Time of Great Danger for the U.S.--Post 1

By David Hobbs

(This is the beginning of a string of posts that all flow together, based on a word I received from the Lord to "Call the church to a war footing.")

There has come a time of great danger to this country and to the church, especially between now and when the next president is inaugurated in Jan. 2017.

The very foundations of this nation are being shaken by an accelerating collapse of our moral order and its replacement by an ungodly, sodomistic one. Christians, who over and over again have been unable to stem this tide, are expecting God to step in and judge this horrific state of affairs. But the church is making a serious mistake. The Bible declares in 1 Peter 4:17 that judgment, when it comes, must begin with the house of God. Before God can judge the evil in this nation, He is bound by His word to judge the evil in the church. And the church is woefully unprepared for such judgment. It has been so focused on the speck of sawdust in the nation’s eye that it has missed the plank in its own.

On the recent National Day of Prayer (May 5^th), there were 300-400 at the breakfast sponsored by the CBA—food and a speech in a comfortable setting. That evening, at the prayer-at-the-fountain event, there were 18. On previous National Days of Prayer, we used to have prayer meetings all over town: City Hall, Yuba County Courthouse, even Wheatland. Now we’re down to one event that drew 18 people. But the truly amazing thing was that out of the 18, only 1 was a member from the regular, mostly white, Evangelical/Pentecostal churches that dominate Yuba-Sutter. Only one out of thousands! The church is dwelling careless and at ease. Someone I shared this with said, “Not all people are called to intercession.” Well, how many from our 100+ local churches has God called to intercession? One hundred? Two hundred? Then where were they? When the dike starts to break, everybody swarms up to try and plug it, whether they are trained dike repairers or not. But nobody in the church thinks our dike’s about to break.

When I asked the Lord where the church was, the Lord showed me they were all over town. Doing what? He gave me the scripture of 2 Tim. 2:4 where Paul exhorts Timothy to be a good soldier. (How many Christians today even consider themselves called to be spiritual soldiers? Listen, unless you were a “special needs” student who went to school on the short little school bus, you’re called to be a soldier in this war!) Then Paul told Timothy what was required of God’s soldiers if they wanted to please their commanding officer (Jesus). They had to “refrain from becoming entangled in civilian affairs.” That was God’s answer to my question “Where is the church?” They weren’t in brothels or bars. But they were busily engaged in affairs of this life which had entangled them to the point they had forgotten they were supposed to be soldiers about the Master’s business. When I wondered what could be done about this situation, the Lord told me, “Call the Church to a war footing.”

The church is trying to fight a war with a handful of valiant intercessors, while the rest of the body takes its ease in Zion: living carelessly, going to church when it’s convenient, going to prayer meetings if no ball games are on, glad to be saved by grace and not works! It’s the same way our nation has fought its last few wars: Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan. The wars raged and people died—55,000 in the case of Viet Nam—But the nation was never put on a war footing. We were never called to sacrifice anything or do anything other than live life as usual. Many veterans have said we could have won the Viet Nam War if we had only prosecuted it whole-heartedly. It’s the same way we are fighting ISIS today, with one hand tied behind our backs, trying to pick off a leader here or there. And the church has done the same thing in its war against a spreading culture of evil.

Most of the church doesn’t even realize it’s at war. If you want to know if we’re at war, ask an intercessor. Do you know one?.

Before God can judge Barack Obama, He must judge the church. He must judge the lukewarm, the complacent, and those who put their lives in this world ahead of their calling in God. Many who are sitting at ease in Zion today, waiting to be raptured to heaven, will be shocked to find themselves spewed out of Jesus’ mouth like it says in Rev. 3:16. That is the startling teaching of the Bible. Jesus would rather we were atheists than lukewarm Christians who have lost our first love.

(Keep reading the next post down to continue with this thread)

War Footing—World War II (Post 2)

ByDavid Hobbs

(Keep reading down from the last post above. The thread continues in this post)

Perhaps the greatest example of a nation being on war footing in modern times was the U.S, in World War II. We were viciously attacked which galvanized the nation. We knew the future of our nation depended on us winning this war against two formidable foes, Imperial Japan and Hitler’s Third Reich.

The nation went on war footing. The men marched off to war, the women marched into the factories to produce the weapons of war. Even the children went around with their wagons picking up metal to recycle into the war effort. Food was rationed; gasoline was rationed; whole cities near the coast were blacked out at night; people put their savings into war bonds to fund the war effort; Hollywood made short movie clips for theaters to play between their regular movies exhorting the people to buy war bonds and support the war effort.  There were shortages, there was suffering, there were sacrifices all around. But now we look back and call the World War II generation “The Greatest Generation.” They not only won a world war fought on 2 fronts, but they turned America into the greatest superpower on earth and caused the 20^th century to be called “The American Century.”

That was the last time this nation has been placed on a war footing, and, not coincidently, the last war America has decisively won.

I use that as an example of what a war footing is and what it can accomplish because I believe God is calling the church to a war footing now. It’s the only way we can overcome what is about to hit us.

(Keep reading down to next post for a continuation of the thread)

What Is About to Hit Us, from the Book of Joel--Post 3

By David Hobbs

(This is a segment of a string of posts that all flow together. Keep reading from the posts above)

We all hope for massive revival and I believe it is coming. But how is it going to get here? The Book of Joel tells the whole story: Joel, the only prophetic book in the Bible that has never been fulfilled in real time except for 2:28-29 on the Day of Pentecost.

 It starts with terrible times for the people of God—first a drought/famine befalls them, then a mighty army attacks them. What’s puzzling about this army is that it’s sent by God against His own people (2:11 & 26). But it all becomes plain when you consider what I said in my last post: God’s judgment, when it begins, must start with the house of God. And that’s what this is. God sends this terrible army against His own people with the intent of calling them back to Himself. But it’s a high stakes game: the army is real and will destroy His people unless God intervenes to save them, but that will only happen if they repent. It's important to note that because the judgments are sent by God against His people, they can't be prayed away by the intercessors. All the intercessors can do is cry out to God that the church will repent

Chapter 1 starts off making it plain that this is a worse disaster than they have ever seen in their lifetimes or for many generations. Verse 5 has the first wakeup call: to the drunkards (those intoxicated with the riches and sensual pleasures of this life?). The call goes out to mourn because of the dearth upon the land. The call intensifies in verse 11: call a fast and a sacred assembly, gather the elders, lie all night in sackcloth, bring all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord and cry out to Him. The creation itself feels the effects of the dearth and cries out.

We don’t know how well they followed these instructions but things got worse. In chapter 2 they lurch from the frying pan into the fire. What started as a series of natural disasters in chapter 1 now becomes an attack by a vicious army like had never been seen before.

³A fire devours before them,

And behind them a flame burns;

The land is like the Garden of Eden before them,

And behind them a desolate wilderness;

Surely nothing shall escape them….

⁶Before them the people writhe in pain;

All faces are drained of color.

            In verse 12 the call to turn back to God goes out a second time. Apparently they didn’t take it seriously enough before, which is exactly where the church is at today. We’re concerned about things but not desperate. The emphasis this time is on turning to God with all their heart, not just going through the motions of fasting and prayer (“rend your hearts and not your garments”). Again the nation is called together to pray and fast and cry out to the Lord. But this time it is made total: even the nursing babes are to be there; even the bride and groom are called from their wedding to be there. In other words, the whole nation is shut down and commanded to cry out to God with all their might. “Business-as-usual” is finally abandoned. Either we break through to God right now or the nation will be destroyed--it finally becomes true desperation! And it works! This is what God has been waiting for! This is what God is waiting for today. No more half-hearted, limp-wristed, “when-will-this-be-over-so-I-can-go-to-Dennys?” church services. They finally get the compromise out.

            Look what happens next. After the people of God finally give God their full attention and full heart, in verse 18 God hears from heaven and the whole situation starts to change. He deals with the immediate threat but He doesn’t stop there. He also promises abundant blessing and restoration for all they lost during the dearth. But He goes still farther. In verse 18 he speaks the familiar passage about pouring out His Spirit upon all flesh, which sparks the great revival we’ve all been waiting for.

            Then, in chapter 3, after He is done judging His people and reaping the saved of the earth through great revival, God turns to the world and deals with them (verse 2). He actually goes to war against the nations (verse 9 +) which ends with the terrible judgment of the wicked. Then the story continues right on into the Millennium (verse 18 to the end) and the happy state of the victorious people of God.

            There you have it—the whole end-times scenario played out in the Book of Joel. But to get through to final victory, the church must go through her own tribulation where she finally gets right with God. Judgment must start with the house of God.  It’s a “win big” or “lose big” scenario, there’s no in-between. It’s going to take all hands on deck, battle-station ready. Those who are not willing to give it their all will walk away, never to be heard from again. God told me, “Call the church to a war footing.”

(Keep reading down to next post, where the thread continues. To get there click on "older posts")