Taking a Break

I didn't plan on doing so but it just worked out in a way where I couldn't write much in February. I had planned on writing at least four posts but I just couldn't get it together. I had to take a business/ministry trip out of the country in the second week of February and now my mother-in-law Merrilee is here in Merida with us visiting for 10 days.

Merrilee called us on Thursday night before she flew in and asked us if there was anything special she needed to bring. We jokingly told her a bullet-proof vest could prove useful since this was Mexico. Fortunately she saw the humor in it. She flew in last Friday night and we threw her a party with some of our friends on Saturday night. Below are some pictures.





Joel and Reina. Their daughter Helena is pictured right.



These were three of the couples that we invited over. More were supposed to show up but some couldn't make it. 

I would add more captions onto the pictures but everytime I try, the format on the page changes. Ricardo (white shirt) and his wife Adreana are pictured left. Ricard is both a helicopter pilot and airline pilot (Mexicanna Airlines). Andreana has experience in business management.

Beto and his wife Marina are pictured above with their son Andrew. Beto makes all types of iron work (fences, doors, bedframes, ....) He is amazingly gifted. Marina is finishing up her Doctoral Thesis on traditional Mayan herbal remedies.  The thing I appreciate about the Mexican culture is that people like to talk and spend time together. If two of these three couples hadn't had small children they would have all stayed until 2 am......or maybe 5 am..........seriously.

This was our Saturday night party. Beto cooked an authentic Mexican dish of cactus stuffed with cheese and covered with a spicy tomato sauce. It was very good. The dish is common in Mexico City where Beto is from. Adriana made Tres Leches cake (Three Milk). Tres Leches is my personal favorite after Tiramisu.

Sunday morning we went to the annual Chili cook-off at the home (Mansion) of the head of the American Consulate here in Merida. Our friend Yuri won the contest for the second year in a row. There were about 30 contestants in all with around 500 people in attendance. I would post pics but they are on Grandma's camera. Two of the local authentic Yucatecan restaurants were there giving out free food as well. One of them was Rosas & Xocolate. The head Chef there is my former next door neighbor. He cooked octopus for everyone. It was actually very good.

Sunday night we took a horse drawn carriage ride up and down Paseo Montejo for $30 USD. We went at night so everything was lit up beautifully. The boys really enjoyed the ride. The entire avenue is extremely picturesque and very popular with both the locals and the tourists.

Yesterday we went to Progresso beach to experience the cooler weather. It is already starting to get hot here (90 F) almost every day. Progresso beach is about 10 or 15 degrees cooler because of prevailing southerly winds from the Gulf of Mexico. The boys swam and the rest of us people watched and fed the seagulls.

Lord willing we will get over to Uxmal today to see one of the Pyramids. We will also try to hit Celestun this weekend to see the Flamingos.

The Lord has been showing me a great deal over the past month, specifically about the hearts of his people. Once "mom" leaves next week I look forward to getting my prayer life back along with some time to write about what I believe I am seeing.

God Bless

JEB
jayblackshear@yahoo.com
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.

True to God

Roughly 5 years ago my wife and I were members of a Spirit-filled church in McKinney, TX. While there I ended up befriending some wonderful brothers in the Lord. One of them was a man whom we will call John.  He and his wife were citizens of countries in West Africa. They were a really sweet couple whom Christine and I really enjoyed spending time with. This brother and I were in the beginning stages of a friendship and so we started sharing our hearts with each other on various things. He was a lay-minister who traveled and preached in various churches.

During the spring of 2006 he asked me to go with him to a church in Irving, TX and minister with him to a group of African brothers and sisters, a few of whom went to Christ for the Nations. I gladly obliged and we scheduled a trip over to this church on March 3, 2006. While I was waiting for John to pick me up at my house that Friday evening I found myself going outside to check the mail. When I did I found that I had received a ministry newsletter from a long-time friend and spiritual father in the Lord. I opened the letter and found the following message: Don't worry about the spectacular, just get the routine. Relax and be the person you are.

That was the basic theme, some of it word-for-word. I took this as a word of instruction from the Lord in regards to how he wanted me to conduct myself amongst the brethren that evening. The Lord was just telling me to stick to the basics and be the person he had made me to be. Years before in 1997 I received a prophetic word from a prophet in Big Spring, TX. His word to me was, "Do not conform yourself to other men's patterns. You will have your own style of ministry that is unique to you." Those words have always hung with me and here the Lord was, some 9 years later, telling me the same thing through another brother, albeit in slightly different words: Just be who you are and relax. Stick to the basics.

As John and I were driving to Irving that evening he told me that he wanted me to preach to the brothers at the meeting for about 20 minutes. He told me I had the latitude to minister whatever and however I wanted to. As I prayed about what I was supposed to teach on I just felt that I was to cover the subject of Faith and particularly the topic of Song. I covered this topic in the blog Here in October, 2010.

We arrived at the church and as we got out of the car I found my eyes fixing a on sippy-cup that was left sitting on a windowsill on the exterior of the building near where we parked. As I looked at the cup I felt the Lord impress the following thought on me: That is the cumulative maturity level of whom you will be speaking too tonight.

So we walk into the building and now I have my message to give and I know my audience. The meeting starts and the time arrives for me to speak. I stand up, thank everyone for having me, pray and start ministering from the scriptures on a very simple concept: Hearing God's voice in Song. I use Job 33:14, Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 5:19 and 2 Kings 3:15 just like we did in our previous post in October. As I was teaching I noticed something about the people I was ministering to: They looked almost sedated. Everyone was very calm, very still, almost like they were watching a movie. At first I was concerned that I wasn't making sense but I just kept speaking. I finished my teaching and then I sat down. Later I realized that they were just "absorbing" what I was saying like a sponge absorbs water. They were just soaking it in.

John took the pulpit after I finished. When he did he must have seen the after-effects on their faces. But instead of realizing that they were spiritual babies with tummies full of milk that needed to be rocked and burped, he interpreted the atmosphere in the wrong way. After he preached for a few minutes and found that he wasn't getting the level of emotional response from them that he wanted, he simply looked at everyone in the room and said that the enemy had come into the room and was lulling everyone into passivity through a spirit of witchcraft. So he made everyone stand up and start rebuking the devil. All of the sudden the entire room was whipped into a frenzy. Everyone started standing on their feet and screaming at the devil and rebuking everything in sight. While all of this was going on I yawned about 3 or 4 times. I couldn't stop yawning, literally. I tried but I couldn't stop. I kept trying to hide it as I was sitting in the front row right in front of where John was standing just rebuking the devil. I didn't want him to see me because I didn't want him to think I was under the sway of the devil.

While I am standing there yawning the Lord spoke to me just as clear-as-day and said: This is Charismatic Chaos. When I heard that I paused and thought back on the book John MacArthur Jr. had written years before in condemnation of the gifts of the Spirit (tongues, prophecy, healing ....). His book was entitled Charismatic Chaos. That was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard this. While the book did point out many deficiencies in Charismatic ministries, Mr. MacArthur in effect threw out the proverbial 'baby with the bath-water' by preaching Cessationism. Cessationists teach that tongues, prophecy and various gifts of the Spirit stopped years ago and are no longer for today. That is not true. Just for the record I do not endorse that theology.

As I sat and meditated on the words the Lord spoke to me and as I watched the room around me, my mind quickly began to adjust to the Lord's line of thinking. All of the sudden I began to realize that the emotional frenzy that everyone was being whipped into was nothing more than a manifestation of the flesh. I realized that I was being true to the style that the Lord had given me by keeping it basic, by being calm and preaching foundational fundamentals (Fundare). And the Lord was subsequently bringing people in the room to a place of rest and stillness. This rest and stillness before the Lord does not always appeal to that extreme end of the spectrum of hyper-Charismatic ministry of which my good friend, as I learned that night, was obviously a proponent. (Note: I still love him as a brother. We just had some wrinkles to iron out.)

The next morning I got up to pray. I went into the living room and felt led to grab the dictionary and look up the word Chaos. I found this definition: empty, void, disorder, to yawn.

To yawn. Chaos can be loosely defined as yawning. Did you read the post on Water? At times the things that happen to us physically are similitudes. A prophetic similitude is something that is happening to us physically that represents the spiritual message that the Lord is trying to convey. When a prophetic similitude occurs in our lives it becomes a sign in the natural realm of how God is thinking, speaking, and/or acting in the moment. What was happening to me in the meeting was a prophetic similitude. I was yawning in an uncontrollable manner as a sign that God saw all of the carnal activity in the room as nothing more than charismatic chaos. It was empty and void of life. It was disorderly. It was one big spiritual yawn in his eyes.

I want to say this. I am not against people being expressive in worship and in times of fellowship. I am not against strange things happening. Speaking in the tongues of angels can seem odd to some (Acts 2). Walking around in your underwear prophesying to foreign countries can seem odd at times (Isaiah 20). God speaking through donkeys is odd to me (Numbers 22). The prophet's vision in Ezekiel 1 is mind-boggling. These things are odd, demonstrative, expressive and strange to some. But those things are God. They are in line with obedience. They produce good fruit to those those who heed the call of God. We are for those things, not against them.

But the point of this writing is this: We have to be true to the message of God, even if the content or the manner of delivery is not what people are expecting. We have to be true to the word and who God is in us. We have to be true to the calling of God on our lives whether others like it or not.  Sometimes truth is expressive, odd, quirky and out of the mainstream. And sometimes it can be real basic, real plain, real foundational. We have to understand that what the Lord has us do, what he has us say and how he has us say it might not fulfill the expectations of others.

"...For some say, 'His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.'" 2 Cor 10:10

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words..." 1 Cor 2:4

"By setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." 2 Cor 4:2

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." 2 Timothy 4:3

"They say to the seers, 'See no more visions!', and to the prophets, 'Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions." Isaiah 30:10

Many people caught up in main stream Christian religion have already made up their minds as to what they want to believe and how they want their paradigms reinforced to them. Most people already have their minds made up before the the Lord has had a chance to confirm or deny what they believe. But regardless, the remnant, the very elect of God has a responsibility to abide in the vine by obedience.

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." John 15:4

That means that we have a responsibility to not only pursue and study out the revelation of God (Spoudaza and Qara) but then to set that truth before others plainly as the Spirit of God leads us.

"For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it....So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." John 12:49,50

First we seek God with intensity. Then we act and speak in obedience as we are led. And with that said, to put it all in context, the message of God's judgment is a part of that in our hour. We need to know the times and how to respond to it. A few days ago I heard the following verse in my heart as I was praying:

"...men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do..." 1 Chronicles 12:32

The men of Issachar understood what the times where all about and they knew what to do about it. The monarchy in Israel was in a state of flux in their hour. They understood that it was a time of extraordinary transition and they knew how to respond to it. And because of it they were rewarded. The name Issachar means, "He will reward." If we want to be rewarded in our time we have to know what time it is and what we should be doing about it. Now is the time to respond. Now is the time to be true to God. 

JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.

The Reason Why

The Lord blessed my wife and I with a daughter on December 18th, 2001. Her name was Elizabeth. She was born with Downs Syndrome and was also born missing part of her heart. Because of this she only lived 23 days. In that time she had 4 surgeries, the last of which was an open-heart operation. During that time of trial and difficulty the Lord showed me a deeper level of who He is as he dwells in us. One, he desires to speak to us to prepare us for things that are before us. Two, his level of power and grace is always sufficient for the trial we are in. Three, when the Body of Christ pulls together and bears one anothers burdens and prays for one another this measure of Grace I am referring to will always be there for us.

Some months before Elizabeth was born the Lord spoke to me about her specifically. I was off of work just laying on the couch at home attempting to take a nap one afternoon. The Lord spoke to me as I was staring at the ceiling and told me that the baby we were going to have would be born a mongoloid. For those of you that are not familiar with what I am referring to, mongolism is an antiquated term for Downs Syndrome. When I heard this I just kept it to myself as I was really hoping that I had not heard what I thought I had in fact heard. I never told my wife or anyone else for that matter.

As time went forward and we were close to our delivery date I had an encounter with the presence of the Lord while in prayer one morning. It was December 7th, 11 days before Elizabeth was born. I went into the dining room at 5AM to spend some time in prayer and as soon as I sat down at the table the presence of the Lord filled the room. His presence was so thick and so powerful that the only way I could describe it was that I was being pressed on and squeezed by an unseen force. It caught me off guard and scared me because it happened right as I sat down in the chair. I sat very still and just scanned the room with my eyes expecting to see something or someone appear in front of me. His presence lasted for a few minutes and then everything just dissipated and went back to normal, myself included.

After this occurred I simply asked the Lord if that was in fact him. Well, that same day I noticed that two things had occurred in our home. One, our dog George stopped acting weird. When I say "weird," I am referring to the fact that every time Christine would be pregnant George would always get "under foot" as we say. He just acted weird while she was pregnant, like he was disturbed about something, and he would not leave her side. Well, after that day he never acted that way again. Also another thing occurred. Up to that point we were having a hard time getting our youngest son to sleep through the night in his own bed. From that day forward we never had an issue with it again. There was a greater level of peace over our home from that time onward.

As some of you know the story, Elizabeth went to be with the Lord almost three weeks later. But what I learned in the whole process on a much deeper level is that the Lord prepares his people for things in advance by speaking of things to come.

"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what it yet to come." John 16:13

He tells us about things in advance and then he prepares us for those things by bringing forth his refreshing presence and gracing us for the task at hand.

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Acts 3:19

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor 12:9

So the Lord tells us about things in advance and then he empowers us for the task at hand and the trials that come with it. During those 23 days and in the days afterwards we felt power. We felt fresh.

Also during that time the Lord showed us great love through the Body of Christ. It was probably the one time in our lives that we could feel the lasting tangible presence of the Lord carrying us through hardship simply because so many people prayed for us over a protracted period of time. I know of at least three church bodies that were diligently interceding for us in that time. And the feeling of it was very tangible in the physical realm. Our hearts were strengthened with grace because others were bearing our burdens in prayer.

"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." Gal 6:2

"...always keep on praying for all the saints." Eph 6:18

We are grateful for who the Lord was for us through the Body in that time. The experience taught us another level of the need for corporate intercession in times of great need.

I write all of this to say the following. The reason why we are covering the topics we are at this time is not because I am engaging in what I refer to as shock-preaching. I have seen ministers in the past (I am sure I have done it before to) try to preach from their souls and shock people emotionally to get some type of response from them. This type of ministry is different from the kind of ministry we are called to in the Lord. Shock-preaching is soulish, manipulative and doesn't cultivate righteousness in a man's heart. That is not what we are called to as we minister to one another.

But people within the Body of Christ need to have revelation of that which is in front of them, both in America and in the rest of the world. We need to have revelation in advance of what is coming. If we will acknowledge truth and turn towards the Lord, his presence will strengthen us for the tasks at hand. He will equip us for things to come. He will give us sufficient grace to endure all things if we will only ask of him. We need to know things in advance. We need to ask of Him. We need to be empowered in the Spirit and pray for one another. America is falling off a cliff and the rest of the world will go with it. We need to be spiritually prepared for that.

I have had several conversations in past months with Mexican businessmen about what would happen to Mexico if the U.S. economy collapsed. Their response to me every time is that Mexico would go down with America because Mexico is heavily dependant on American consumption of goods manufactured in Mexico. The Mexican economy is also supplemented a great deal by Mexican nationals working in the United States sending huge sums of money back home. It is currently estimated that Mexican citizens receive roughly $23 billion per year in wire transfers from family members who are currently migrant workers inside the United States. That is alot of money for the Mexican economy each year that will be lost in the future.

We need to ask the Lord for revelation of what is in front of us, ask him to strengthen us and prepare us both physically and spiritually, and then we need to engage in prayer for each other so that we can feel the exponential effects of corporate intercession. Remember the following words:

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up. Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." Ecc 4:9,10,12

"How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless the Rock had sold them, unless the Lord had given them up?" Deut 32:30

That is the reason why we have covered these topics. Be aware and prepare in his grace with corporate unity. That is the reason why we discuss these things. That is the reason why.

In Christ,

JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.

Three Small Waves

I once heard Henry Gruver tell a story about the German Christians in Berlin during WWII. Apparently many Christians in that city had been trapped within German borders with no way out. As the war progressed and the momentum swung away from the Axis nations towards the Allies, the Lord, according to the story, began to speak via the prophets to the underground church in Berlin. The following is an intertwining of historical facts about WWII along with the story that was confirmed by two German Christian men who had fled Berlin during the allied firebombings of the city prior to the end of the war.

According to historical records, at the beginning of World War II (1939) the United Kingdom had an official policy of conducting aerial bombings strictly on military targets inside Germany. This policy was quickly abandoned by England on May 14, 1940. That was the day Germany bombed Rotterdam, Holland killing 900 civilians and leaving an estimated 80,000 homeless. England's policy of bombing only targets of direct military significance was gradually abandoned in favour of "area bombing" - large-scale bombing of German cities to destroy housing and civilian infrastructure. Although killing German civilians was never an explicit policy, it was obvious that area bombing would lead to large-scale civilian casualties.

From 1939-1941 British Bombers had a hard time being effective over Berlin because of the cities distance from London (590 miles). During 1942 new British bombers with longer ranges were coming into service. However, during that year the British Bomber Command's priority was attacking German U-boat ports as part of Britain's efforts to win the Battle of the Atlantic. During the whole of 1942 there were only nine air alerts in Berlin, none of them serious. It wasn't until late in 1943 that this changed.


Part of Berlin after Allied Firebombings during WWII.

On November 18, 1943 the infamous Battle of Berlin was launched at the German capital by the newly appointed head of RAF Bomber Command, Sir Arthur Harris. Over the next 4 weeks the RAF conducted bombing raids in Berlin that rendered at least 25% of Berlin uninhabitable. These raids continued through March of 1944 thereby killing or injuring thousands of German civilians, mostly women and children, and leaving an estimated 450,000 homeless. Yet somewhere interspersed among all of this the Lord was trying to deliver the German church out from the destructive effects of this chaos. 

As I heard Henry tell the story, sometime during all of this the Lord gave German Christians three chances to escape the ill effects of this devastation and loss. At one point the Lord spoke to the church via the prophets and told the Christians to sell everything they had and move out of the city. Apparently some listened to this instruction and some did not. Some time later, and I am not sure as to the exact time frame, the Lord spoke again via the prophets. Only this time, per Henry, the words were different. This time the words were sell everything you can and get out. Again, some headed the words while others did not.

While the British had been conducting their "Battle over Berlin" campaign starting in 1943, the U.S. Army had been preparing for the next phase of the war by cooperating with Berlin architect Erich Mendelsohn. Throughout 1943 Mendelsohn collaborated with the U.S. Army and the Standard Oil company in order to build "German Village", a set of replicas of typical German working class housing estates, which would be of key importance in acquiring the know-how and experience necessary to carry out the joint effort of firebombing Berlin.

Sometime during that final campaign of allied firebombings over Germany from March 1944 to April 1945, the Lord spoke to the church one last time in regards to leaving the city. This time, as Henry told the story, the Lord told all believers to exit the city of Berlin immediately with their hands emptied of all physical possessions. They were to carry nothing in their hands. The story, per Henry, was later confirmed by two Christian men years later. Both of them had heeded the word of the Lord and had exited the city, one from the east and one from the west. Apparently, as people were leaving, the allied firebombings that started immediately in the city areas behind them started generating what we know today as firestorms.


Air movement in a mesocyclone.

A firestorm, simply put, is a an environment where objects like buildings and trees are burning so far out of control that it creates and sustains its own wind system that blows air inward towards the fires. These powerful horizontal columns of air are known as mesocyclones. As mesocyclones develop moving in the direction of the firebombing they literally take with them every object that is not securely fastened down to the ground. This means all unsecured objects move in the direction of the mesocyclone and go right into the firestorm itself.

When considering this and the specific prophetic instructions that the German Christians received during their last warning, it is easy to see why the Lord sent them out empty-handed. Per the two German witnesses that Henry referred to in his testimony, both men had to hold onto secured physical objects on the ground as they were exiting the city to keep from being sucked back into the fires themselves. Had they disobeyed the Lord and sought to carry things in their hands they would have been killed.

In the story I see the Lord give believers three chances to come out, but each time they came out a little less blessed. The first time they came out having had the opportunity to sell all their possessions. The second time those that had not heeded before had another chance to come out with only the provision from what they "could sell." The third wave of people came out empty handed having just escaped death. We see this three-wave principle at work in the last chapter of Jeremiah.

"So Judah went into captivity, away from her land. This is the number of people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; in Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; in his twenty-third year, 745 Jews taken into exile by Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard. There were 4,600 people in all." Jeremiah 52: 28-30

The last recorded census of fighting men in Judah is found in 2 Chronicles 26:13. There were 307,500 fighting men counted in the census, ages 20 to 40. If you count their immediate and extended families, it is safe to assume there were at least 2 million to 3 million Jews dwelling in Judah, Benjamin and Jerusalem in the days of the last 5 kings of Judah. On the low end at 2 million, to have only 4,600 people go into exile means only .23% of your population made it out alive as God began to judge the southern tribes. That is less than one-quarter of one percent of your entire population that's listening to the Lord in the day of judgment.

"But small is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to eternal life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:14

"...God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the Ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved..." 1 Peter 3:20

It seems that when God is trying to save people from judgment, not alot of people really want to respond for some reason. In Judah you have roughly one-quarter of 1% that was willing to respond to God. Not a very big crowd. And many came out only with the clothes on their backs. And they also came out in three waves, just like the Christians in Berlin.

Last Saturday I was talking with a good friend on the phone telling him that I believed I was supposed to write this post. As we discussed it I realized something for the first time: The first wave has already come out in America today. Let me explain.

Back in the middle 90's some of the prophetic ministries that I referred to in Spoudaza and Qara were very active. The Lord was opening alot of doors for the first three prophets I referred to in that post. From 1995-1997 I had the privilege of being apart of many meetings and local communities of believers within many cities throughout North Texas, West Texas, New Mexico and southern Colorado. As I traveled, fellowshipped and occasionally ministered in that time it was very evident to me and those around me that there was a great stirring among God's people with regards to the cumulative message we have been covering this month. Symbolically speaking, I believe this was when the first wave of people came out of Berlin, out of Judah and Jerusalem.

By "coming out" I mean there was a consistent wave of people that heeded the call of God on a very deep level and started preparing their hearts for what is coming on the earth. Fasting, praying, obeying, physically preparing if shown to....Those people started building an ark years ago. The majority of people that were going to heed the call of God in this hour to prepare spiritually and physically for the judgment that is going to be poured out on America and subsequently the world has already happened.

Four-thousand, six hundred Jews listened to God in the days of of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. And of those that did, 3,023 came out in the first wave. That is 65.71% or two-thirds. Today, I see very few people responding to God and his message of judgment. Very few. Most scoff. Most laugh. Most dismiss. A few are still wresting trying to decide if any of this makes sense. And it baffles me as to why. All I need is to read Leviticus 18 and 2 Kings 24, look at the stats on abortion, pornography and STD's, listen to the prophetic confirmation and I have all I need to believe.

So my conclusion is, if Christians are not getting the message then it has to be because of one of two things. Either their hearts are re-hardened because they have turned their backs on God like a dog going back to it's vomit or....they can't seem to get free of the worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth and get on with obeying God by going from faith to faith (Romans 1:17). They refuse to go from hearing one thing from God to another and guarding his words as the apple of their eye (Proverbs 7:2).

"The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful." Matthew 13:20-22

Either way they can't get unhooked from the false American dream of physical comfort and material prosperity and embrace the cross. They can't because they don't want it. It has to be one or the other. Either way it's a heart condition. It's a heart problem.

"They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts." Ephesians 4:18

People, even Christians, can harden their hearts and it leads to darkness in their understanding and they become separated from the life of God. That is another way of saying they are separated from God's will for their lives.

In November, 2006 the Lord gave me a dream that he would bring me and my family into a season of preparation to move to Mexico. A year and a half later the Lord moved us to San Antonio, TX. Then after 2 years there we felt the time had come for us to make the move here. We did not move here to escape from anything. We moved here because we felt this was what we were told to do. As the time drew closer for us to sell off everything in the Spring of 2010 we had to start making decisions on what we were going to keep, what we could take with us, what would be better to sell and repurchase based on cost and what was and was not practical.

During all of this Christine called me on the phone one day while I was at work. We were discussing whether we should make the drive down to Merida with our desktop computer in the truck along with some other possessions. It was May 27th, 2010. As I was standing in the receiving department having this phone conversation with her I found myself looking up at a shipping box in front of me with the word Berlin written on the front. I "noticed" it as we might say. In response I said to her, "I think we need to sell it if we can and get going." Later in the day I was driving through town and I looked up and noticed I was passing "Berlin Street" in south San Antonio. About an hour after that I found myself standing in a convenience store listening to a radio station playing over the loud speakers inside the store. The radio station kept blowing what sounded like "air raid" sirens, like the kind you would hear in the movies when cities were being bombed. "Berlin, Berlin, air raid sirens." That was what I was hearing and seeing that day.

I'm not making any of this up. It actually happened. Take it like you will. I think the Lord was speaking. For some it is time to move on. For us that was the case. I hope this post comes across the right way. I am not saying you have to leave America to be in God's will. We pray about everything. I am just saying we need to be asking the right questions right now. And we need to keep asking until we get a confirmed answer.

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better." Eph 1:17

Keep asking the Lord for wisdom and revelation in this time so that you may know him better, so that you may know his will for you and your family. This is the hour of judgment for America. Now is the time to know, to know his will.

Be Blessed,

JEB
www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com

Spoudazo and Qara

Spoudazo. It's a Greek word that means, "to do something speedily, to make an effort, to be earnest, diligent labouring, to study." In layman's terms it means "to apply yourself to something with all diligence."

"Study (spoudazo) to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)

Personally, I like to do research. I like to take the time to study out areas of interest and in turn take my findings and present all the facts to others. Others have told me, my wife included, that I should have been an attorney. From what I have heard from past friends that have been to law school I am not sure I would have survived the humiliation of law school alone. But I do like to search things out. As believers we need to be diligent to search out truth, do some basic reading and know the real facts. With that said, there is a passage of scripture that has at times baffled me. It is the following.

"As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, 'Have mercy on us, Son of David!' When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, 'Do you believe that I am able to do this?' 'Yes, Lord,' they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, 'According to your faith will it be done to you,' and their sight was restored. Matthew 9:27-30

Do you see what just happened? Two things occurred. One, Jesus healed two blind men. That fact is obvious. He did stuff like that all the time. But more importantly, he made two blind guys pursue him prior to their deliverance. He made them exhibit spoudazo. He made them study to show themselves approved prior to their breakthrough. He made them exhibit diligence, he made them labour, he made them make an effort. He made two blind guys chase him down the street, locate the house where he entered, weave their way through the crowd outside, then inside they had to find their way to him and then make their request. He made them pursue him before he did anything for them. He made them look for him and search for him like gold and silver. This is why the scriptures say the following?

"Without faith it is impossible to please God....he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6

"And if you call out (qara) for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." Proverbs 2:3-5

These scriptures are speaking of seeking truth in earnest. In the passage in Proverbs the writer uses the Hebrew word qara for "call out" (NIV) or "criest" in the KJV. Qara is better defined in a word picture. It means one person being accosted by another or one person begging another for something. Do you remember the story of Jairus, the synagogue ruler who's daughter died and was later raised back to life by Jesus (Matthew 9, Mark 5, Luke 8)? This same Jairus exhibited qara. He accosted the the Lord for deliverance and understanding. This was the same qara exhibited when Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord and the Lord subsequently changed his name to Israel, signifying that he had wrestled with God and with men and had overcome. Jacob was an overcomer. Jairus and Jacob where the same kind of men, albeit at two different stages in their faith. But both were cut from the same spiritual cloth.

This morning when I awoke I felt something impressed on me. It is simply this. I can't pursue understanding for another person. I can't have spoudaza and qara for someone else. I can't want this for you or for anyone else. You have to want this for yourself, for you and your family. I can pray for others. I can serve others in humility and write, pray and speak as directed just like any other member of the Body. But my desire for God's will in your life can't suffice without you having the desire yourself. You have to possess your own measure of spoudaza and qara. The same applies to me. I have to want it for myself.

So in the spirit of Matthew 9:27-30, I am going to point others to the men and the content of their ministries and let others decide how far they want to pursue. To put it in the words of my last General Manager at Sam's Club, "Jay, you can't want this more than your employees. They have to want it for themselves." I am going to do some pointing out and then others are going to have to click on the links that I will provide  and then do their own reading. I can't replicate decades of prophetic ministry in one blog post. It's impossible. You have to be willing to take your own personal time and read up on these men.

As we noted in the last post, you need to read the two previous posts on Full Measure and America's Full Measure. If not you may have a harder time following this post. This post is a prophetic overlay of both the doctrine and the statistical foundations we laid in those two previous posts. If you have not read them you need to back up and do so.

As we discussed in the post on Water, biblical scholars and historians tend to group the Old Testament prophets into either the "Major" or "Minor" category due to the length of their books. The "majors prophets" were Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. All the others were considered "minor." I thought maybe that might be a good benchmark to distinguish the following people in what we are about to discuss. The Lord has entrusted some with more than others in certain areas. Sometimes it has more to do with gifting and calling. Sometimes it's more about simple "character development." In the end it always has to do with both.

As it pertains to the prophetic message of God's judgment towards nations, well, he usually entrusts that message to only two or three people at a time. In our generation, as it pertains to the spiritual activity of the U.S. over the past 25 years or so, I think God has picked his three main guys to "deliver the mail." And along with that I think the Lord has picked several "minor" prophets along the way. I believe God has already prophetically confirmed his message of judgment to the United States through three "majors" and, for the sake of this writing, at least two "minor" prophets in our time. I am going to talk of 5 men whom I believe God has raised up to speak according to our doctrinal foundation that we have just discussed in "Full Measure." Here we go.

Dumitru Duduman

A very powerful man of God who went to be with the Lord in May of 1997. I saw him preach sometime in December of 1995 in Dallas, TX. He prayed over me and my best friend to be delivered from nicotine addiction (myself chewing tobacco, my friend cigarettes.) Tortured by Romanian police for 6 months for smuggling bibles in and out of Russia, he ministered prophetically in the United States from 1984 to 1997. You can read about his testimony Here. You can start reading his prophetic writings Here.

Henry Gruver

I love this man. I, along with the same friend mentioned before, both had an opportunity to meet and travel with Henry to Waco, TX a few months after seeing Dumitru speak. This guy walks in holiness and power. Some of the dreams and visions that Henry had perfectly overlap Dumitru's visions. You can see this same type of prophetic overlap occurring between Micah and Isaiah and later with Jeremiah, Uriah and Ezekiel. God has not changed. He still confirms his word through two or three witnesses. His website is Here. Because Henry does not list all of his dreams and visions on his website, I had to do some additional research. Click Here for his first vision. Click Here for all the others.

Michael Boldea

He is Dumitru Duduman's grandson and former translator. The Lord has used him to pick up where his grandad left off. His testimony is Here. His dreams and visions are Here. I have personally seen him speak twice, once in 1995 and once around 2007.  My personal judgment is that he very much knows the Lord and walks closely with him. I do not know him personally but he has a personal testimony that can only stem from a close walk with the Lord. That is my judgment of him. You would do well to read his words of prophecy on the link I provided. In addition to his ministry duties he also continues to help run and direct the orphanage that his grandad started in Botosani, Romania. Hand of Help Ministries also helps to start churches in Romania along with conducting benevolence outreach to those in need.

Efim Gerasemovitch Klubniken

Also referred to as the Boy Prophet. You can read of his story Here.  He was instrumental in helping a remnant of Armenians flee to safety in the United States prior to the Armenian Genocide that was conducted at the hands of the Turkish government in 1914. The Muslim Turks slaughtered over a million Armenian Christians. The nature and contents of his sealed prophecy for the United States can be read about Here.

Benjamin Baruch

I first learned of Benjamin less than 2 years ago. I have listened to him enough now that I believe he walks with the Lord. He shows consistent signs of consecration and holiness. Some years ago the Lord gave him an open-eyed vision of the second phase of judgment on America (the wild beasts of Ezekiel 14). You can listen to that vision Here. He has since written the book The Day of the Lord is at Hand.

This is not a comprehensive list of every prophetic ministry that has spoken along these lines. I am sure there are others. But these are the three majors and two of the minors in my judgment. I pass this all along in hopes that it will help to confirm the doctrine and the statistical analysis of what we have discussed in previous posts. I hope this helps you.

In Christ,
JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.

America's Full Measure

The following statistics will speak for themselves. And if you have not read the post on Full Measure you need to go back and do so. This post is a statistical overlay of the doctrinal foundation we laid in that post. If you have not read it then you will not be able to grasp the full purpose of this post. With that said......Where is America today with regards to the two main sins referred to in Leviticus 18: Sexual Immorality and Child Murder? Let's take a look.

Pornography

"But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Matthew 5:28

• U.S. porn revenue reached $13.3 billion in 2006.
• U.S. porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, NBC and CBS ($6.2 Billion).
• The pornographic industry's worldwide revenue ($97 Billion) is larger than the revenues of the top technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink.
• The U.S. is the top porn-video producing country in the world followed by Brazil, Netherlands, Spain and Japan.
• America produces 90% of all internet-porn pages with 244 million. Germany follows at 10m (4%).  The U.K. is third at 8.5M (3%).
• Child porn generates $3 billion annually in the U.S.
• 55% of the Internet child porn industry is based in the U.S. with Russia coming in second at 23% according to U.K. based National Children's Homes.
• According to pastors, the 8 top sexual issues damaging to their congregation are: 57% pornography addiction, 34% sexually active never-married adults, 30% adultery of married adults, 28% sexually active teenagers, 16% sexual dissatisfaction, 14% unwed pregnancy, 13% sexually active previously married adults, and 9% sexual abuse. More Sex, Please. Christianity Today International, Winter 2005.
• Promise Keeper Men who viewed porn in the past week: 53%.
• Christians who said pornography is a major problem in the home: 47%.
• Hollywood releases 11,000 adult movies per year. That is 30 per day.

Pornography and Corporate America

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." 1 Timothy 6:10

• Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop condemned corporate involvement in the porn industry and it's relation to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. He stated, "America's corporations are complicit in a public health hazard. They want profits from pornography but they don't want to get involved (otherwise)."
• Comcast reported earnings of $50 million from adult movies back in 2002. Now that they have purchased AT&T Broadband who had contracts with the Hot Network they are probably astronomically higher.
• General Motors at one time made more money from the sale of pornographic material than Larry Flynt of Hustler Magazine. DirectTV was owned by General Motors. When DirectTV had just under 9 million subscribers it is estimated that they were earning over $200 million per year in pay-per-view sex movies. They now have 18 million subscribers per Wikipedia.com. GM has since sold DirecTV to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation which has continued to offer the same material.
• 50% of the guests at hotel chains like Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, Sheraton and Holiday Inn order in-room pay-per-view adult movies. 70% of their in-room profits come from the sale of these movies.
• Comcast, Time-Warner, DirectTV and all of the major hotel chains refuse to put their profits from porn into their financial statements.
• ATT Broadband had contractual agreements with the Hot Network, a hardcore pornographic website. In defense of their business agreements at the time, AT&T's official response was that they were like the U.S. Postal Service, delivering goods and services that people have ordered and want. Because of consistent public pressure from various religious organizations ATT Broadband was "technically sold" to Comcast, creating ATT Comcast.  
• "Mainstream companies legitimize what we are doing." Bill Asher, CEO of Vivid Videos, the largest porn movie producing company in America.

Pornography and Rape

 "Mine eye affecteth my heart...." Lamentations 3:51

• Based on U.S. Census estimates of the number of adult women in America, one out one every eight adult women, or at least 12.1 million American women, has been or will be the victim of forcible rape in her lifetime.
• 86% of rapists in the U.S. admit to regular use of pornography and 75% of rapists admit to simulating acts they viewed in porn.
• 82% of child molesters admit to imitating the sexual behavior they have seen in pornographic material.
• Rape has risen by 300% per capita in the U.S. since 1960. This increase directly parallels the increase in availability and severity of pornography in the country. Most surveys report that rape occurs in the U.S. every 90 seconds. That averages to 350,000 reported rapes each year. Some estimates have it as high as 683,000 rapes per year with two-thirds of all rapes in the U.S. going unreported.
• Chapter 18 of the Attorney General Pornography Commission's study noted that the eight major men's magazines (Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, Chic, Club, Gallery, Genesis, and Oui) have a circulation rate five times higher in Alaska and Nevada than in North Dakota. It is very significant that the rape rates in Alaska and Nevada are eight times higher than in North Dakota!

Pornography and Children

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, ..." Luke 18:16

• Average age of first pornographic internet exposure: 11 years old.
• The largest consumers of pornography are boys from ages 12 to 17. One in five boys and one in ten girls have had their first exposure to porn by age 12.
• At least 27% of girls and 16% of boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18. That means one in four girls who graduate high school have been sexually abused. 
• 87% of molesters of girls and 77% of molesters of boys admitted to regular use of hard-core pornography. 
• U.S. Postal Inspectors have found that 80% of the child pornography collectors they investigate sexually abuse children. (NBC News, "Special Report: The Silent Shame," 1986.)
• The U.S. Customs Service estimates the number of child pornography websites at around 100,000.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

"However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commandments and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you:.......The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess....The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured." Deuteronomy 28:15,21,27

• The U.S. has the highest rate of STD's in the industrialized world.
• In 2006 there were published reports by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) that estimated that in 1999 there were approximately 85 million Americans who were infected with an STD. These numbers have since been massaged downward to 68 million.
• The CDC estimated that there were at least 15 million new cases of STD infections in the U.S. in each of the years between 2000 and 2005.
• As of 2005 the CDC estimate for the number of new STD infections in the U.S. jumped to 19 million on an annual basis. That means that from 2005 to now there have been 95 million new infections.  
•  There are 2.8 million new cases of Chlamydia in the U.S. each year.
• 15% of Americans (45 million) are infected with genital herpes.
• More than 1 million Americans have HIV.
• 6.2 million Americans contract human papilloma virus (HPV) each year.
• The direct medical cost for STD treatment in the U.S. is estimated at over $13 billion annually. When indirect costs such as lost wages are factored in, the total is nearly $17 billion annually.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Teenagers and Young Adults

"Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng." Proverbs 8:25,26

• 25% of girls and 30% of boys have sex by age 15. 21% of 9^th graders have slept with four or more partners, 50% of 17 year olds have had sex, 80% of teens have sex by age 19, 55% of teens ages 13-19 have engaged in oral sex.
• As of 2000, 25% of all newly diagnosed STD cases occurred in persons between 13 and 19 years of age. At the rate of 19 million new infections a year in the U.S. (see previous), that means that 4.75 million teenagers a year are contracting at least one of the 25 known STD's.
• As of 2000, 25% of all newly diagnosed STD cases occurred in persons between 20 and 24 years of age. At the rate of 19m new infections per year in the U.S., 4.75m young adults are contracting STD's.
• Every 9 seconds a teenager or young adult (13-24) contracts a STD.
• 40% of all Chlamydia cases occur with kids between 15 to 19.
• Young women ages 15 to 19 have the highest rates of gonorrhea.
• One fourth of all new HIV infections in the U.S. are estimated to occur in people between ages 13 and 20.
• The rate of HIV infection among teenagers in the U.S. increased by over 1000% from 1994 to 1995.

Abortion

"Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. Do not defile the land where you live..." Numbers 35:33,34

Note: National abortion statistics in the U.S. are available from two sources, privately from The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) and federally from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

• U.S. based Planned Parenthood is the largest single abortion-provider in the world. PP performed 305,310 abortions in 2007 alone.
• Why isn't Abortion activity more noticeable to the general public? The United States is composed of 3,143 counties. 2,797 of them do not have abortions clinics in them. That is 89% of all U.S. counties that don't have abortion clinics. Conclusion: "Out of Sight, Out of Mind."
• Over 53 million abortions have been performed in the United States since 1973. To put that number in perspective, per the U.S. Census Bureau, the Top 50 Cities in the United States had a combined population of just over 48 million people in 2009. That is roughly 5 million people fewer than have been aborted in our country.
• For the past 37 years the U.S. has permitted 1.43 million abortions per year.
• One baby has been aborted every 23 seconds in the United States for 37 years.
• 52% of U.S. women who have abortions are under age 25. 32% are between the ages of 20 and 24. 20% are between the ages of 15 and 19.
• 18% of abortions in the U.S. are performed on women who identify themselves as born-again evangelical Christians.
• 37% of abortions in the U.S. are performed on women who identify themselves as Protestants.
• 1% of all abortions in the U.S. occur because of rape or incest. 6% of all abortions occur because of potential health problems regarding either the mother or the unborn child.
• 93% of all abortions occur for "social reasons" (i.e. the child is unwanted or inconvenient.).
• 39% of all pregnancies in New York city ended in abortion in 2009.
• 1,110,563 U.S. servicemen were killed in all of the following wars combined: The Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War One, World War Two, Korean War, Vietnam War. Approximately 48 times as many children have been murdered through abortion.

Abortions from 1973 to 2008. Add 2.4M (2009-2010) to get 53Million.

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

Evil has triumphed in America. Look at the stats from start to finish. America is leading the way in the production of sexual immorality and the technology that delivers it. We produce and export the lusts of the flesh (1 John 2:15-17). That is what we are manufacturing these days, not electronics and steel based products. We export adultery and all manner of porn. We produce 90% of all internet porn and more than half of all child-porn. Unbelievable. And the porn industry can't do it without "corporate buy-in." AT&T, General Motors, Yahoo, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Comcast....all either have been or are currently "delivering the mail" to put it in AT&T's words. Look at Barnes & Noble, Borders books, Amazon.....All of these companies are complicit in peddling smut. America was once a Christian-based culture in many aspects and because of it we have experienced an outpouring of Grace in so many ways. But not any more. Things have changed. Remember, the Lord left Samson but Samson was not aware of it. (Judges 16:20)

Pornography is helping to drive crime in America. Look at the rape statistics. The correlation between the two is hard to deny. The FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Division, many criminal psyschologists and the crime statistics themselves all support the argument. Look at the effects a porn culture has on children. It is both a direct exposure issue and an issue of direct victimization by adults. Children are suffering at all levels, both boys and girls. I found my dad's porn magazines just sitting under his bed when I was around 5 years old. Alot of my friends growing up had similar experiences. 

Growing up, STD's were not even a concern in the 80's and early 90's. Now it seems, per the CDC, that at least half of America has at least one of 25 STD's and many don't even know it, further contributing to the rapid spread in American society. In 2006 the CDC stated that over 70 million Americans had contracted an STD by the year 1999, right at the turn of the century. Since then, according to the CDC, 15 million new infections occurred per year from 2000-2004 and another 19 million infections occurred per year from 2005 to 2009. If their estimates are correct that means America has had 170 million new infections in the past 10 years for a whopping grand total of 240 million people. Really??? Apparently America leads the industrialized world in rate of infection for STD's. Even if they are off by 50% wouldn't you say that having 120 million of your citizens infected with diseases is alot? Our country only has 307 million citizens. At least 1/3 if not 2/3's of our citizenry are infected and most of that, per the CDC, is happening with teenagers and people in their 20's.

And God said that any time he had placed a nation in the cross-hairs of judgment this would happen prior to their destruction as a consequence of their sin. Read Deuteronomy 28. Spread of infections and diseases precedes total economic collapse and military invasion. Read it. None of us authored the book. Moses did.

The level of sexual promiscuity in teenagers (13-19) and young adults (20-24) in America today is off the charts. 50% of new STD infections occur in these two age groups. I and/or both my wife and I have been actively involved in youth ministry in 3 different churches since 1994. The level of sexual aggression in kids today is mind-boggling. American teenagers and young adults are swimming in a sea of Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, HPV and HIV. It is estimated that one-fourth of all new HIV infections occur in kids from 13 to 20 years of age.

Americans today really don't understand the depth of defilement that has occurred in our land because of Abortion. The Land is actually spiritually defiled. Read Leviticus 18 and Numbers 35. American Christians generally don't understand this spiritual law nor the spiritual consequences of it. You can take almost any Christian today in America and sit down with Bible's in hand and say "show me the consequences of child sacrifice and murder through abortion" and they wouldn't be able to do it. Yet this is the greatest sin America has besides spiritual apathy. Christians in America are being destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). 100% of Christians in America would agree that these things are evil but most don't understand consequence. They don't understand where all of this leads. They don't understand Biblical history and the lessons it should teach us.

Did you know that there were over 1 million abortions conducted in America between 1970 and 1972, prior to Roe V. Wade? Add that to the 53 million we quoted above. Compare that to the combined population of America's 50 largest cities. And we think that God doesn't notice this stuff? Seriously? We think there won't be consequence for the nation? Really? Leviticus 18 says that if a nation defiled it's land this way that the inhabitants of the land would be "vomited out". It says that atonement can only be made for the land by shedding the blood of the perpetrators. I am not advocating murder on a personal level. I am talking about God-ordained judgment through what Ezekiel and Jeremiah referred to as the sword, famine and plague.

Yet some will try and pull out 2 Chronicles 7:14 and say that the number of abortions in America has somewhat declined over the past 20 years and it is a sign of repentance that will ensure God's future protection and blessing. Folks, God destroyed Jerusalem and Judah because of the sins of Manasseh (See 2 Kings 24). Manasseh filled Jerusalem with blood from end to end and the scriptures say that the Lord was not willing to forgive. After him came a succession of another 6 kings spanning over a period of 55 years. Yet the dye had already been cast. God had already made up his mind even though Josiah, Manasseh's grandson, rid the land of all outward signs of spiritual defilement. Judgment occurred because of the accumulation of land-defiling sin over a span of many years.

Now, if God were to bring judgment he would always bring a prophetic warning prior to doing so. The scriptures say the following:

"Surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plans to his servants the prophets." Amos 3:7

"Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." 2 Corinthians 13:1

The Lord always brings a prophetic warning way in advance. God spoke of the judgment of the Amorites to Abraham and Moses. God spoke about the judgment of Israel's ten northern tribes to Isaiah, Hosea, Micah and Amos. God spoke about the judgment of Jerusalem and all of Judah through Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Uriah. This is his way. He always warns us in advance. So the question is now, "Has God warned American of her impending judgment?" The answer is yes. In the next post I will discuss 4 different prophetic ministers and the messages that have been given to them. Stay tuned.

In Christ,
J.E. Blackshear
www.knowingthelord.blogspot.com

Sources Cited:
Pornography (Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here)
Pornography and Rape (Here, Here, Here, Here, Here)
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (Here, Here, Here, Here,Here, Here, Here,) 
Abortion (Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here)   

The Full Measure

I realized the day after I posted Shadow World that I may have missed a step. We could keep talking at this point about Macroeconomics and build on what we have already discussed about the FED (Federal Reserve Bank). Further Quantitative Easing and it's ill effects on the U.S. Dollar, the damage that the IMF (International Monetary Fund) causes our economy, Investment Derivatives, the impending replacement of the U.S. Dollar as the world's global reserve currency, the loss of our manufacturing base and what is has done to U.S. cities in the Midwest and Northeast, and the exodus of 185,000 companies out of the US. We could discuss the real figures on unemployment, mortgage defaults, toxic balance sheets of U.S. banks, the # of bank closures in the past 2 years, the bankruptcy of the FDIC and impending Hyperinflation on the consumer retail level. We could easily continue with that.

But to do so would probably be a misstep on my part. Why? Because we need to discuss what has happened spiritually in our country over the last 40 years so that we can understand the what and why  exactly all of the other financial things are occurring. We need to discuss the cause before we discuss the effects. We need to discuss the "because this happened, this is happening." If we don't then ultimately what is going to happen is people aren't going to take this stuff as seriously as they should. Some people are still sitting on the fence as to how they feel about our current economic and social struggles as a nation. Many people still feel there is a chance for recovery in the United States through grass-roots efforts, Tea-Party movements, and a restoration of conservatism within the Republican party as Christians have their say in politics. We still have a whole group of believers in the U.S. that believe 2 Chronicles 7:14 is applicable for America today. I hate to be the bearer of bad news for those of you that believe in that but it isn't going to happen. It can't and it won't. I am going to show you the how and why to prove it. In this post we are going to take a look at two instances in human history to show why God turns on nations. We are going to look at why God allows one nation to encroach on another in the form of judgment and hardship. Then in the next post we are going to take a look at why things are starting to get hard for America and what we can expect in the future. So, with that said..... Let's take a step back in time to the days of Noah and work forward from there. Here we go.



Noah's Ark Discovery on Mt. Ararat,Turkey. 

 It's roughly 2400 B.C. The Earth had become completely corrupted in God's sight. Civilization was filled with violence (See Genesis 6:11-13). The sons of God, fallen angels, had come to earth and procreated with the daughters of men, in the process producing a race of Nephilim. Every inclination of man's heart was evil at all times (Genesis 6:5) in part because the human race was enjoined with the fallen angels in both body and spirit.

In response God tells Noah to build the ark. Noah starts to work and 120 years later enters the ark with his wife, sons and their wives, and all the animals that God brings to him. Then, per our Roman calendar, he spends just over one year on the ark while the earth is flooded. The earth then dries and Noah and his family get off the ark and release the animals. Then the Lord lays down one very specific social law with Noah and the 7 other surviving members of the human race:

"And for each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." Genesis 9:5,6

Very simply put, don't shed innocent blood. Don't kill each other. Very simple. If you shed innocent blood then God will demand an accounting. Then Noah's three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives begin to re-populate the earth. Ham becomes the father of Canaan who Noah himself curses for reasons which I don't have time to explain. Canaan then becomes the father of the nations who are populating the land that Abraham later finds himself living among. Those nations were the Hitites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. Any of those names sound familiar?  One definitely should.


Fast forward in time. It's now 2090 B.C. Abraham has already left his father's house in Haran, traveled to Canaan, been in and out of Egypt, looked out for Lot through his trials and has met up with Melchizedek. We know find ourselves in Genesis 15 where God speaks the following to Abraham:

"Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated 400 years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached it's full measure." Genesis 15:13-16

Remember that the Amorites were descended from Ham by way of Ham's son Canaan. The Amorites were the chief clan among all of the descended clans of Canaan. And God is informing Abraham that spiritual conditions are not quite ripe enough for Abraham and his descendants to take full possession of the land. The reason....the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached it's full measure. They are close, but not quite there where the Lord can cancel their lease agreement for breach of contract. And what were the Canaanites doing exactly that was going to get them removed from the face of the Earth? What sins were they committing that would ultimately have them removed?  Let's fast forward in time another 650 years and take a closer look.


It's roughly 1445 B.C. We are in Leviticus 18 now. We are at the base of Mount Sinai with roughly 3 million of Abraham's descendants. The Lord is laboring to bring purity to their hearts and minds and give them some societal order. From Leviticus 1-17 he gives them various and assorted laws on offerings, atonement of priests and national atonement. It is here that we then find ourselves in chapter 18 where God begins to warn them that there are certain things that are absolutely detestable to him. He warns them that there are certain manners of conduct that will get them expelled from their land by foreign invaders if they persist in certain sins. What sins are we referring to? They are 1) sexual immorality of any kind and, 2) shedding innocent blood, especially the blood of children. Let's look at Leviticus 18:1-23 in condensed form to save time.


     "The Lord said to Moses, 'Speak to the Israelites and say to them, 'I am the Lord your God. you must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.
     No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations with them. I am the Lord.
     Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother.
     Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife, ....your sister,....your grandchildren,.....your sister.....your aunt......daughter in law,....brother's wife,....a woman and her daughter,.....
     Do not have sexual relations with a woman during her monthly period.
     Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her.
     Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
     Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
     Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it....." Leviticus 18:1-23

The Lord warns the Israelites not to live as the Canaanites. And how are the Canaanites living? One, they are sinning sexually in every way imaginable. Secondly, they are sacrificing their offspring, their children, to Molech. Molech was a Canaanite principality, a demon, that was being worshiped by these vile people. In sacrificing to Molech they would commit gruesome orgies and then kill their children as sacrificial offerings to their demons. And, as we will see below, the Lord continues in Leviticus 18 by telling the Israelites that if they turn to these practices of adultery and murder that they will be destroyed in the exact same way that he is about to destroy the Canaanites. He tells them that the land will naturally vomit them out. You see, the thing that God told Abraham in Genesis 15 is about to come to pass. The Amorites are about to attain to the full measure of sin. The full measure of sin. Take a look below as we continue with the passage.

     "Do not defile yourself in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for it's sin, and the land vomited out it's inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all of these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you." Leviticus 18:24-28

The Lord is telling them that the land is defiled because of these two categories of sin and in turn the land is about to vomit the Amorites out. And he also says that in the future, if they do these detestable things as a culture (adulterous sins and murder) that the land will become defiled again and will subsequently vomit them out when the full measure of sin is attained. And in 1400 B.C. the Lord carries out his promise to Abraham.  Joshua and the Israelites take the sword to the Canaanites and judgment is executed progressively over the land. Here that...Judgment is executed progressively over the land. We will come back to that statement.

God redeemed the land by shedding the blood of the Canaanites.

     "Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell..." Numbers 35:33,34

Well, as always, history repeats itself again and again. Only this time this cycle of sin and judgment is about to affect the entire nation of Judah. At this point we are find ourselves at roughly 605 B.C. The nation of Israel had split in half many generations before right after the death of King Solomon. The ten northern tribes of Israel have already been wiped off the map by the invading Assyrians 117 years before in 722 B.C. Jehoikim is now on the throne of Judah. Jerusalem is only a mere 18 years away from being completely destroyed by the Babylonians and King Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C. The prophet Jeremiah is very active during this time. He has already been up and down the streets of Jerusalem prophesying the word of the Lord for over 20 years now. It is here that we find ourselves in 2 Kings 24:1-4.

     "During Jehoiakims' reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. But then he changed his mind and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. The Lord sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders against him. He sent them to destroy Judah, in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by his servants the prophets. Surely these things happened to Judah according to the Lord's command, in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done, including the shedding of innocent blood. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive." 2 Kings 34:1-4

Look at the last part of that passage. Judgment is happening to Jerusalem and Judah because of the sins of Manasseh and everything he had done, including shedding innocent blood. For he, Manasseh, had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord could not forgive them anymore. Who is Manasseh? See the chart to the right.

After the nation of Israel split after king Solomon, both the northern and southern tribes had a succession of twenty  kings/rulers. Manasseh was the seventh to last king of Judah. He reigned from 697-642 B.C. and the damage that he did was irreversible. 2 Chronicles 7:14 no longer applied. The Lord was not willing to forgive Judah. He had to cleanse the land. The land was totally defiled. How did Manasseh and the people of Judah defile it? Look below.

     "Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years....He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to the starry hosts and worshipped them. He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, 'In Jerusalem I will put my Name.' In both courts of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking them to anger.....Manasseh led them (Judah) astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites....The Lord said through his servants the prophets: 'Manasseh king of Judah has committed these detestable sins. He has done more evil than the Amorites who preceded him and has led Judah into sin with his idols.
     Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all their foes, because they have done evil in my eyes and have provoked me to anger from the day their forefathers came out of Egypt until this day.' Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end - besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord." 2 Kings 21:1-16

Did you catch all of that? Here are the highlights. The Lord promised to destroy Jerusalem by handing them over to their enemies. He promised to loot and plunder them at the hands of their foes. Manasseh, their king of 55 years, committed all forms of witchcraft and defiled the temple directly with it. He sacrificed his own son in the fire (probably Molech) and led all Judah astray in these very same practices. And the clincher is this. The Lord said that he did more evil than even the Amorites. Remember Genesis 15:16? And Judah was living life in an even more immoral manner than those guys? You have to be kidding me. Judah sinned on a level that surpassed the Amorites. And Manasseh, with the people's consent, filled Jerusalem with blood from end to end.

Now go back to the scripture we quoted before about Jehoiakim in 2 Kings 34. It says judgment happened because the actions of Manasseh some 30 to 90 years before had sealed their fate. God wouldn't forgive them. The land was completely defiled and the only way it could be cleansed was by shedding the blood of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Remember Exodus 35:33,34?

     "Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. Do not defile the land..." Exodus 35:33,34

The only way the land could be redeemed back to God was to take vengeance on the inhabitants of the land. Manasseh and the people of his time had sealed the nations fate. The land had taken on the full measure of sin required to judge the inhabitants of the land even though God didn't execute his final judgment for another 54 years after Manasseh died. God's mind was already made up even though Manasseh's grandson, King Josiah, actually made very attempt to re-institute righteousness in the land and purge the nation. Josiah attempted to set up a worship structure that at least outwardly removed all forms of spiritual idolatry from the land. Yet the dye had already been cast. It didn't matter how righteously the nation postured itself after Manasseh's reign. The land was so defiled that the fate of the nation couldn't be reversed. God's mind was already made up. The land had to be cleansed.

     "The land must not be sold permanently because the land is mine and you are but my aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land." Leviticus 25:33,34

     "Everything under heaven belongs to me." Job 41:11

     "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." Psalm 24:1

And I am sure most of you know how this story ends. In 587 B.C. society as they knew it gave up the ghost in Judah and Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon destroyed the entire city and all the inhabitants of the land. It was finally over. The progressive judgment that the Judeans were under had come to a conclusion. Every Judean man, woman and child was either starved or killed with the sword except for 4,600 people who had been taken into forcible exile. See Jeremiah 52:28-30.

As I have said in past writings, if the inhabitants of any nation, whether they are called by God's name or not, defile the land that he allows them to occupy, he will eventually have to provide for the redemption of the land if/when the occupants of that land allow bloodshed and sex sin to pollute it. It is the "law of redeeming the land." It is a law that is as absolute as the law of gravity and it has exercised itself countless times in the history of humanity, of which we have examined two instances today.

So I am sure you are wondering what this has to do with America. The people in Ezekiel's day said the following:

     "Won't you tell us what these things have to do with us?" Ezekiel 24:19

I wrote on this issue four and a half years ago using all of the same scripture references. And when I did I quoted statistics that boggled the mind then. The statistics had to do with sexual sin and abortion in America. The level of defilement in America was astonishing when I wrote on it in 2006 and and I was using stats from 2005. We now have another 5 years under our belts and it has gotten exceedingly worse. In the next post I am going to talk about how this all applies to America, both it's people and it's land. Stay tuned.

In Christ,
JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/