The Lord keeps bringing me back to Habakkuk chapter 1. If you remember the book - Habakkuk cries out to the Lord regarding the state of Israel, all of the violence and wickedness. He can't understand why and how God can look the other way. Then God says in Habakkuk 1:5, "Look at the nations and pay attention! You will be shocked and amazed! For I will do something in your lifetime that you will not believe even though you are forewarned."

I have pondered this scripture many times, and been troubled for our nation a lot. I was in prayer the other day and feel the Lord said the following -

"For I have heard your cry and I, yes I, am loosing my hand. I am loosing my Spirit. I will do a new thing and I will draw My people unto Me. Yes I will draw My people. Yes I shall do what I purposed from the beginning. I have watched and waited. But now I shall move, re-align, re-position, and re-build My land. I shall finish what I began."

My friends, we must shake ourselves and wake up. We have spent our time building empires and power structures. We have spent our time judging one another and trying to put people in our boxes. We must stop, repent (which means turning 180 degrees and moving in a new direction), and begin doing what God has called us to do.

Gods word says that we are His temple and His Spirit dwells in us. The temple contains both the outer and inner court, right? And the inner court contains the Holy of Holies, and the Holy of Holies contains the throne of God. Now look at Daniel 7:9-10a - "I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment [was] white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne [was like] the fiery flame, [and] his wheels [as] burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him ..."

The Bible also says that Jesus went out each night and spent the night in prayer with God, seeing what His Father was speaking and what His Father was doing, then speaking and doing those things the following day, and His Father's Glory and anointing went forth and did those things. And yet the Bible also says we shall do greater things than these.

So, if we are to do greater things and if we are to contend with God to turn this nation, then we must become men and women of prayer. We must grab hold of God until that river of fire flows through our hands and tongues. We must come to a place of laying ourselves aside, standing in the gap in the wall, contending with God until we get hold of Him and He has mercy on our land.

We have apostized as a nation and individuals and are heading down the same path as Israel did in the Old Testament. We have forgotten how to wait on the Lord, to cry before Him, to contend in the Spirit until we come to a place of hearing His voice. We have learned to settle for very little time in prayer, and that time mostly spent telling God what we want from Him - and not waiting until we hear what He wants. 

We cannot stop what God is about to do (for He has said this is His land and He will complete what He has begun), but perhaps we can lessen the impact of what He will do. Cry out for the nation, cry out for the people in this nation, cry out for yourselves that we will hear His voice.

Cry out, cry out, cry out! Run into your prayer closet and pray! I love this land and the people, but we must change course and direction. Let it begin now!