Category Archives: America

June 2, 2016 · 9:52 am

Thursday’s Prayers for America (6/2/2016)

I finished studying at 9 p.m. and went into the kitchen for a drink of water. As I turned on the recessed ceiling lights, I stopped dead in my tracks. A grotesque creature sat on a stool at the island counter. If the angel was the epitome of the Kingdom of Light, then this being was the dark side’s counterpart. Its gloomy eyes glared at me while its lips formed a sneer. Festering sores plastered the being’s face and neck. A filthy robe cloaked its torso and a stench of decay clogged my nostrils.

“Listen up, Chuck,” the creature said in a raspy voice.

Fear struck my chest like a baseball bat. I had trouble breathing. Confusion settled over me like a morning fog. I could not put two and two together.

“If you go to businessmen and tell them to pray over their financial gifts, seeking the Lord where they should give their money, some bad things will happen to your family. Your two sons will die in an auto accident and your wife will go insane. Do you hear me?”

I could not speak as my mouth went dry and a throbbing sensation sent stabs of pain through my mind.

The creature drummed its dirty two-inch long fingernails on the granite counter. The beat reminded me of a funeral march.

“I said, ‘Do you hear me?’” the creature hissed out the words.

I nodded.

“And I can do it. It will be easy. Just as easy as it was for me to come into your home. No one can protect you from me, not even God!”

The creature bared its brownish-yellowish teeth with a hideous grin as it stood up.

“Don’t you ever forget what I told you, okay?”

The being walked over to the door leading out to the deck, then without opening the door, he stepped through it, and left.

I collapsed on the floor and wept. My body convulsed in fear.

“Oh God! What have I done to my family?” I screamed.

(An excerpt from my novel, Deceived Dead and Delivered by Larry Nevenhoven, ©2013, Amazon eBook) 

Most believers will not have visible encounters with demons, but as C. S. Lewis wrote — “There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God, and counterclaimed by Satan.”

My prayer today:

Lord, open our American spiritual eyes to see we’re in a life and death war against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, and against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places and that we’re not fighting against flesh and blood. Help us to be strong in You, in the power of Your might, and to put on the whole armor of God. (Based on Ephesians 6:10-12)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for America.

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May 26, 2016 · 10:09 am

Thursday’s Prayers for America (5/26/2016)

 

Last night, Carol and I attended a dinner program which featured speakers from the Guardian Group, an organization that has dedicated itself to ridding America of sex trafficking. The facts and figures the speakers presented to us were eyeopening:

  • Human trafficking is currently the second largest & fastest growing crime industry
  • It reportedly generates a profit of $150 billion every year
  • The average age of entry into the commercial sex industry in the US is 12 years old
  • At least 100,000 to 300,000 youth are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation annually in the US alone
  • 80% are female and half are children (More facts can be seen here.)

My prayer today:

Lord, I fast before You and pray that You will loose the bonds of wickedness, undo the straps of the yokes, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke of the sex trafficking industry on our children in America. (Based on Isaiah 58:6)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for America.

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May 19, 2016 · 10:14 am

Thursday’s Prayers for America (5/19/2016)

Although 635 million tickets were sold for a recent jackpot, the odds of winning The Powerball Jackpot Lottery is 1 in 292 million. These are approximately the same odds as being hit by a meteor while sitting in your backyard. Why do people spend their $2 on such a losing venture?

“Well, someone has to win, right? Why not me?” is the most common answer.

Now, if you asked these same ticket purchasers if they have prepared themselves for possible terrorists’ attacks and calamities in the near future, their answers would probably be:

“Are you kidding me? No! The odds of a calamity or terrorist’s attack affecting my life are about the same as a meteor hitting me while I sit in the backyard.”

Notice the logic here!

“If you put 500 or a 1000 ISIS against the San Diego Police Department I think that fight goes to ISIS,” Dan Gordon said. “The time it would take to mobilize the Marines, let’s say, at Camp Pendleton or the Navy Seals at Coronado Island, it would be at the earliest, a matter of hours. It simply takes time to get a unit locked and loaded and ready to deploy, and in that time ISIS terrorists could kidnap, murder and maim thousands of people. (Dan Gordon, author of Day of the Dead and veteran of six Middle Eastern wars with the IDF. See full article here.)

I wrote a book entitled, Planning + Preparation = Survival, because I don’t think our government or our police forces can protect us from calamities or terrorists’ attacks. It’s our responsibility and the time to plan and prepare is now.

My prayer today:

Lord, give us Americans ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches and willing and obedient hearts to act. (Based on Revelation 2:7 and Isaiah 1:19)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for America.

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May 14, 2016 · 10:13 am

Why Did God Elect President Obama?

All of Israel should rise up every morning, face west, salute Egypt, and say, “Thanks Yahweh for Egypt.”

You see, it was in Egypt that Israel became a nation. The slavery and brutal oppression by the Egyptians molded and formed Israel into a nation that was totally dependent on God.

If God would have wanted to, he could have created and set into power a Ronald Reagan-like Pharaoh who had compassion on the Israelites and treated them in a godly manner. Then, what would have happened? The Israelites would have bowed down before the Ronald Reagan-like Pharaoh and stayed in Egypt. And today, they would still be singing songs about the Ronald Reagan-like Pharaoh.

Yet, God had a different plan.

But for this purpose I have raised you [Pharaoh] up, to show you My power, so that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth. (Exodus 9:16)

Ouch! We love-dovey Christians don’t like to think that God would raise up a vessel of dishonor or a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction, such as a Pharaoh, so that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy.

Okay, what about President Obama?

I had a vision during the 2008 presidential primaries when Obama and Hillary were fighting it out for the Democratic nomination. In it, the hand of God reached down from heaven and touched Barack Obama on his head. Sadly, I misinterpreted the vision by a country mile or two at the time, but that does not negate the vision.

God chose Barack Obama to be America’s 44th President. Period.

Now, why would God do this?

So that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:27)

Because we believers have little discernment and are so earthly minded, we usually miss the purposes of God in our trials. We look for comfort and escape whereas He uses our distresses and hardships as hammers and chisels to form us into the image of His Son.

What should we do?

We need to fast and pray like the Prophet Daniel did in Babylon, something like this:

“O Lord, You are great and awesome! You always fulfill Your covenant and keep Your promises of unfailing love to those who love You and obey Your commands. But America has sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against You and scorned Your commands and regulations. We have refused to listen to Your servants the prophets…

Lord, You are in the right; but as You see, our faces are covered with shame. This is true of all of us. O Lord, we and our President, other leaders, and citizens are covered with shame because we have sinned against You. But the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against Him. We have not obeyed the Lord our God, for we have not followed the instructions He gave us through His servants the prophets. All of America has disobeyed Your instruction and turned away, refusing to listen to Your voice…

So now, the solemn curses written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured down on us because of our sins. You have kept Your word and done to us and our leaders exactly as You warned. Every curse written against us in the Law of Moses will soon come true. Yet, we have refused to seek mercy from the Lord our God by turning from our sins and recognizing His truth…

In view of all Your faithful mercies, Lord, please turn Your furious anger away from America. All the nations of the world mock us because of our sins.

(Excerpt from Common Sense 2016 by Larry Nevenhoven, ©2016, Amazon eBook)

Just remember: all of Israel was delivered out of Egypt, all walked through the Red Sea, but only two geezers, Joshua and Caleb, crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land. The rest of them had their bodies scattered in the wilderness.

This is the time to put our hands to the plow and not look back.

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May 12, 2016 · 9:20 am

Thursday’s Prayers for America (5/12/2016)

I was once a part of a merger between a Charismatic Church and a Southern Baptist Church. It was an interesting experiment with the Charismatics praying in tongues, prophesying, raising their hands, and dancing in the aisles while the more sober-minded Baptists looked on.

One of the senior Baptist elders said, “I love how you Charismatics worship God, but I couldn’t do that.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Well, I have more than a half century of being against Charismatics and their gifts to ever change my ways now.”

“Really? You don’t believe the Holy Spirit can change you?”

“In theory, yes,” he said, “but in reality, no. You see, it’s just too hard to unlearn all of my teachings.”

My prayer today:

Lord, help us American believers to strip ourselves of every weight that slows us down and let us run with endurance the race You have set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. (Based on Hebrews 12:2-3)

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for America.

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May 11, 2016 · 10:07 am

The Search for One New Man (Conclusion)

During the reign of King Jehoiakim, and over fifteen years before Nebuchadnezzar carried off most of Judah to Babylon, Jeremiah had prophesied that Judah would be held in captivity for seventy years.

All of the scribes and priests had access to the prophecies of Jeremiah, but the Bible only states that the old prophet, Daniel, understood it was time for the captivity of Judah to be finished in Babylon. So, Daniel humbled himself with fasting, supplications, and prayers, interceding for the Lord to act upon Jeremiah’s prophecy.

While Daniel was still speaking, praying, and confessing his sin and the sin of Israel, the angel Gabriel showed up and said:

“O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you… (Daniel 9:22-23)

In the above example, we read how the Holy Spirit enlightened Daniel to pray Jeremiah’s prophecy into being. Then, while Daniel is still praying, Gabriel arrives to give the old prophet even more understanding.

Okay, this is the exact same place I believe we stand right now with:

...that he might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace (Ephesians 2:15)

There is no use attempting to bring unity to the Body of Christ if the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers are not brought into the one new man relationship. We Gentiles need the Jewish believers and the Jewish believers need us.

Without the one new man coming into being, we will not attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the fullness of Christ. We instead will continue to be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

If the Jews and Gentiles in the whole Body are not rightly joined and held together, each part will not work properly and the Body will not grow and be built up in love.

Eventually, the one new man has to arrive at this level of power, love, and revelation:

so that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:10)

Because I feel this is so important right now, I’m changing my Tuesday regimen of praying and fasting for the prisoners of Asia, which has been my practice for more than four years. But instead, I will be fasting and praying for the one new man to come forth in the Body of Christ.

Who knows? Maybe Gabriel will show up and give us understanding.

If you agree and feel the Holy Spirit is leading you to do so, join me on Tuesdays in fasting and praying for the one new man.

(Conclusion for now……if you’re interested, the full series to date can be seen here.)

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May 9, 2016 · 10:09 am

“My Church is a Bunch of Nice Losers” (Part 7)

Eight years ago, a blogger from a well-known ministry’s website read one of my articles on Larry Who and asked me to read an article about prophecy and prophets on their website and then write a comment. I felt honored and did so.

The article was well-written, but there was one sentence which I disagreed with —

“From this we can learn that a ‘go alone prophet’ is not good, nor biblical..”

I wrote, “A lot of this sounds good, but sadly some of it is not scriptural.”

Oh my Lord, you would have thought I had written a blasphemous comment. The blogger and ministry head commented back and forth with me for almost two weeks.

Later, the ministry head wrote:

I think there’s an important spiritual point you’re missing here in terms of what Andrew was trying to communicate. Perhaps you can step back and reflect on the principle? My point here is not that everything must comes of out the home base in a region, but that if God sends someone into a region where He already has His people laboring in right relationship with Him, then there is no reason for a “go alone prophet.” Otherwise, there is confusion, lack of mutual submission and accountability, among other things, and the Word is pretty clear about all this being important.

I answered by writing:

Let’s say there is a city named Christian City. In Christian City there are fifty churches and each is in right relationship with the Lord and with the other churches. There are numerous quality apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons in Christian City.

Now, two thousand miles away, a prophet lives in a hut. He thinks the Lord has directed him to go and speak in Christian City. He jumps on a jet, flies to Christian City, takes a taxi to the city square of Christian City, pays the driver, walks to the middle of the city square and begins to prophesy to the people and the government of Christian City. All of this is done without talking to another Christian (except maybe to his wife).

Now, are you saying that God would not do this? That He no longer will send a Jonah-type prophet to a city to speak His words?

We eventually agreed to disagree on this issue.

Okay, I admit to being a stubborn believer, but I also believe that Scripture cannot be bent to justify our teachings, theologies, and beliefs. If Scripture does not agree in total with our thinking, we should not extrapolate from here and there throughout the Bible, trying to make our doctrines work.

And this is the main reason why the Church is a bunch of nice losers.

(Continued in Part 8……if you’re interested, the full series to date can be seen here.)

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May 7, 2016 · 9:33 am

My Church is a Bunch of Nice Losers? (Part 6)

Let’s set the stage first:

In April, the North Carolina state legislators passed a wide-ranging bill which barred transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms that do not match the gender on their birth certificates. Almost immediately, Bruce Springsteen, Pepsi, Whole Foods, General Electric, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, NFL, NBA, and so forth have boycotted or threatened to boycott North Carolina because of their legislative stand.

Then a week later, Target announced that transgender team members and guests may use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their transgender identities. The American Family Association (AFA) called for a boycott by Christians of Target Stores, which to date over 1,000,000 have signed the pledge to boycott Target.

Okay, what’s wrong with this picture?

Blow the trumpet in Zion,
Consecrate a fast,
Call a sacred assembly;

Gather the people,
Sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and nursing babes;
Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber,
And the bride from her dressing room.

Let the priests, who minister to the LORD,
Weep between the porch and the altar;
Let them say, “Spare Your people, O LORD,
And do not give Your heritage to reproach,
That the nations should rule over them.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:15-17)

Once again, the Church has listened to the trumpet of the flesh and used a world system weapon: boycotting. This is so dumb on our part! It reveals to the whole world what a bunch of nice losers we believers are; and of course, the unbelievers are asking, “Where is their God?”

Don’t Christian leaders who support the Target boycott have Bibles? Don’t they understand that boycotts are nothing but fleshly stands against spiritual foes? Or have these leaders decided it’s easier to go the way of the flesh rather than fasting, praying, and trusting God?

No doubt, most of us Christians, would rather sign our names to a boycott pledge and then drive to a different store, rather than shopping at Target. What does this act cost us? Nothing! Zero. Nada!

But then again, this is how the Church has fought abortion, gay agendas, secularism, and everything else Satan has thrown at America. It’s no wonder we lose!

(Continued in Part 7…if you’re interested, the full series to date can be seen here.)

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May 5, 2016 · 9:04 am

Thursday’s Prayers for America (5/5/2016)

Was God taken by surprise that hardhearted Thutmoses III was the Pharoah of Egypt when Moses led Israel out of that nation?

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him…But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you My power, so that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth. (Exodus 9:13, 16)

Was God taken by surprise when eight year old Josiah took the throne over Israel in 640 BC?

“Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.” (1 Kings 13:2 — this prophecy was spoken 300 years earlier.)

Okay, then was God taken by surprise when Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton became –what looks like– their respective party’s nominees for President?

My prayer today:

Lord, I pray that Your redemptive purposes and divine plans are fulfilled by whomever becomes the next President of the United States.

What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?

Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for America.

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May 2, 2016 · 10:46 am

My Church is a Bunch of Nice Losers (Part 5)

Bob Jones told this story about himself:

In the late 1980s, the Lord told Jones that Jimmy Swaggart would have his sexual sin publicly revealed for all to see. Jones then told his friends and his church. When the news about Swaggart was finally released in the media, Jones and his friends rejoiced and acted with festive attitudes. “We got Swaggart,” they said to one another.

The Lord also spoke to Paul Cain about Jimmy Swaggart, but Cain told no one. When Cain heard the news on TV about Swaggart’s sin being exposed, he spent the day weeping before the Lord for Swaggart, his family, and the Body of Christ.

Jones later repented of his attitude and used it as an example of how “knowledge puffs us up, but love edifies all.”

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6)

The Greek word antitassō, which is translated into the English word resists in the above verse, is a military term and actually means to battle against. Thus, God battles against pride.

The foul sin of pride is the number one method Satan uses to derail us believers in spiritual battles. He knows that if he can get us to move from humility — a position of spiritual strength — into pride, God who honors His word will battle against us.

Sadly, we believers often resemble James and John after a village did not accept Jesus and His ministry. “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”

The two disciples had just returned from a ministry trip in which they had witnessed the power of God healing and delivering people. Now, puffed up by their ministry success, they wanted to use this same power to destroy the people who disagreed with them.

Jesus rebuked them and said:

“You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” (Luke 9:55-56)

(Continued in Part 6…if you’re interested, the full series to date can be seen here.)

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