From Freedom to Bondage

Insight from Eddie and Alice
For our wonderful Insight Newsletter family.
Have a blessed week!

From Freedom to Bondage

This is the day of "new beginnings"; unfortunately, they are not new beginnings that reinforce our Christian faith. Greed, lack of self-control, and over-extended credit have replaced financial stability. Like the world, believers are over their heads in debt; live out of control lifestyles, and long for better cars and bigger houses. Americans, we have lost our way and the price is costly. We Christians are at a crossroads. Either we will humble ourselves and make the necessary adjustments to move with the cloud of God's presence; or we’ll drift along with the world system and live with nothing more than distant memories of past divine blessings. I don't know about you, but I'm moving forward!

I’m grieved to see our national civil liberties ebb away by the day. More and more Christians turn a blind eye to perversion, infidelity, and unethical leadership in the Church. Jesus said we are to be the salt of the earth. (Matt. 5:13-16) But where is the voice of the Church today? Rather than be the salt that alters “the flavor” of the world, we’ve lost our distinctive and have taken on the flavor of the world. Do you remember when businesses were closed on Sundays; and schools and other neighborhood groups wouldn’t have thought of scheduling something on a Sunday night or Wednesday night because Christians were committed to their Churches on those nights? Early in the life of our nation, no one would have considered planning an activity without first checking the schedule of the Church. The church was first given top priority. What’s happened to us? All the while Satan and his demonic hoards work 24/7 to extend their territory and take advantage of our families, churches, cities and nation.

My Old Testament professor in college taught us the “prophetic duality” of Scripture; an evil physical ruler versus an evil spiritual ruler. Specifically, he explained that Isaiah Chapters 10-14 describe an evil ruler of that time and as a typology, describe Satan as well. Notice in the passage below how the Devil moves boundaries, changes laws, and works to rob us of our true wealth, our dignity, our laws, a generation of our children, and to silence forever the voices of God’s people.

"I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes. (Lucifer fell because of pride) For he says, 'By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding. I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings. As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations; as men gather abandoned eggs, so I gathered all the countries; not one flapped a wing, or opened its mouth to chirp.’” (Is. 10:12-14)

Friend, it’s time for us to open our mouths, chirp and flap our wings. How? Live righteously; honor God in our business and in our relationships; tithe, give, and discipline ourselves to adopt a modest lifestyle. Sure. There are definitely appropriate times to engage the enemy in spiritual battle. However Eddie says a profound statement in regards to “pulling down strongholds.” He says, “How can we pull down with one hand, what we hold up with the other. We can’t possibly pull down the spirit of pride over our city as long as we are prideful.” So true.

Let’s pray, fast, and weep for our nation and ask the Lord Jesus to let us be the ones who see a shift in the heavenly realm that secures victory and breakthrough. A crisis is at hand. Our republic is shifting from freedom to bondage and we’d better wake up!

In 1997, Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota said, "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations, from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage "

Professor Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of democracy, with some 40 percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase. Quite prophetic, isn’t it?

Apathy without discerning the times is the greatest danger to our freedom. Please join me and ask God to intervene in the affairs of these United States of America.