Turn Your Nation to God

How You Can Turn Your Nation to God

Pastor Anthony Storino  
"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, all the people mourn" (Prov. 29:2).

What exalts a nation? What pulls it down? Do you know that people are confused on this subject? In the minds of many people it's the economy that lifts a nation up or pulls it down. Others think that the correct political party or the right elected officials will exalt a nation.

But God's Word says, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" (Prov. 14:34). You can't fix a nation by just fixing its economy or by fixing its politics. You have to fix a nation by fixing its morality—by fixing its character and honesty.

Now there are many believers who understand this but are confused about God's righteousness and God's judgment. They think God is currently judging America, for example. But He's not. God is not judging America any more than He is judging Mexico or Guatemala or Italy or Africa.

God has already judged sin and Satan. If God were going to judge the homosexuals for their sin, then He'd have to judge drug addicts for their sin, alcoholics for their sin, and murderers for their sin. Is God a respecter of persons? No!

In Luke 4:18-19 we have the account of Jesus from Isaiah 61 on that Sabbath day in the synagogue at Nazareth:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
(Luke 4:18-19)

Then He closed the book and sat down. Jesus stopped in the middle of a sentence that went on to say "and the day of vengeance of our God…" (See Isaiah 61:2). Why didn't Jesus read all of it? Because the day of vengeance is coming, but it's not time yet.

We are in the Church Age, the Age of Grace. This is not to say nations aren't inflicting all kinds of calamity upon themselves because of sin. Sin is a reproach to a nation, and a nation can be hurt by sin just as an individual can be hurt by sin.

Sin carries with it the recompense of its reward. But rather than see cities and nations continue in this kind of destruction, God has raised up people who will pray for nations, just as Abraham did for Sodom and Gomorrah, when he said, "Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" (Gen. 18:23). Abraham said Lord will you spare this nation if there are 10 righteous people their?  We all know what happened, Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed because there were not found 10 righteous people.  Only Lot and his family escaped.

It has always been the prayer intercessors, not the politicians, who have changed the course of nations.

What About My Nation?
Politics never has and never will change our nations. Men have tried it for years, and it's still not working. God doesn't operate that way. He operates according to His Word. God's plan is set forth in Proverbs 29:2: "When the righteous are in authority [or leadership], the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn."

Notice that when the righteous are in authority, even the sinners will rejoice. They will rejoice, not because righteousness is increased, but when righteousness increases. Some of them won't know why, but they will rejoice because the righteous have increased in the earth. When righteousness is increased, God will exalt His nation and all citizens will live and enjoy the good life (see 1 Timothy 2:1-2).

It should alarm us to hear people saying, "I don't care about character. I don't care about morality. I don't care about family. I don't care about whether the person is honest. All I care about is money and economics. What's going to put money in my pocket...How am I going to benefit from it...What am I going to get?"

That's greed and materialism, and it will drive a country further into unrighteousness.

There is never a time or situation in the government of any nation in which character and morality shouldn't enter into a political contest. It's true that God is no respecter of persons. It's true that it rains on the just and the unjust alike.

But it's the righteous who bring the rain and bring the blessings of God. It's the righteous who bring God in on the scene. "When the righteous are increased, the people rejoice." That is a spiritual principle. "When the wicked bear rule, the people mourn."

The Role of Prayer
What does it mean to bring righteousness on the scene? We are not talking about a religion forcing everybody to go to church. God doesn't do that. Nor are we talking about self-righteousness. What we are talking about are two things you can do to change your nation and turn it around. First, pray for those who are in authority. 1 Timothy 2:1-3
 
Many people love God and they might even be born again, but they don't know how to pray. Remember God's will for our nations is that men and women be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth so that they can pray in line with His will.

Do you want to get God involved in your prayers? Then make petitions, prayers, intercession and give thanks for all men. Intercede for all those in leadership who are in eminent places. This includes intercession for the president (or your prime minister, etc.), his cabinet and advisors, businessmen, law enforcement officers, judges and congressmen.  I want to encourage you to come early on Wednesday evening and pray with us 6:00pm to 6:45pm even if you get there a little late come in and pray.

Pray for these people so that you may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. When you do, God will be involved with your prayers.

The Necessity of Involvement
Second, get involved politically and vote. If you don't vote and you are a Christian, then forget about praying. You are going to have to repent for sinning because you haven't taken advantage of your God-given, blood-bought right.

We are so shallow in our thinking. The issue is not the Democratic or the Republican Party—or any other party. The issue is righteousness. The issue is a spiritual issue. We must pray and intercede for all men, kings, all that are in authority or all that are in an eminent or prominent place of leadership.

Why? It's simple. It's because God said if we will do this—and He exhorts us to do it—we will lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty. When righteousness increases and you have godly leadership, the people are going to rejoice.

As we start interceding and petitioning for all men, the Holy Spirit starts to move, and people start getting saved, getting filled with the Holy Ghost and coming into the Church.

Then what happens? They go back into the workplace as saved people. Righteousness is increasing-right-standing with God, not self-righteousness, not holier-than-thou, not religious hypocrisy.

People who are right with God are increased in the workplace. This is exactly where Jesus told us we should go. Christians have stayed out of the marketplace when Jesus told us, "Go ye into all the world" (Mark 16:15). Christians should be witnesses everywhere we go. We should beget other Christians.

As righteousness begins to increase, God will say, "Look at this; isn't this wonderful? Righteousness is increasing. It's time for us to exalt this nation, lift it up and bless it, because righteousness is increasing."

Then as the nation gets blessed, the people will be standing around and looking, saying "My, my, things sure are wonderful, aren't they? Crime's down, unemployment's down, wages are up, our environment is cleaned up, they're making progress on the national debt…." They start rejoicing. They start talking good. They start saying good things.

What's happening? God's doing what He said He'd do.

You can't fix a nation by just fixing its economy or its politics. You have to fix a nation by fixing its morality, its character, its honesty. When you do, then God gets involved in the nation.

God can solve the issue of war, terrorism, the national debt problem, social injustice, unemployment, national health, environmental cleanup, and any other national challenge if we can just turn the nation around morally and see righteousness increase. When God gets involved, the people rejoice.

What we've looked for is for God to come in here and make everybody be a Christian. God has never done that, and He never will. We have to pray and intercede. It's not an option anymore. But if you'll stand in the gap, pray and intercede, God will move on your behalf and on behalf of your city, state, nation and world. Righteousness will exalt the nations.