional family candidate ran for president and lost. After the post-election analysis was completed, the gap between winning and losing for this candidate was about four million votes—nearly the same exact number of evangelical Christians who chose to stay home and not vote, compared to the number who voted in the previous election. Whatever their reasons for not voting, this margin of defeat was narrow when compared to the overall number of Americans who voted … but the consequences and the fallout over the next four years was devastating. Over the four years following the last election we watched as a Supreme Court justice was replaced by a very liberal nominee resulting in the court legalizing gay marriage, despite it being voted down again and again in state ballot measures throughout the nation. I will never forget seeing our nation’s capitol and the White House awash in the colors of the rainbow in celebration over this landmark decision, second only to Roe v. Wade in its devastating effects on the moral compass of our nation. We watched as Christian business owners and Catholic hospitals were sued again and again for not providing services that were contrary to their core religious beliefs. We saw courts mandate that a person can determine their own sex and which bathroom they use based on how they feel at any given moment. We have watched thousands of foreign refugees come into our nation fully unvetted, and despite the strong protest of the Homeland Security Office, our military and intelligence advisors, and civilian police agency leaders. I say this with no hesitation: it’s time for the body of Christ, the

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Church, to stand up. As America goes, the world goes. That is why I am asking the Church to stand up and be counted … to let your prayers be heard in heaven, and your vote recorded on earth. Our weapons are not carnal, they are mighty for the pulling down of strongholds. That is why I am declaring a 3-day fast on November 6-8 for all of our ministries, outreaches and social media outlets. I am asking each of you to do four very specific things: 1. Register to vote. 2. Pray as if the survival of our culture and this great nation depended on it. 3. Fast with us, and others all over the world, November 6-8. 4. Vote—make your voice be known.

We stand today at what Franklin Graham refers to as, “The intersection

of history as we know it.” Elections have always been polarizing events, as far as the American citizenry is concerned, and this one is no exception. But over the last 10-20 years, it has become rather fashionable in the Church to feel like we are somehow above it all. We have over-spiritualized our existence and purpose, which throughout the Bible was incredibly contextual and out amongst the people. We have turned inward in too many places, and left all the “government stuff” to the “government people.” But as we put our heads in the sand in the political arena, the “government stuff” became our stuff, and we emerged with a landscape where we are less and less relevant in an America that is being told we are extremists. My friend James Robison puts it like this:

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“We must reject the thought that the spiritual is to

be separated from the governmental. Transformed people transform the culture while standing up for what is right.” We have preachers who won’t preach on the moral issues affecting our nation. Which is, by the way, the people sitting in our pews. They won’t say anything that might offend. They don’t want to say anything that might be considered controversial. Meanwhile, the very life of our nation is at stake. Take counsel. Allow the realization to set in. I want you to realize the state of our country, our nation today is in trouble. I’m not a pessimist and I do not mean to sound negative. But the truth is, I have grandchildren now, and I realize if something doesn’t drastically change in the direction we’re going, the next generation will not know America as a nation of freedom and liberty as I have. When socialists can have campaigns that fill coliseums where children and young people shout and cheer, something has gone wrong in our nation. We have lost our moral center; the principles of freedom and liberty. Consider it.

The word, consider means “to allow the realization to set in.” And

that’s really what needs to happen to America—she has to wake up. The Church must wake up, and that means you and me and everyone who calls himself or herself a follower of Christ. What Does the Bible Say About Voting?

I am always amazed at the number of Christians who simply do not

vote. The very battle cry leading the rebellion that birthed the revolution was,

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“No taxation without representation!” From the very beginning it has been about two things: individual liberty and a representative government where those chosen by us would represent us on anything and everything that has an affect on us. Thousands and thousands of our ancestors and founders died bravely with this as their motto, “Give me liberty, or give me death.” The Life Cycle of a Nation

A quick look around the world through the lens of time reveals nation

after nation who tried monarchies, dictatorships, communism, socialism and other forms of government all ultimately leading to very dire results. In fact the average life expectancy of a nation is 200 years, with nearly all following the same pattern.

They begin in some sort of bondage, experience an extraordinary

faith and pursue great acts of courage. This is followed by a breakthrough, which leads to liberty and then a period of abundance. Over this period of time, the baton is passed from one generation to the next, and those who become leaders are many, many years removed from the great acts of faith and courage that gave them their freedom. They are but stories to them; lessons in their history books. This results in the period of abundance being taken for granted, and it is then followed by periods of complacency and apathy. It is not long until the nation moves from apathy to dependence, and then from dependence right back where they started . . . in bondage.

We are a nation that is over 240 years old, and we have defied what

is typical of nearly every great society or nation. That being said, looking

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at the current status of the U.S., I believe most historians would place us somewhere between apathy and dependence. If you throw in the staggering national debt, possibly bordering on bondage.

I Timothy chapter two makes it clear that we are to pray and intercede

for our nation and, more specifically, our nation’s leaders so that we may lead peaceable lives in goodness and honesty. This means that every Christian should be praying for the leaders of their municipality, their county, their state and their nation. We should be praying for the president, the vicepresident, for members of the Supreme Court and every level of the judiciary. And Congress . . . we definitely need to be praying for Congress.

I imagine many have already grown weary of all the news conferences,

debates and constant wall-to-wall coverage on this election cycle. But the truth is, we should be as knowledgeable about the candidates and their positions as possible. We should be full participants in the democratic processes this nation was founded on. We must be involved at some level, and that includes praying, fasting and voting!

On the topic of voting, my dear friend Dr. Mark Rutland sums it

up best:

To refuse to vote, to all those who struggled for universal

suffrage (the right to vote for all citizens) in this country—for the African Americans to vote, for women to vote, to all those who fought and died and marched and struggled in state legislatures and prayed for it and waited for it for decades; to the immigrant who, having obtained citizenship and finally

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vote for the first time; to those who have come of age and finally received the joy of voting (in their first election) . . . the spoiled brats who say they won’t vote because their person didn’t get the nomination, are an insult to all of them. Every Christian should vote, period. When you go into that voting booth, if you think of nothing else, think of the Supreme Court. To not vote is simply not doing your Christian duty as citizens.

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2 The Ability to Outrage

There is a story in Judges 19 that you don’t hear preached very often. It is the story of a Levite man and his wife. It is a love story about love restored momentarily, until evil stepped in and crushed a man’s heart, and ravaged an innocent woman. The story goes that the wife left her husband and returned to her parents’ home. The husband pursues her, woos her, and after persuading her to return home with him, sets out on the return journey. But as they travel, they become exhausted and decide to stay in a home that was graciously offered to them for the night. To make a long story short, evil men in the town came and demanded to have sex with the Levite man, but end up taking his wife instead. Before the night was over, she had been beaten badly, raped again and again, and left for dead. But she was not dead yet. She managed to crawl all the way back to the home where they were staying, and when her husband opened the door, he found his wife dead with her lifeless hands clinging to the threshold of the house. The husband’s grief turned to outrage, not just at what had happened to his wife, but at what had happened to the nation, to his people and the depravity that had come to his doorstep . . . the very threshold of the home

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where he was staying. Why is it that we turn a blind eye to tragedy and sin until it comes to our own front door? Or we just wag our head and figure it’s not our fight? This Levite man’s outrage caused him to do something that, at first glance, will sound morbid and even gross. But for a man devastated by the depravity of his own people, it was a defining moment for his nation. On his long journey home, deep in thought and grief, the rage at the absurdity of it all set in. He determined to take drastic action. He chopped his wife into 12 pieces, and then sent one piece of her body to each tribe in the nation of Israel saying: Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen from the day when the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it, take counsel and speak up! Judges 19:29-30 NASB

Before it was all over, 400,000 fighting men were assembled, and

over 25,000 men died. But you need to understand, the 25,000 men who died were not men fighting to defeat evil. The 25,000 who died were men defending the ones who committed the crime! They who called evil good were many . . . much like there is today. It never ceases to amaze me, the fervor and extremes people go to defending a woman’s right to kill a baby. I am still shocked to see the great lengths school administrators go to ensuring there is no mention of God in graduation speeches or the word Christmas at CHRISTMAS. It is outrageous!

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It’s the ability to ‘outrage’ that I am calling on for the hour we are

in. There is despair in America; the violence, the devaluing of life and the attack against faith and religious liberty in America ought to make believers become outraged. But far too often, we are the silent majority sitting on the sidelines. As we look at abuse, pornography, the increase of crimes against children and even human trafficking in some of our most famous cities; and as we look at violence, drug addiction, and corruption in the highest places, we find the hands of a dying nation on the threshold of the Church. It is the hands of suicidal youth, millions of alcoholics and drug addicts, abused children and people who are suffering and hurting. These hands need the body of Christ to see what is taking place.

The Levite man in the story said to consider it, take counsel, and then

to speak up. Consider it

Consider: “to allow the realization to set in.” Surely we can all see that we have neighborhoods in America where

police are fearful of going after certain hours of the night. We see a nation with its hands on the threshold of the Church, saying, “If you don’t do something, if you don’t become the salt and light at this critical crossroads in our nation, then we could see our Lady of Liberty, America, die.”

We have to get the outrage like the Levite man had. He said, “Consider

it.” Consider that young people are dying. Consider that gangs are killing,

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stealing and destroying our cities. Consider the Supreme Court justices who are rewriting the Constitution. Consider the fact that Catholic hospitals are being sued because they refuse to perform abortions or provide contraception; both beliefs at the core of their religious values for centuries. It’s time for the body of Christ, like the story in Judges 19, to become so outraged by the millions of babies that have died at the hands of depraved abortion doctors, funded by U.S. tax dollars, that we stand up and speak out. We see Planned Parenthood taking money to abort and sell baby body parts and it should cause outrage to well up within us. Like the Levite man, there are times that I do not recognize the nation I grew up in. “Rage at the absurdity of it all set in and he determined that he had to take action.” When you can’t even pray at a graduation anymore without being sued, or when businesses like Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A are finding themselves being sued for millions of dollars and persecuted by a liberal media that attacks anyone who stands up for what they believe, we cannot simply sit it out and think someone else will fight that battle. We are that “someone else.” We should be outraged enough to say, “I’m going to act. I’m going to vote. I’m going to stand for what the Bible says; not for a political party, but for the Word of God.” And we all need to decide what we are going to do with a nation whose hands are on the threshold of the Church.

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3 A Point of Reference … The Truth About Our Heritage

There has been a move afoot for the last 20 years to try and craft a

story about our beginning as a nation. Satan has chosen two hills to stake his claim on, and it is ground he has taken inch by inch. The first is in our origins, the Garden of Eden and the biblical account of creation. The second is the beginning of our nation. If he can shake our core belief about who created everything, then he reasons that everything following creation in the Bible is just as suspect and subject to interpretation. Conversely, if he can get people to believe a revised version of our nation’s origins, then we were never a Christian nation to begin with, and his secular agenda can advance unchecked. The majority of the attacks against these two truths have come where we are most vulnerable: in our schools . . . with our children.

Consider the surrendered ground in just the past 50 years: • Prayer in schools—rejected • The Ten Commandments displayed—rejected • The presence of a Creator in science—rejected and removed from the curriculum • Creationism as even a theory—rejected and removed from the curriculum

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• The virgin birth—impossible • A resurrection from the dead—improbable • Christmas vacation—renamed • Easter vacation—renamed • Christian prayer at graduation—rejected • Sanctity of life—rejected • Right and wrong—relative • Parental consent for an abortion—denied • Abstinence—rejected • Marriage only between a man and a woman—rejected and redefined • Gender identity—a choice at any given moment • Christian scripture, principles, and Christianity in the founding documents—retracted

Psalm 11:1-2 talks about the uncertainty that is whispered in our ear

by Satan, causing us to question everything:

For look! The wicked bend their bow, They make ready

their arrow on the string, That they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?

But take peace in these immortal words of the late Martin Luther

King, Jr., “A lie cannot live.”

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Truth is unchanging and the reality of who we are as a nation and

our origins as a Christian nation are certain and factual and not subject to the theories of man. America was founded on Christian foundations, by an overwhelming majority of men who were strong believers in Jesus Christ, bathed in fervent prayer and sealed by the blood of thousands who died knowing they were giving their life for a higher purpose. And a brief look at our history as a nation will show you that our modern day fight isn’t the first intersection we have stood in as a nation.

A man I consider to be the leading authority on the foundations of

our country is David Barton, the founder and director of an organization called Wall Builders. Wall Builders is an organization dedicated to presenting America’s forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious, and constitutional foundation on which America was built—a foundation which, in recent years, has been seriously attacked and undermined. America was founded on three documents: The Declaration of Independence, The Paris Peace Treaty of 1783 and The Constitution. These documents give conclusive proof that America is a Christian nation. You do not need a law degree or a degree in history to grasp this truth. It is obvious to anyone who does not have an agenda. Let us review the documents and show this proof. The Declaration of Independence:

This foundational document has many references to God throughout

its entirety. The most famous one is this: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are

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created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” More references to God found in the Declaration of Independence: “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” “Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World” “With a firm Reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence”

Lastly, the vast majority of the signers of the Declaration of

Independence were Christians, some even pastors. They constructed and completed the document with prolonged periods of prayer. The Constitution:

The Constitution honors the Christian Sabbath. The President was

given 10 days to sign a bill into law and the counting of the 10 days does not include the Sabbath. This is found in Article 1, Section 7, Clause 2 which in part states: “If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law.” When the Constitution was completed on September 17, 1787, it was signed by the delegates, then to be ratified by the states. The delegates signed the Constitution in the “Year of our Lord.”

Also found in Article 7:

“Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the

States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year

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of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America.” The Paris Peace Treaty of 1783:

The Paris Peace Treaty was the document that formally ended the

Revolution and granted the United States independence from Great Britain. In a real sense, the United States formally became a nation on September 3, 1783. When the United States became a nation, it was done in the “name of the most holy and undivided Trinity.” The preamble to this Treaty states it is based upon the “Holy and undivided Trinity.” The concept of the Holy Trinity is unique to Christianity.

The founders of our nation never imagined that their faith at the

time of these documents would be brought into question, but we still have overwhelming evidence of our Christian heritage engrained into the founding documents, values and principles thereof.

American Presidents have affirmed that America is a Christian nation.

The following are statements on this subject by some of the forty-three previous presidents:

The general principles on which the fathers achieved

independence were the general principles of Christianity. John Adams

The teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and

entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally impossible for us to figure to ourselves what that life

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would be if these teachings were removed. Teddy Roosevelt

America was born a Christian nation – America

was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture. Woodrow Wilson

American life is built, and can alone survive, upon

. . . the fundamental philosophy announced by the Savior nineteen centuries ago. Herbert Hoover

This is a Christian Nation. Harry Truman

There are many additional examples, including that of Thomas

Jefferson. Jefferson was instrumental in establishing weekly Sunday worship services at the U.S. Capitol (a practice that continued through the 19th century) and was himself a regular and faithful attendee at those church services, not even allowing inclement weather to dissuade his weekly horseback travel to the Capitol church.

Our foundations as a nation are certain and they are unshakable. There

are literally hundreds of other references and evidence that our origins as a nation are steeped in Christian values, traditions and God’s Word. Truth. Facts. Evidence. We also have a history of a God who saw us through every

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generation, one intersection at a time. And He will do it again.

No nation has ever existed or been governed without

religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man and I, as Chief Magistrate of this nation, am bound to give it the sanction of my example. Thomas Jefferson

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Section II Take Counsel Counsel: to give or take advice, guidance, direction, and information.

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Section II

4 Beware of Dissipation

Today’s complacency is tomorrow’s captivity. The firewall against secular totalitarianism is religious liberty and religious pluralism. Sammy Rodriguez

Jesus said, in Luke 21, “Beware of dissipation.” The word dissipation

means lack of intensity. Look at the body of Christ. We’re just doing our own thing, having church, singing our favorite songs, doing life with our friends and family, living our lives doing all we can to achieve the American dream. Meanwhile, our nation is in trouble. It’s time for the prophets, for the men and women of God, to come forth and declare the word of the Lord. It is time to bring some intensity into the body of Christ in a unified way all across this nation.

You may be the very answer. You may be the one that God is going

to raise up. I believe you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this. We’re supposed to go from glory to glory and from power to power, not just from mall to mall and website to website. You were born for greater things than that, and we need a revival in this nation. I believe in this generation. I believe in the next generation. And I believe that God is raising up those who can help turn this nation around.

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The desperate and grieving Levite man said in Judges 19:30, “Consider

it.” And then he said, “Take counsel.” What does that mean? Take counsel means to bring together various voices of wisdom, become informed and seek guidance.

He was saying we can’t just come together on Sunday mornings at

your church and my church, but we have to combine forces. Unify. Unify in our cities, in our states and all across this nation. We have to unify globally in prayer and common purpose. As America goes, so goes the world. Quit talking disunity in the body of Christ. Quit refusing to have anything to do with one another.

If the body of Christ, those who are evangelical, Bible-believing

Christians, would all unify and go back to what the Bible says and vote our values as the Word teaches us, there is no way this nonsense we’re seeing in our nation could continue. Combine your efforts. Take counsel.

We need the great preachers of America to become one unified voice

again. I’ve seen that happen in my lifetime, preachers all around election time would begin to just preach the Word of God and say, “We must vote according to this book. Our loyalty is not to the Democrats or the Republicans, it’s to the Word of God and to the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.” If we can place the image of the hands of a dying nation on the threshold of the church . . . if we can somehow allow the Lord to embed this vision in the minds and hearts of men and women, and the young people of this nation, we would stop arguing among ourselves and come together. When Israel heard what had happened in their nation, the Bible said

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they came together. It’s time to unify. It’s time for Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Catholics to come together on what we have in common. We need to get our guns off each other and on the enemy. I don’t mean literal guns and I don’t mean a literal, physical person. We want to vilify people, when it’s Satan that is the enemy. Spiritual wickedness is the foe. Our weapons are not carnal, they’re mighty through God. Fasting, prayer, and taking time to vote can change this nation.

The book of II Kings 13 tells the story of a king who had done “evil

in the eyes of the Lord,” so much so that the Lord’s anger “burned against Israel.” It was in this time of ‘burning anger’ that king Jehoash momentarily repented and sought the Lord’s favor. Even though Jehoash had done evil and brought on the Lord’s wrath, the Lord listened to him and the nation was able to escape the hold of their oppressor. But, just as before, it didn’t take long for the nation to return to their sinful ways. So often we find in the scriptures an Israel that closely resembles the history of the United States of America.

Jehoash went looking for one last miracle. Only this time, the prophet

he had always sought to connect him to the saving power of God was on his deathbed.

Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then

Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, “O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!” And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and some arrows.” So he took himself a bow and some arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the

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bow.” So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. And he said, “Open the east window”; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot”; and he shot. And he said, “The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them” (II Kings 13:14-17). The arrow of God’s deliverance. What a powerful reminder that there is no mountain our God cannot lay flat. I want you to consider that arrow as a symbol of God’s available power. Yes, the enemy has come into our nation like a flood, but God has given us arrows of deliverance. Prayer, fasting, standing up, being salt, being light, voting, being vocal, fighting for our nation in every way that we can, standing for our beliefs, taking our communities back, our schools back, our neighborhoods back for God are all arrows of deliverance. These are our heritage and our responsibility before the Lord as salt and light.

Two things are happening in America at this point in history. Number

one, America has never been in more trouble than she is in right now. And number two, God has never been more anxious to give arrows of deliverance to the church than He is right now. Every pulpit in America needs to ring forth and say, “It’s time to vote. It’s time to be the salt and the light of the world.”

Consider it. Take counsel. Unify. Consider it. In other words, let the

realization of what’s happening to your rights, your freedoms, your nation and your morality set in. Look at the direction your nation is going. Consider it. Take counsel. Come together. Unify. Body of Christ, stand up! Be vocal.

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5 Four Prophetic Parallels Parallel One: We Are Protected

I was recently researching and preaching on prophesy; focusing

on some of the things that are so current that it’s like when you read the Bible, you’re reading the newspaper. One of the main players in end-times prophecy is, of course, the nation of Israel. Everything is centered around Israel in Biblical prophecy. In my study, I have found four parallels between Israel and the United States that I believe are encouraging facts. I have found that as it goes with natural Israel, so it goes with spiritual Israel, which is the Church, which is the believer . . . you and I. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you are the church.

In the Old Testament, God had a temple for His people, but under the

new covenant, God has a people for His temple. We are the Church, and as I observe the facts about the nation of Israel, I see the blessings ascribed to Israel by God being ascribed to you and me, the Church, as well.

The first thing I see about natural Israel is they are protected. This is

a nation surrounded by 175 million people who desire to see them literally obliterated and destroyed. They have on one border Syria, with ISIS. On the other border they have Lebanon, which is home to the terrorist organization Hezbollah who fires rockets into the cities of Israel on a daily basis. They

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have other nations like Iran who not only refuse to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, they also swear to eliminate them from the planet while the powers of the world allow them to amass nuclear capability. They have all these enemies surrounding them. Even though they’re a tiny nation (about the size of New Jersey), the majority of their surrounding nations are against them. And yet they are protected. Crisis after crisis, threat after threat, false accusation after false accusation—they are protected. ISIS can’t destroy them. Hezbollah cannot destroy them. Iran cannot destroy them. Al-Qaeda cannot destroy them, and the UN cannot minimize their role as a world power. Why? Because they are Divinely protected by the hand of the Lord. That’s the good news. No matter what assails them, the God of the Bible protects them supernaturally.

As a matter of fact, in Psalms 48:12, God told the prophet, “Walk

around Zion. Walk around and look at the walls and teach the generations to come, that these walls will stand.” He is saying there is nothing that can come against the walls of Jerusalem that will ever tear them down, because that is His city. Saddam couldn’t get to her and the Palestine Liberation Organization couldn’t invade. Iran with its nuclear weapons will never be able to get to her, and Russia with its power and bluster will not be able to get to her. Not even China with its massive war machine will ever bring her harm because God said, “I will protect Jerusalem and Israel.”

As it is with natural Israel, so it is with spiritual Israel, which is the

believer: you, your family, your children, your grandchildren, your life. We are not a people of fear. We are not a people who are tormented day and

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night, fearful and worried. We are protected, and according to Psalms 91:11, “He shall give His angels charge over you.”

Just as it is with natural Israel, it is with spiritual Israel . . . us. It

doesn’t matter how many forces or how many people are coming against the church. The scripture says that He’ll give His angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways. We are protected. Israel is protected. They have enemies, but the enemies cannot prosper.

If our American politicians side with other nations against Israel,

they’ll never be able to take that land and give it away, and they will, in the process, incur the wrath of the God of Israel. Why? Because God said, “I’ll protect it.” Here’s the good news . . . that same blessing of protection is over you. The hedge of the Lord is around you. The angels of the Lord are watching over you and your children day and night. Isaiah proclaimed, “No weapon formed against you will prosper” (Is 54:17).

This spiritual principle about the supernatural protection that is ours

proved itself true for my family not long ago. One of my daughters, 17 years old at the time, had something terrifying happen to her. I remember receiving a call in the middle of the night, and she was screaming and crying on the other end of the phone. We felt so hopeless because we were not where she was. She was on her way to a friend’s house when a man who the police would later tell us had been watching her to set her up, pulled in front of her and as the light changed, he pulled into the middle of the intersection and hit his brakes suddenly. She slammed on her brakes and fortunately didn’t hit him, but it was so close that when the man motioned for her to pull over

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up ahead, she thought that maybe she had hit him and just didn’t feel it. The man quickly jumped out of the car and yelled, “You hit my car! You hit my car, you hit my car, pull over, pull over here.” And so she, being a 17-year-old teenager, nervous and shaking, pulled over into a dark area just ahead of the intersection. It was an area where there were not a lot of people out at that time of the night.

Watch this. When she got out of her car, which she should have never

done, she gets her insurance card and her driver’s license because the man’s saying, “Come look, come look.” When she walks up, he yells at her saying, “You hit my car!” She said, “I don’t see anything, but if I hit it, then we need to call the police.” He said, “No, don’t call the police. Get in the back seat of my car and have sex with me.” She was stunned as he continued, “How old are you?” And she said, “I’m 17.” He said, “You get in the car and have sex with me.” Immediately she started screaming and running back to her car, locked the door, and got on the phone. The man became startled and afraid and got in his car and skidded off.

I will never forget receiving that call. As a parent you never like to

hear the phone ring late at night. She called us and she was hysterical and screaming. We, of course, called the police, and within minutes they were there to help her. When we talked with the police they informed us that someone in the area had been doing these things and attacking women.

The only question that I had as I was reeling from what had just

happened was: “Why didn’t he attack my daughter?” His plan was working, and he had trapped an innocent 17-year old girl with no witnesses, and he

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was certainly strong enough to overpower her. But as I thought it through, it became clear to me . . . he picked the wrong girl!

The Bible said God can put a hedge around our children. God can

put a wall of protection around our families. And just like Israel—there’s no natural explanation as to why a nation the size of New Jersey is so protected and powerful that none of her enemies, who greatly outnumber her and are mightier than her, can touch her. And I’m thankful today for the protection of the Lord. God protected my daughter that night, and I’m believing for that same protection over you and your children.

Number one, Israel is protected, and so are you. I plead the blood of

Jesus over you and your family, protected against disease, protected against the attacks of the enemy, protected against financial devastation. I believe in the protective hand and power of God, the angels of God, and the hedge with which He surrounds us. Job said, “There’s a hedge around me and my family.” And even Satan had to acknowledge, “I cannot get through that hedge.” May the hedge go back up. May there come protection over you and your family as there is with Israel.

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6 Four Prophetic Parallels Parallel Two: We Are Prosperous

Secondly, Israel is not only protected, but Israel is prosperous. Israel

is a prosperous nation and has been for most of her existence. It was a barren land in 1948, nothing but a miserable, dead, dry desert. But when the Jews took over that place, suddenly the desert began to bloom. Isaiah 35 says the desert will bloom. This was a prophecy, “And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose” (Isaiah 35:1).

Today, when you go to Israel, and I have been many times, you will see

all the nations around them are poor, impoverished, and don’t have enough food. But in Israel you will see orange blossoms for miles and miles and miles. You’ll see banana plantations, olive trees, amazing fruit and flowers. Israel is one of the top exporters of flowers, fulfilling that scripture, ‘The desert will bloom like a rose.’ They’ve learned how to plant and sustain crops, so much so they do not have any need to import food. They have more than enough to feed themselves. They’re one of the biggest exporters of food, fruit and flowers all over the world. They are making the desert bloom and they are a protected and a prosperous people.

David Brooks of the New York Times researched and wrote an article

on this subject in 2010. Here is what his research yielded: Jews are a famously

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accomplished group. They make up only 0.2 percent of the world population, but 54 percent of the world chess champions, 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureates and 31 percent of the medicine laureates. Jews make up 2 percent of the U.S. population, but 21 percent of the Ivy League student bodies, 26 percent of the Kennedy Center honorees, 37 percent of the Academy Awardwinning directors, 38 percent of those on a recent Business Week list of leading philanthropists, and 51 percent of the Pulitzer Prize winners for nonfiction.

Just like natural Israel is prosperous, God speaks prosperity over

spiritual Israel, the Church. Listen to the promise of Deuteronomy:

You will be blessed in the city, and blessed in the

country . . . You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out . . . The Lord will make you the head, not the tail . . . You will always be at the top, never at the bottom. Deuteronomy 28:3,6, 13

So much has been written about the word prosperous, and in some

evangelical circles it is a major point of criticism and a lightening rod of derision. Some teach the concept of prosperity from an extreme and slanted point of view, which causes great harm and confusion. Critics refer to that position as the “prosperity gospel.” But the truth is, we are a prosperous people. And I will not back down on this point one bit. There are those in the extreme “prosperity” vein who tie this to great wealth, expensive cars, property and a rich lifestyle. These are the same people who would tell you that if you have cancer, it’s your own fault because of your unbelief. If you

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are poor it is because you have not “claimed” you are rich. Name it and claim it is their motto, and unfortunately the rest of the charismatic or Pentecostal churches and pastors get painted with that same brush.

The prosperity referred to here doesn’t concern itself with diamonds,

fur coats and fancy automobiles. A quick study from dictionary.com gives a far more accurate description of what I am referring to when I say, “prosperity.”

Prosperity: A successful, flourishing, or thriving

condition, especially in financial respects, good fortune, prosperous circumstances, to expand.

Listen to Joshua 1:8 (KJV):

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth

. . . For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. That’s God’s word. We are a prosperous people. We have good success because we honor His word. I love Psalms 115,”The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children.”

This is your make-up year. This is your catch-up year. Do you know

the Bible says God can restore the years the locusts and the cankerworm have taken away? What does that mean? That means God can give you a make-up year. God can give you a catch-up year where He blesses you. The Lord will bless the work of your hands. Deuteronomy 8:18 says, “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers.”

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We are protected and prosperous. Remember what it says in III John

2, “I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”

I believe the Lord stands ready to bless the work of our hands in all

areas of our lives. I believe He stands ready and excited to come to our aid in this season at the intersection of secularism and faith in an election season that could change the entire trajectory of a nation. I believe we have not because we ask not, and we have a heavenly Father waiting for His people to simply look up, call out His name, and seek His face. I believe He seeks repentance and contrite hearts, and that His greatest desire is to respond to a people who are fasting and praying by healing their land and being their God, just like He has done for His people since the beginning of time.

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7 Four Prophetic Parallels Parallel Three: Passionate

The third parallel I noticed about Israel is that they’re a passionate

people. They are passionate about who they are. They’re passionate about who their God is, especially the orthodox Jews. When you go to Israel or a Jewish quarter in New York City, Los Angeles, or any major metropolitan area where there’s a large population of Jewish people, you will always see the orthodox Jews in their black suits and those different-looking hats, and the little curls of hair going down the side of their face. They could care less what anybody thinks about them. They wear their yarmulkes and they will go to a ball game, work or a restaurant and wear their religious garment not caring what anyone thinks about how they look.

I’ve been on airplanes where the rabbis would walk to the back of the

plane and begin rocking back and forth, praying with their prayer book in public. There’s no sacred or public line of demarcation with these people. They are passionate about what they believe and they’re passionate about who they believe in. I couldn’t help but think that even their little children are not ashamed. They’re passionate.

I’m praying the body of Christ will see that same parallel blessing; that

we are protected like Israel, prosperous, and become a passionate people .

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. . passionate for the word of God and for His Kingdom ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’ I’m telling you, I don’t live for this world. I don’t live for the stuff of this world. Jesus is the center of my life and if He’s not the center of your life then you have to get back to being passionate about that again.

I see the Jews going to that Wailing Wall and they’re passionate.

They rock back and forth as they hold their prayer book, and they will stand sometimes for hours; passionately praying as if they truly had an audience of just one. Where is that passion in your life? Jesus said, “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, [a] I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:16). Our God desires to see us passionate about the things that He is passionate about. And we need to have a passion for the house of God. We need to have a passion for the presence of God. We need a passion for the Word of God. We see this passion in natural Israel, and it is desperately needed in spiritual Israel, or the Church, especially as we head into one of the most definitive elections in modern history. “God has given us arrows of deliverance.”

We need intense Christians. We don’t need diluted, spineless

Christians. This is an hour like Jesus warned against when He said in Luke 21:34, “Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation.” Dissipation means lack of intensity. We’ve lost the ability to outrage, but it is that passion we will need to overcome the enemy and defend a nation whose hands are on the threshold of the church.

Passion changes everything. Passion takes an idea and provides

the tireless efforts it will take to see that idea become something useful.

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People will follow passion, and passion can take the ordinary and make it extraordinary. A passion for you and me is what compelled our Savior to give His life for us, and He is passionately interceding to the Father for us today. Passion is a choice, just as being dispassionate is a choice. I am always disheartened to hear people describe themselves as low key or not outwardly emotional . . . unless it’s at a football game or the NBA Finals. Passion is our inheritance, and passion is what is needed for the hour we are in!

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8 Four Prophetic Parallels Parallel Four: Prepared

Natural Israel is not only protected, prosperous, and passionate, but I

believe they are also prepared. I believe God is calling on us to be prepared. Israel is so aware of their enemies’ great hatred toward them, they have no other choice than to live in a constant state of readiness.

When the teenagers turn 18, they are immediately drafted into the

military so that they’ll be prepared to fight. You will see beautiful little olive-skinned, black-haired, brown-eyed girls, as young as my own teenage daughter, walking all over the streets of Israel in military fatigues, because they’re drafted into service just like the boys. They have no choice. But it’s a choice most would make even if they were not required, because they understand they are all in this together, and their enemies are common to the entire nation. They understand they must be prepared, because the enemy wants to destroy their nation.

I couldn’t help but think of how many times I’ve been to Israel and

I’ve seen the beautiful young people. Many times you’ll see them in a group, and even if it’s their day off, they carry their M-16s with them. They have to. But do you know what they don’t have? They don’t have alcoholism or drug addiction to speak of in Israel, because they don’t have time for all that. They

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take each generation and prepare them for war.

What a parallel we need to see in America. We need to be prepared for

the times we’re living in, and we need to understand that there’s a war going on for our families. There is a war for our sons and our daughters; a real war, with a real enemy. He wants to kill, steal and destroy. Are you prepared for that war? Are you playing games? Are you asleep? Are you dispassionate, lukewarm or cold and indifferent? Are you out of church and not living for God? Are you living for the things—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life? This is your wakeup call. We need to be prepared, and when trouble comes, like with my daughter, when that moment comes that could change everything, we need to be ready. We don’t need to carry M-16s and we don’t need to go through military exercises, because our battle is a spiritual battle. Our weapons are not carnal, our weapons are prayer, fasting and speaking up. Our weapons are not carnal, but they are mighty. And like those M-16s, they require training, practice and a readiness like never before.

You know, I don’t wait until crisis comes to pray. I believe we ought

to be prepared ahead of time. You ought to be prayed-up right now. You don’t know what tomorrow holds. You don’t know what tonight holds. You don’t know what you will face a week from now. But I know one thing: If I’m prepared and I’m prayed-up and I’m passionate about Jesus, whatever comes my way, greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world, and the same is true for you. Are you aware of the fact that we have real enemies who are out there, and we must stay prepared?

I’ve watched the young people go up to the Wailing Wall with the

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Jewish soldiers, and I’ve seen them hold their prayer book in one hand and an M-16 in the other hand. They’re sending up their prayers and standing ready to defend. I remember thinking, “What a beautiful picture.” They’re ready for war. We need to be ready for war!

I believe we have to do more than go to church and be entertained. We

have to prepare for spiritual warfare and understand that we’re in a battle. We need to put on the whole armor of God. Get your spiritual M-16. Get your prayer book. Get your life together and be prepared for war. He said about Israel, “You are the apple of my eye.” In other words, “You are the center of everything that I see. You have my full attention.” And when you give your heart to Jesus Christ, He pronounces, “You are protected.” He pronounces, “You are prosperous.” He pronounces, “You can receive the passion of the Holy Spirit and His fire.” And everything you need to be prepared has been provided. No matter what happens, no matter what ISIS does, no matter what any of the enemies of the Church do, no matter what your enemies do, you have all you need to be prepared, because you have Jesus in your life.

In the book of Romans, the 13th chapter, I believe we’re given three

end-time instructions. I see these three instructions in our four parallels with natural Israel, and they are specifically for an end-time people.

And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time

to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the

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day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. Romans 13:11-13 “Wake up. Clean up. Look up!”

First of all, we need to, “Wake up.” Paul is telling us in Romans that

it’s high time we awaken. I hear this in my spirit so strong. So many people in the church, who at one time were passionate about God and really loved the Lord, have fallen to sleep spiritually. It’s a trick of the enemy, and the Holy Spirit is screaming, “Wake up! Something’s missing. Something’s not there.”

Secondly, “Clean up.” We’ve got to come out of drunkenness, lust,

envy and strife. Come out of that! Clean up, Jesus is coming. We are far too casual in our relationship with Jesus. We act like God is with us when we are at church, but the rest of the week we are on our own . . . as if He can’t see the deeds we commit and the very thoughts we think. Being lukewarm isn’t just about being dispassionate, it’s standing with one foot in the church and the other foot in the world. You are your “church-self” when you are in church and with your church friends, but you look an awful lot like the world when you are in the world. And there we stand, playing with sin while the nation stands at her deathbed with her hands on the threshold of the church. Wake up. Clean Up.

Lastly, “Look up.” This is no time to be playing God games. This is

an hour that’s serious. “For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” I believe the blessings we see on Israel are on our life in the church.

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Get your family in church, go to church. Be a part of the church, because there’s safety there. There God will protect you. There God will prosper you. There God will prepare you. There you will see the blessings of God overtake your life.

Consider all these things. Take counsel for the hour we are in and

the inheritance that is yours. Sense the urgency for the hour we are in, and slumber no more. Our nation stands at a critical and unprecedented intersection, and their hands are on the threshold of the Church. Our church. Our values. Our way of life. Our heritage. Our children and grandchildren. Our schools. Our freedom. Slumber no more, Church. It’s our time to pull a dying nation across the threshold to a place of hope and truth.

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Section III Take Action

Make your prayers heard in heaven and your vote recorded on earth

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Section III

9 Speak Up

In the Jewish concept, the Jewish philosophers believed that to

‘speak up’ or to ‘make confession’ simply meant what is said is turned into action. As this book is being written our nation is approaching one of the most important elections in modern history. At stake are potentially three Supreme Court Justice replacements, the interpretation on a wide variety of issues related to religious freedom, interpretations on laws related to gender and the family, and a line in the sand as it relates to the support or distancing of the U.S. from her most faithful ally, Israel.

Who you vote for is between you and God, and I leave that to your

conscience and guidance from God as you hear from Him. Believe me, there are no perfect candidates. I hear many people say they refuse to choose between the lesser of two evils. But until Jesus runs for office, it will ALWAYS be a choice between the lesser of two evils. George Washington wasn’t perfect, and Abraham Lincoln wasn’t perfect either. There has never been a perfect candidate, president, senator or Supreme Court Justice, because they are all flawed human beings just like you and I. We are imperfect people.

We are imperfect people in an imperfect election in an

imperfect nation voting for imperfect people in the hope they

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will rise to the moment of leadership and somehow surprise us. Here it is: Every Christian citizen should vote. In fact, they have a sacred duty to vote. Dr. Mark Rutland

What is the American Dream? What drives thousands and thousands

every year to give all they have just to come here and simply live . . . and start over? The American dream is all the rights we enjoy as citizens of this great country; the freedom to say what we want to say and believe what we are persuaded to believe. The American Dream is the right to publish newspapers freely, to worship and preach freely, to provide for our families and protect them as well. And most of all, it is our right to vote our conscience in meaningful, free elections. Our children have the right to a free education with a future limited only by the confines of their dreams and the sacrifice and hard work they are willing to put forth to achieve them. We are a democracy, not a monarchy; a republic, not a dictatorship. We are a nation governed by divinely constructed documents designed by the people and for the people, not a military regime.

America is hard-working moms and dads who get up every morning

and go to work to provide for their families. She is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and there is work left to do—much work, but she is still the best government on planet earth, forged by the blood of millions of patriots over a 240-year period.

We need to speak up. We need to confess God is with us. He told

Joshua, “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given

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you . . . No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life . . . I will not leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:3-5). But the key to it all is in verse 8, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth.” He is essentially telling him, I want you to speak up. I want you to talk about what you believe. I want you to defend what you know is the truth. Speak up. Fast and pray. Don’t say anything in violation to what I’ve told you. I am calling this nation to her knees. We need to fast and pray because the hands of a dying nation are on the threshold of the Church. Our job is to grab those hands and pull them in and say, “Welcome home. We’ll take you and we’ll show you how God can heal our land.” God can restore what the enemy has taken. The greatest revival the world has ever seen can begin as a nation turns back to God. I’m calling everyone within the sound of my voice; readers of this e-book, our Kingdom Connection broadcast, our website and social media, and certainly our churches and sister churches in the U.S. and around the world, to pray and fast with us. We are going to use every media outlet God has trusted us with to get as many believers as we can to consider these things, take counsel, speak up, and pray and fast saying, “O God, we need You in America. We need You in our nation. We need You. For as America goes … so goes the world.” “To ‘speak’ or to ‘make confession’ simply means that what is said is turned into action.”

I’m praying for that outrage and intensity to come to the body of

Christ that says, “I can’t sit back. I must exercise my civic duty and go vote in

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this election, and every election, for that which I know is right.” Prayerfully consider what the Lord would have you do.

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10 What Breaks Your Heart—What Moves You

The mantra we always hear is, ‘Take care of yourself.

Be good to yourself. Look out for yourself.’ But this was never the way of Christ. With Jesus it was always about others . . . it was always, ‘Look out for the other person.’ Toby Mac

Sometimes I think we are so consumed with our own lives that we

are not able to take good, hard, long looks at what’s happening all around us. But if the Holy Spirit is in you, you literally have to ignore Him not to see the plight of your neighbor . . . be that your neighbor next door or your fellow American, or even in your church. We are, by our very nature, agents of Light, givers of Hope, with a ministry of reconciliation, reconciling the lost to their Father and helping them find their way home. That’s just who we are. That’s just what we do.

And I think you are more conscious of that than you might realize.

I’d like to ask you two questions. What breaks your heart, and what are you doing about it? The Lord has had me in a season the last several months where my eyes have been set upon the world outside the four walls of our church. We’ve always done missions and been a very giving church for so

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many worthy projects and ministries. But that’s not what I am talking about. I’m talking about our neighborhoods . . . our city, our state and our nation.

What breaks your heart? What are you doing about it? Allow me, for

a moment, to shed some light on life in neighborhoods all over America: • In Chicago, Illinois 502 young men and women have been murdered in 2016 so far. • There are 113 successful suicides per day in the US, or one every 13 minutes. • An estimated 1.3 million adults age 18 or older (0.6%) attempted suicide in the past year. Among these adults who attempted suicide, 1.1 million also reported making suicide plans (0.2 million did not make suicide plans). • Excessive drinking by underage people is responsible for 4,300 deaths per year and people ages 12-20 account for 11% of the total alcohol consumed each year. • 23.5 million people over the age of 20 are addicted to drugs and alcohol in the US, which is roughly 1 in 10 of every person over age 12. This is roughly the same amount of people that live in the entire state of Texas. • Each year, four children per day die from abuse in the U.S. and over 6 million cases of abuse come to the attention of child protective services.

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• One in five girls and one in twenty boys will be sexually abused in their lifetime. • 16 million children in the U.S. are not getting the food they need. • 14,500-17,500 people are trafficked into the US every year, and 50% of those are children. 800,000 people are trafficked worldwide each year. • Every year there are 40-50 million abortions, which equals approximately 125,000 per day. In the U.S. there are over 3,000 abortions each day, which is approximately 22% of all pregnancies. • There are over 2.2 million people incarcerated in the U.S. at any given point in time, by far the largest number in the world. 1 in one hundred adults are incarcerated in the U.S. • There are 415,129 children currently in foster care in the U.S., and one is admitted every 2 minutes. • Over 1.4 million people are affiliated with a gang in one of the 33,000 gangs in the U.S. • Over 1.2 million drop out of high school each year in the US, which is one every 26 seconds and 7,000 per day. We are ranked 22 out of 27 for graduation rates in developed countries. • There are over 910,000 bankruptcies in the U.S. each year, and finances are now the number one cause of divorce in the U.S.

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What breaks your heart? What are you doing about it? Your state and

local elections have a lot to do with what is happening about these issues right there in your city. Get informed. Take counsel. Vote. It has been said the true measure of the church is its effect on the community where it is located. We are called to be salt and light. Years and years of the loosening moral fiber of our nation has had disastrous results.

The great army general Douglas MacArthur, after all of his conquests

and highs and lows of the wars he saw, made this profound observation as his career was winding to a close:

I am concerned for the security of our great nation;

not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within. Douglas MacArthur

What breaks your heart? What are you doing about it? Someone has

their hands on YOUR threshold. Consider it. Take counsel, speak up and take action.

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11 The Urgency for the Hour We Are In

In many parts of contemporary culture, it is

acceptable to believe in God, but only if you keep your belief in a private box. Yet Christianity will not remain ‘privatized.’ It is not merely a personal belief. It is the truth about all reality. Christians must learn how to break out of the box, to penetrate environments hostile to our faith, make people see the dilemma they themselves face, and then show them why the Christian worldview is the only rational answer. Chuck Colson

It is critical that we sense the hour we are in. I am a pastor, but I am

also a citizen of the United States. I stand where two entirely different worlds and perspectives collide. As hard as we have fought in our 240-year history for our Christian ethics and values, there is a tidal wave of war being waged to undo the Christian underpinnings of our society and replace them with a very secular and godless agenda. And they have all of the main media outlets at their bidding, sharing the same worldview. God is not welcome at this inn.

There is good news. There is a way in, and there is a path to victory,

both as a movement and one soul at a time. But we must get that sense of

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urgency and intensity and sense the moment we are in. There is a new media outlet that has evolved during this same time period making it possible to penetrate the American (and even the world) thought processes. This is a game changer. This levels the playing field, and this is where we must see there is great cause for hope! Recently, there was an NFL football player who refused to stand for the national anthem. Were it left to the normal news outlets, you would think this was an act of heroism with a groundswell of support. The true mood and reaction of the nation was entirely different in the new media outlet, and people learned the truth. In fact, the opinion video of one social media commentary received over 37,000,000 views within days after the event went viral and just one week after the athlete’s protest. Network news cannot touch the power and the impact the new media, social media, is having. People want the truth, and they sense they can no longer trust the old faces and channels to be their sole source of information. This is VERY good news for the church.

We are a nation with the highest suicide, chemical dependency,

and incarceration rates of any country on the planet. There is desperation and there are millions with their hands on the threshold of the church in desperate need of help from someone they can trust.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of

this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of good people. Martin Luther King

I know Christians who are incredibly shy and who would never stand

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on a stage to preach or even give their testimony. It would be a terrifying experience for them. But I also see those precious saints’ Facebook pages with over 200 friends . . . that each have 200 friends . . . who each have 200 friends. The potential is amazing, and it is there. Each January when we have our ministry-wide 21-day fast, we will have well over the number of hits on our website than the most popular cable news networks.

In the fall of 1998, an incredible storm, a category 5 hurricane, wreaked

devastation on the small country of Honduras. By the time Hurricane Mitch was finished, it had completely changed that nation forever. The aftermath reads like a horror novel: • Over 9,000 died • Another 9,000 missing • Over 1.9 million seriously injured • 92 bridges were destroyed • 50% of the nation’s agriculture was destroyed • Over 70,000 houses were destroyed • Over 1,000,000 were left homeless • Thousands lived on rooftops for several days • Over 50 years of progress was obliterated

As you might imagine, there are several implications from the

aftermath of a storm of this magnitude. As rescue efforts began to ascend

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on the most ravaged parts of the country, it became evident very quickly the maps no longer worked. Most of the bridges were destroyed, and a completely new approach was required to reach and rescue a people who had just survived one hundred inches of rain.

In the U.S., we have endured 100 inches of rain via social change, and

the consequences are very similar. What does 100 inches of social change look like? Something like this: • Over 64% of all television programs contain sexual content • Nearly half of all high school students in the U.S. have had sexual intercourse • Each year, one case of a sexually transmitted disease (STD) is diagnosed for every 4 sexually active teens • The rate of teen pregnancy is among the highest of all industrialized countries • The average teen watches over three hours of television or video games per day

Old maps to the places where these things are happening are no longer

there. But there are new roads in their place. There are places where people live and move about that are extremely accessible to anyone who is willing to go search. It’s true that many times I do not recognize this country that I love, but I also know that what matters most—the people—are very much within reach. They crave relationship. So do we. They crave causes that are worth living and dying for. So do we. They desire something that is real. So

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do we. And they are so much more open to the “new” than we ever were. And that is where we need to grow.

When the roads are out, the bridges are destroyed and people are

living on roofs, there is a very serious sense of urgency to the situation. We are in an hour where there is a need for intensity and urgency. In less than two months we will be hip deep in an election cycle that could very literally change, permanently change, the moral direction of our nation.

You cannot CHOOSE by not voting. Leaders are chosen

by people who vote. Adults do not back down, they speak out. Todd Wagner, Watermark Church

You can’t sit this election out. You can’t sit on the sidelines. You can’t

just say, “Well, I hope something changes.”

Speaking on the Hobby Lobby case:

The justices will decide whether there is the freedom to

dissent and the freedom to accommodate these conscientious objections in the governing of people’s lives and the running of their businesses. This will have everything to do with everything that your church does for the next 100 years. Russell Moore, Head-Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

In II Kings we read that Jehoash said to Elisha, “The Assyrians are

coming.” When I read that I thought it’s like, “ISIS is coming! Terrorism

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is coming!” America, what are you doing? Body of Christ, what are we preaching? What are we saying? We have to take a stand and while some can do more than others, we can all do one thing … vote. We can all give that one bit of our day on November 8th for those who gave their lives protecting our right to do vote. God has given us the arrows of deliverance: the Church, the name of Jesus, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, fasting, prayer—and doing what you can do. Vote. There is no mountain our God cannot lay flat.

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12 History Makers

If you read history you will find that the Christians who

did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this (world). C. S. Lewis

In Joshua chapter 1, Moses has just died, and the fate of an entire

nation, a weary nation, hung in the balance. That’s why God said to Joshua in Joshua 1:8, “Moses, My servant is dead.” That’s the bad news. Moses is dead. But there is also good news for Joshua. God also said to Joshua, “As I was with Moses, so I’ll be with you.” What a powerful promise. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be Joshua in that moment? You can. God is saying to us today, “As I was with those previous generations, I’m with this generation. And I can do something awesome and amazing in your generation. But you have to speak up.” You have to consider the times we are in, take counsel, know that God is with you and speak up.” I believe a Joshua generation is coming upon the earth. And as God was with Billy Graham, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon and Billy Sunday

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and all of the great Christian leaders of the past, He’s going to raise up young men and women in this critical hour, according to the prophecy of Joel.

Religious Liberty is the civil rights issue of the future.

This issue may take—just as it did with Martin Luther King— it may take some pastors going to jail. I’m in! Rick Warren Maybe you don’t have the ear of a presidential candidate or even a local official, but your voice still matters. So do your prayers, your fasting, and most of all … your vote. That’s why we’re calling a fast, from November the 6-8. I’m asking tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of you to join me for three days of fasting and prayer, to see His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that Christians by the millions would go to the polls and vote. “Let your prayers be heard in heaven and your vote recorded on earth.” Our nation is in trouble, and it’s time for the prophets and it’s time for the men and the women of God to come forth and declare the Word of the Lord and bring some intensity into the body of Christ.

It’s time to pray. It’s time to declare a fast. It’s time to make our voices

heard and vote. It’s time to be the salt and light of the world. Consider it. Take counsel. Take action. Speak up.

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If a nation forgets God, she will lose the blessing God has given her. Franklin Graham

Please consider joining us for a time of prayer and fasting November

6-8 as we come before the Lord and ask Him to intervene the way He did time and time again all through the scriptures. Why not now? Why not us . . . spiritual Israel?

There is another story in II Kings I think perfectly speaks to the hour

we are in. The story goes that Elisha was traveling with his servant and had pitched his tent for the night. Meanwhile, the king of Syria, angry that Elisha will not prophecy his victory, decides he is going to hunt down this old prophet and have him killed. It says in II Kings 6:14, “He sent horses and chariots and a great army there,” to surround him and kill him.

The next morning, the servant awakes, steps outside the tent and

suddenly, in horror, sees the Syrian army encircled around him. In his mind, it’s all over! They are doomed and it’s just a matter of moments until they attack. In a panic the servant goes in and wakes up the prophet to give him the bad news. I love Elisha’s response in verse 16, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And then Elisha prayed and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see (referring to his servant). Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young servant, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (v. 17).

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I love this story and it paints a picture for the hour we are in. As we

walk bravely and traverse behind enemy lines in this battle for our culture, our values and our freedoms—we do not go alone. We plus the army of God are enough. It will always be enough.

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Resources • DNA Info Chicago, 2016, Retrieved from https://www.dnainfo.com/ chicago/2016-chicago-murders/timeline?mon=9 • National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Division of Violence Prevention, 2015, Suicide Facts at a Glance. Retrieved from https:// www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/suicide-datasheet-a.pdf • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015, Fact SheetsUnderage Drinking. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/factsheets/underage-drinking.htm • Partnership for Drug Free Kids, 2010, Staff Writer, New Data Show Millions of Americans with Alcohol and Drug Addiction Could Benefit from Health Care. Retrieved from http://www.drugfree.org/new-datashow-millions-of-americans-with-alcohol-and-drug-addiction-couldbenefit-from-health-care-r/ • Safe Horizon, Child Abuse. Retrieved from https://www.safehorizon. org/get-help/child-abuse/ • The National Center for Victims of Crime, Child Sexual Abuse Statistics. Retrieved from https://victimsofcrime.org/media/reporting-on-childsexual-abuse/child-sexual-abuse-statistics • No Kid Hungry, Retrieved from https://www.nokidhungry.org/ problem/hunger-facts • Force for Compassion, 2012, Human Trafficking Statistics Report. Retrieved from http://www.f-4-c.org/statistics/

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• Worldometers, 2016, Abortions this year. Retrieved from http://www. worldometers.info/abortions/ • The National Academies Press, 2014, The Growth of Incarceration in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/catalog/18613/ the-growth-of-incarceration-in-the-united-states-exploringcauses?gclid=CjwKEAjwgdS-BRDA7fT68f6s8zMSJADZwHmvZmsdGe bHOViErSQjeDbGgNwSUc-APdmGby8ajU2vhhoCLEDw_wcB • Foster Club, 2014, The Current State of Foster Care. Retrieved from https://www.fosterclub.com/article/statistics-foster-care • Wikipedia, Gangs in the United States. Retrieved form https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangs_in_the_United_States • DoSomething.org, 11 Facts about High School Dropout Rates. Retrieved from https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-highschool-dropout-rates

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FAST PRAY VOTE BY JENTEZEN FRANKLIN COPYRIGHT © 2016 JENTEZEN FRANKLIN MEDIA MINISTRIES, GAINESVILLE GA

Jentezen Franklin is the senior pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, GA; Free Chapel Gwinnett in Suwanee, GA; Free Chapel OC in Irvine, CA and Free Chapel Spartanburg in Spartanburg, SC. He also ministers globally through his Kingdom Connection television broadcast. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. P.O. Box 315 Gainesville, GA 30503