Folks stand on this verse only (II Chronicles 7:14) to promote a celebration of ~this nation~, a prayer time, feeding the people a sense of: lets assemble and parade the flag while we lift up this nation before God in prayer and God IS gonna change everything. BUT. We need desperately to read beyond this one verse ~BECAUSE~ there are stipulations in this healing prayer… OBEDIENCE, has everything to do with receiving the promises God has made, AND SO, ~Disobedience~ has everything to do with a failed nation AND the people in it… We get carried away sometimes sorta like a vigilante group from the western days, getting worked up to declare someone guilty, before looking at the sound facts… We tend to get worked up in this: “looks and sounds good to men”, notion that IS promoted BY men, so lets do it and God will answer it, we tend to ~forget~ that God demands ~Obedience~ by HIS children, guidance in HIS correction, not rebellion in the ways of the world… As we read it all, we realize that God’s promise to heal the nation DOES Have an obedient action which we ~all~ must carry out and that is to *Turn from our wicked ways*.
(II Chronicles 7: 13-22 )… If, I (THE LORD God) shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among MY people; 14 If MY people, which are called by MY NAME, shall ~~humble~~ themselves, and pray, (remembering that a humble attitude in Christ, is not a ~prideful rally of a nation or a parading of it‘s flag~) and seek MY FACE, *and* ~ turn from their wicked ways;~ *then* will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will *heal* their land. 15.. Now MINE eyes shall be open , and MINE ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. 16.. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that MY NAME ~*may* be there for ever:~ and MINE Eyes and MINE Heart shall be there perpetually. 17.. And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before ME, as David thy father walked , and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe *MY Statutes and MY Judgments*; 18 Then will I stablish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying , There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel. 19... But *IF* ye turn away , and ~~forsake~~ MY Statutes and MY Commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; 20 Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and ~this house`, which I have sanctified for MY NAME, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among **all nations**. 21 And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say , Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and unto this house? 22 And it shall be answered , Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.
Now, remembering that ~wicked ways~ don’t necessarily mean, drinking alcohol, and cursing, but it also means acting out as the world does in it’s ceremonies of men’s traditions, seeking after the gods of the nations, and what are the gods of a nation?….Look at the people of this nation alone and see the sins carried out in it, how can it be healed unless the people who are called after God’s Son Jesus Christ, keep themselves chaste and free from the abominations of those which are rebellious, AND preach and teach the Gospel of God’s Kingdom, and repentance, only in The Houses of Prayer here in this nation… THE LORD God, IS A JEALOUS GOD, and will not give HIS Glory to another…AND Jesus Christ, THE Son of God Which we claim to recognize as our Savior, IS THE ENSIGN or FLAG OF God’s Kingdom… AND Jesus Said, **PRAY**, after ~this manner~… (Matthew 6: 9-13) …therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10.. Thy kingdom come . Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11.. Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as * we forgive our debtors. 13.. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For THINE is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Notice He did not say pray that the nation in which we live IS God’s Kingdom, parade and celebrate an earthly nation, but that God‘s Will be done in ~earth~, not setting aside one nation which is exempt from obedience to God‘s Statutes, as IT IS IN Heaven… Loyalty, Praise, Glory, and Honor to God…
(Isaiah 42:8 KJV)…I am the LORD: that is MY NAME: and MY Glory will I not give to another, neither MY Praise to graven images. (Definition of: graven image: a stamp, an imprinted mark, of the mark stamped on the forehead or the right hand as the badge of the followers of the Antichrist the mark branded upon horses, thing carved, sculpture, graven work of idolatrous images)
(Acts 17:29 KJV)…29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and ~man's device~.
(Exodus 34: 14-15b)… For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: 15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods,
(Numbers 2:2 KJV)…Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father's house: far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch.
I can find ~NO~ reference to the positioning of a standard with an ensign, piece of cloth being placed in or around the tabernacle of the congregation, but rather ~FAR OFF~ around it by the tents of the people and that bearing the flag of their father’s house, to identify the people…
(Isaiah 11:10-12 KJV)….And in that day there shall be a ROOT of Jesse, which shall stand for an Ensign of the people; to *IT* shall the Gentiles seek : and His rest shall be glorious. 11a.. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set HIS hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, 12.. And he shall set up an ensign (definition of ~Ensign~: lifted up, standard, signal, signal pole, ensign, banner, sign, sail standard (as rallying point), signal *note* a banner and a sail is the same as ~a flag~… for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
SO *IF* Christ is The Ensign, Flag, Standard, ~Rallying Point~ of those called by His Name *Christians* why on earth would we lift up any other flag in God’s House of Worship? *IF* we were Christians in: Germany, Russia, Iraq, would we lift up the flag of that nation in our assemblies, rally around it, where we, maybe in secret, have gathered to worship our Heavenly Father, in The Name of HIS Precious Son Jesus Christ? To This Ensign shall the Gentiles seek. How can the Gentiles seek *TO* This Ensign when *IT* He stands under the flag of a nation in God’s House’s of Worship? We need to rethink a lot of our practices… Remembering that, *IF*, we can’t faithfully stand for God’s Kingdom here on this earth, but in weakness commit whoredom with the nations of this world, do we think that God Will grant us entrance before HIS Great Throne when this world is gone? We are not preparing for life here in Satan the adversary’s world, BUT Rather in God’s City where dwells the tree of life?
(Revelation 22: 12-16 KJV)… And, behold , I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man ~according as his work shall be~ . 13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 14 Blessed are they that do HIS Commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. 16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the ROOT and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
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