August 27, 2020 – Click here to listen
As I write this, Cat. 4 Hurricane Laura is slamming Louisiana and Texas and millions are fleeing its path as it heads across the United States. So with the Covid virus, rioting and looting, economic devastation, fires, storms and other problems we currently are undergoing, America is under attack. It is reminiscent of a world war.
I believe it is satanic in nature and we are being forced to choose the side we want to be on. I was wondering this morning if this is how the ordinary Egyptians felt as their pharaoh stubbornly dug in and decided to fight God.
When I was living on the streets, I hated God and everything to do with Him especially those Christians who followed Him. There used to be a song that became popular entitled: “I fought the law, but the law won.” This could have been the theme song for my life and like pharaoh initially I stubbornly dug in to maintain my decadent lifestyle in spite of what was happening to me.
Like the plagues of Egypt my life began spiraling down to the bottom of the pit with each event being worse than the last. I was hopelessly addicted to drugs and alcohol, no friends, no family, had been incarcerated numerous times, and I began having violent near death experiences with regularity. It culminated with a horrific car crash where I came as close to dying as most anyone could and immediately after it, I went into in a deep coma for a while.
While I was in the coma, I had a vision that I died and was judged. The judgment consisted of my life being displayed in the sky like projecting it on a big screen. I had done nothing good in my entire life and I was sent to hell. To this day I actually believe that God showed hell to me as a warning. All I can say is that the words that describe hell as recorded in the Bible are not as horrible as what I saw.
Prior to this experience I was not afraid of anything and said through gritted teeth, bring it on! Each terrible thing that happened to me just seemed to harden me more. Seeing hell was unlike anything I had faced, but nonetheless when I came out of the coma, I did not resolve to be a better person or follow God. I didn’t even know who God was and I thought He was mean.
Then while recovering in the hospital I read the New Testament and through reading it Jesus Christ made me realize that He loved me and all of humanity with a love that cannot be described with mere words. The coma and vision of hell, the overdosing on drugs, vicious fights, car and motorcycle wrecks, prison, and bullets zinging past my head were not enough to persuade me to surrender and stop rebelling against my Lord and Savior. Only the love that God has for me could quell my hatred and bitterness and transform my life.
That was 50 years ago and if I’ve learned one thing about spiritual warfare, it is that Satan will use any means at his disposal to destroy us. As we see plagues, violence, corruption, lies, storms, economic ruin coming upon America we must cling to our love of God and embrace His love for us. We must surrender our lives to Him and pray for deliverance.
I don’t know what is next for our country, but I believe God is allowing bad things to happen because we as a nation tried to turn away from him. There is a remnant who has refused to “bow the knee to Baal,” (the world), and love the Lord with all of our hearts. The Republican convention has had speaker after speaker who has confirmed this. It was encouraging to see so many people who still trust in and love the Lord. Do not give up; while some have lost their way others remain steadfast even through the most difficult times.
I’m part of the remnant and prayerfully you are as well. I urge you in these troubling times to stay strong in the Lord and earnestly pray for those who remain stubborn. They are in the tenuous position of dying spiritually and spending eternity apart from God in hell, a place of frightening relentless torment.
Pharaoh was given to us as an example of what happens when God is rejected.
It didn’t have to be that way . . .
Daniel 9:14
Lord, you didn’t hold back from bringing this trouble on us. You always do what is right. But we haven’t obeyed you.