Actions have Consequences

Have you ever asked the question, why is there so much evil in our world?

Many ask, why does God permit the evil that is perpetrated on the young and innocent, like the shooting in the United States but is that the right question?

Is it God's responsibility to intervene or is there a deeper reason why bad things happen?

Yes God is all powerful and could intervene at any time and in any way He chose but then that would take away man's freewill and ultimately accountability for our actions.

Actions have consequences both individually and collectively at a national level.

We hear lots about the principle of sowing and reaping regarding wealth from preachers but we hear less about sowing wickedness and reaping destruction.

Nations that once were known for their Judeo-Christian culture and laws like Britain and the United States have departed from God, legalisating evil and calling it good and denying God's right to be acknowledged and feared as the Sovereign Creator of all things, the One, mankind is accountable too.

We have pushed God out of every aspect of our society from the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government to the family and in the US banning prayer in school. Every kind of depravity and sin has been normalised and legalised. Laws are passed which put woman's rights above that of the most vulnerable and innocent in our society. We have sanitised and legitimised murder calling it by terms such as "termination" and then we have the audacity to question why God let's evil things like the recent shooting happen.

No actions have consequences at the national level.

Look at Israel. In the book of Hosea God tells them that their rebellion, sin and pride has very definite consequences.

Hosea 10v13-15

13Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men. 14Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children. 15So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.

Do you notice that one of the consequences is that mothers and their children are dashed in pieces.

The reality is that such teaching does not suit the modern hyper grace and seeker friendly gospel. Words like sin, actions having consequences, repentance and reaping what you sow are dirty words, that offend and durst not be spoken.

My Bible however is quite clear on the matter. God is a God of absolutes and a nation's actions will have consequences either for good or evil. The spiritual principle of reaping and sowing applies!

Again the prophet Hosea shines a light on the actions of Israel. In Chapter 13 we find that Israel has conducted themselves in a way that is offensive to God. Hosea gives us an insight into their ways and conduct:

1. In v1&2 we read that Israel has turned unto idols. They "sin more and more" against God and worship the work of their own hands. Is that not what nations like United States and Britain have done. We worship creation more than the Creator and delight in our own inventions. Even the church in the West has turned to and trusted in it's own inventions and that which is of man's own wisdom and imagination. The church in many cases has departed from the truth. The "apostasia" or great falling away of 2 Thessalonians 2 is happening before our very eyes. Mega churches - that preach another gospel and refuse to expose sin and call the people of God or unbelievers to repentance - are packed in the 10s of 1000s with people who come to have their ears tickled and be told what they want to hear and not what they need to hear! I've heard famous TV preachers deny the need to preach against sin with such soundbites as "people feel bad enough, they are struggling enough, they already know they have missed it so they don't need to be beat down anymore". As Rennhard Bonnke said many years ago those who are drowning don't need a sedative they need a lifeline, they need rescued. Without the convicting power of the Holy Spirit exposing sin (of the unsaved and saved alike) through the true gospel message people won't be rescued and the church won't be made ready through the washing of the water of the Word for her soon returning King and Bridegroom.

Jesus said in Revelation 3v20 - to believers not unbelievers I might add:

19As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 20Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

A preacher once said ( I think it was Finney or Tozer), As it goes in the pulpit, so it goes in the nation.

How true. A watered down seeker friendly gospel that is more akin to New Age philosophies and the power of positive thought does nothing to address the issues in the nation. The pulpit is silent (not all of course there is a remnant, remember in Elijah's day when Israel lived in apostasy and turned their back on God that there were 7,000 who didn't bow the knee) while our nations are going to hell. Empty soundbites that sound good but have no power to change lives and save the lost.

In 1 Peter 4v17&18 it says:

17¶For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

18And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Judgement begins with God's people. God is shaking everything to its very foundation, including the church and believers, to expose what is in our hearts and test the foundation that we have built upon. He is testing the foundation that the church system and churchianity is build on and if it is not built on the Rock Christ Jesus then it will fall.

When there is an earthquake everything that is hidden, that under normal circumstances would not be seen, is exposed and revealed. Why because of the shaking. That's why God is allowing the shaking to take place Hebrews 12v26&27 and Haggai 2v6&7

2. Secondly they had become affluent and self satisfied.

Hosea 13v6-9

6According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.

7Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:

8I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.

9O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

Remember the sin of Sodom in Ezekiel 16v42&43. Pride, fulness of bread and abundance of idleness. They were self satisfied, complacent and comfortable which produced pride. Sound familiar? Jesus rebuked the Laodicean church because they were rich and increased with goods (material things) and thought they had need of nothing.

V9 is very telling.

Israel you have destroyed yourself.

Self destructive. A nation that turns it back on God is destroyed not from without but from within. Affluence, comfort, abundance of things and a haughty and proud look are all seeds of destruction.

Actions have consequences.

We reap what we sow.

The United States kills the innocent

It places no value on life. Like Israel of old it sacrifices it children on the altar of convenience, self-love and by following the maxim, "Live as thou wilt is all the law".

A humanistic society who's god is self and pleasure and lives for today and believes there are no longer term consequences.

Cause and effect.

Hosea 8v7

You have sown the wind and you will reap the whirlwind

You see there are unalterable consequences if a people turn their back on God and refuse to repent.

Pride proceeds destruction.

There is Hope

God is not unmoved by the terrible events that happened in the US and in other places around the world. He grieves for the plight of the nations and longs for people to forsake their evil ways and repent and turn back to Him.

2 Chronicles 7v14 is the conditional call of God for a nation and people who have departed from His ways to return in repentance.

If my people who are called by my name will

1. Humble themselves

2. Pray

3. Seek my face

4. Turn from their wicked ways

5. Then will I hear from heaven

6. Forgive their sin

7. Heal their land

It starts with humility and heartfelt repentance.

God longs to heal our land, whether that be US or Britain.

He says to Israel in Hosea 13v9&10

In me is your help, I will be your King

And again in v14

14I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. cf 1 Corinthians 15v55

If the people of God in America would heed the call of God to repent in these days, I believe that the shootings would stop. The harvest would be one of righteousness and not wickedness and destruction.

Look back to a time in history when US was blessed and exalted by God. The same with Britain. Yes imperfect and didn't get it all right but there was an underlying fear, reverence and acknowledgement of God in our society.

The Great Awakenings in the US, the Wesleyan revival, Welsh revival, Hebridian revival and here in Northern Ireland the Kells revival.

During the Welsh revival there were so many men saved and transformed by the power of God that the donkeys they used at the coal mines didn't understand them because they had stopped cursing at them. Men and women so under the conviction of the Holy Ghost that whole communities were delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of God!

Even during WW2, Britain has national days of prayer and knew God's divine intervention at Dunkirk saving over 300,000 British soldiers from inevitable defeat and capture by the Germans. To this day it's known as the "miracle of Dunkirk".

You see, we used to acknowledge and need God as a nation. Now we trust in our own strength and glory in our own inventions. Man is now his own god. Even in the church we have bought Satan's lie "you shall be as gods". If the church is partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil then what hope is there for the world.

When David Hathaway wrote a letter to Boris John's requesting a national day of prayer during Covid it was denied.

The church in the West have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

Proverbs 14v34

Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people

Promised Blessings When We Repent

In Hosea 14 we read how God urges Israel to return to Him in repentance.

They have to come to a place where they stop trusting in natural means and the work of their own hands and trust absolutely in God as their only source.

V3 says:

3Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

V4-9 details the blessings that God will release on a repentant people

1. He will heal their backsliding and love them freely v4

2. He will be as the dew to Israel and cause the nation to be fruitful, have influence and become beautiful v5&6

3. Those who once dwelt under Israel's shadow or protection and influence shall return v7

4. There shall be restoration and revival v7

V8&9 say

8Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

9Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

A nation reaps what it sows, either for good or evil.

However, there is hope that if a nation turns back to God He will be merciful and heal their land.

Judgement begins at the House of God. It's time for the people of God to turn from idols to the Living God. If we do the pulpit will not be silent. There will once again be a voice in the land.

The Gospel of the Kingdom will once again be heard and many will turn to God.