Almost all prophetic words today shout one of those two headlines:   AMERICA IS PAST HOPE AND WILL BE DESTROYED! or  AMERICA IS FAVORED AND WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED!  Facebook oozes with voices claiming to be prophets or mouthpieces for God.   The internet teems with self-appointed prophets who scream to be heard, bombarding us with “prophetic words.”

Is there not a genuine word from the Lord in this hour?  What is God truly saying about America’s destruction?  All I can tell you is, I walk in the fear of the Lord and the constant remembrance that one day I will stand before God and give an account for every word I have spoken.  Yet, for all that reverential fear, my bones burn with a word for this hour.    

My Spirit can’t hold it back from declaring to those false prophets:

To autonomously pronounce judgment is to play God.  Dooms-dayers are calling off the attack against evil, when God has not.  They are sounding a false retreat.  They are making evangelism futile.  They are helping put souls in hell by discouraging soul-winners.

Don’t lie to yourself, and don’t make up prophecies of judgment just because you are mad at the church.  Face it!  Your righteous indignation may be nothing more than a personal grudge that your ministry was rejected by the church.

However, the great danger to America is not an abundance of prophets of doom.  It is the false prophets of grace and entitlement who are most dangerous.

In a wonderful book entitled The American Miracle written by Michael Medved, we see astounding and undeniable examples of God stepping in when America seemed beyond hope.  However, these examples are not proof that judgment won’t come.  To assume this is sheer madness.

I want to use George Washington as an example of something that desperately needs to be said to the American church.  Washington died because of medical malpractice.  Back then doctors believed in bleeding sick patients.  Washington was already weak from his sickness—by draining the blood out of a man weakened by pneumonia, the doctors made him weaker and finally killed him.  It was the worst thing they could have done.

Listen church!  Cheap grace is bleeding an already weakened church.   It helps set us up for national destruction.   From the point of view of Satan, this is the perfect theology.   Instead of a life-giving conviction and a robust will to fight—this perversion induces drowsiness and apathy.

Why do you think many of our pastors are closet alcoholics and addicted to porn?  And what kind of message can you expect a poisoned vessel to preach on Sunday morning?

Past miracles don’t guarantee future mercy.  They should awaken urgency, overpowering gratitude, humility, and profound soul searching.  Throwing ourselves off the cliff of morality to prove the power of Grace tempts God and provokes wrath.

God is trying to show us the times and what to do: 1 Chronicles 12:32 speaks “of the sons of Issachar who understood the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” The entire chapter lists the military talent of each tribe of Israel.  The gift of understanding the times was Issachar’s weapon.

Next, “prophets” who say America will be destroyed or who say America cannot be destroyed are dead wrong.  We are neither pardoned nor condemned.  Our fate has not yet been decided.

We are living in a moment of mercy: HOW SOON WE FORGET!  We were spared the horror of Hillary—the finishing touch of Obama’s death spiral—a permanently enslaving national debt—a Supreme Court chaining us to anti-God laws, freedom-killing environmentalism—open borders bringing perpetual Democratic control, crime, and terrorism.

Trump’s election was a miracle meant to ignite the church.  If the church fails to obey God, his time in Washington will be short, ineffective and we will end up worse off than ever. 

Trump has had missteps as President.  This does not mean he was the wrong choice.  Would we dare abandon him so soon?   He needs our prayers.  He needs our support.

Here are the precise verses for this hour:  Ezra 9:8, “And now for a little while grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage. 9 For we were slaves. Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.”

Listen again to Ezra:

Ezra 9:13, “And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such  deliverance as this, 14 should we again break Your commandments, and join in marriage with the people committing these abominations? Would You not be angry with us until You had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant or survivor?”

Wrath comes when you do not properly respond to mercy:  2 Chronicles 32:25, “But Hezekiah did not repay according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up; therefore, wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem.”

Look again at Ezra’s words: but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.”

Trump is a temporary reprieve.  Now we must do our part.  We must act on the mercy we have been shown.  He extended mercy so that we would do three things: Revive, Repair and Rebuild. 

Revive: God commands us to seek a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  We dare not have church without it!  We dare not utter another word in the pulpit that denies it!  The word of the Lord for this hour is: cry out to God with heart of gratitude for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Here is the key promise if we do: 1 Samuel 10:6, Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. 7 And let it be, when these signs come to you, that you do as the occasion demands; for God is with you.

Repair:  Both the pulpit and our moral compass are broken.  They must be repaired!  Our wiring, plumbing and foundations are damaged.  Abortion and marriage are issues we lost because our leadership was broken.  We abandoned the Bible and did not arm ourselves or the congregation with convictions.

America needs Lions who roar from a righteous heart.  Away with secret sin and lukewarm grace.  Prayer will repair.  The voice that shakes hell and frees men and women from bondage is forged only in fervent prayer.  Satan does not respect your stage presence, education or tactics.  He knows a prayerless poser.  He only retreats before men and women who have been to Gethsemane.

Rebuild: We must come home to the Glorious Gospel.  We must dismantle all the silly things we have tried to say to this generation.  Forget about rebranding!  We need to rebuild our sermons from the ground up.  Let them be replete with Bible verses.  Let them talk of the mighty God.  Fill them with content the Holy Spirit can use to reach lost souls!  The Good News must once again roll off our tongue in the office, on campus and at the mall.

The consequences of cheapening God’s mercy are too terrible to imagine.  The opportunity this miracle has opened is too wonderful to ignore. 

That is the word of the Lord for this hour!