Dealing with divine judgments

There are two common natural responses to divine judgments:

First, we may deny that these come from God, either by attributing them to blind natural forces, or by attributing them to the devil.

Second, we may attribute them to God by calling them divine judgments, but respond by saying, “They deserve it on account of sin.”

It is true that God’s judgments are true and righteous altogether (Psalm 19:9). But that does not mean we have to accept them as inevitable and stand aside to let them happen. In fact, Moses interceded for Israel many times when the nation was threatened with divine judgment for its sin. So also did all of the prophets.

In the really big picture, the whole world was guilty of sin, and as a result, all men were condemned to death. However, this did not stop Jesus from doing something to end this judgment. Just because the judgment is just and righteous, it does not mean that we are called to stand aside and just let it happen.

God reveals His judgments in the earth in order to give us opportunity to do something about it. Broadly speaking, this is the whole purpose of intercession. But if we simply agree with God’s judgments and do nothing about it, do we really have the mind of God?

I do not think so.

For the past 32 years I have been involved in intercession and spiritual warfare. These have always been instigated by revelations of impending divine judgment. But the purpose for all such revelation has been to motivate us to do something to stop that judgment or at least to lessen its effects.

The original warfare that thrust me into this new realm back in 1981 was when the Net of Prayer discerned a spiritual army coming into America through San Francisco in the formation of a Broken Cross. Why San Francisco? Because it was a haven for the homosexual movement, and the Church had essentially agreed with the judgments of God upon that place. Hence, they abandoned the “prayer wall” around the nation. The prayer wall was broken down and unmanned at San Francisco, and the demonic army was marching into the nation unopposed.

The problem was that the whole nation then suffered the consequences of this demonic army. Not only San Francisco, but Corpus Christi as well. The army was marching toward Corpus Christi, the “body of Christ” to make war on the saints. So what started out as a divine upon the homosexual movement in San Francisco was actually resulting in the destruction of the Church as well.

So the Net of Prayer was called into action, and though I knew nothing of this prayer battle at the time, I was caught up in the battle. It changed my life, as I explained in chapter 1 of The Wars of the Lord and in chapter 3 of Hearing God’s Voice. It took many years of spiritual warfare to deal with the effects of this demonic army.

More recently, we have seen the effects of super-typhoon Haiyan that struck the central islands of the Philippines. Was it divine judgment? Absolutely. Primarily, as I have already explained, it brought judgment upon the religious church structure that had entered the nation in 1521. First a powerful earthquake struck the same region on October 15, 2013, destroying many old churches. Then the typhoon wiped out whatever had survived the earthquake.

Is God destroying the old in order to make way for the new? Absolutely. However, we must understand HOW God is doing this and our role in it.

Consider the case of Joseph and the famine that occurred in his day. That famine can be thought of as a divine judgment upon those wicked Egyptians and other people in the region. But at the same time, God raised up Joseph to deal with the problem. The famine forced everyone to come to Joseph for food. Joseph then fed the world. Was Joseph somehow going against the will of God? Was it the will of God that men starve? No. God raised up Joseph as the solution to the problem.

In other words, the judgments of God are not really designed to destroy but to motivate men to seek a solution, thereby bringing them to Christ. God’s people are supposed to be the ones that know the solution (or have the “food”) in order to point them to Christ and resolve the problem. But if God’s people say, “Get away from me, ye cursed of God, for you deserve all that you get,” how does that reflect the mind of Christ?

When I was in Maitum (on Mindanao), I told them that God had raised them up to be the solution to the problem of typhoons. I gave them some examples from my own life how we were led to deal with tornados, hurricanes, and other storm systems. I have many personal examples of how such things were stopped or diverted as early as March 1984. So the children and their teachers in Maitum have the same calling in relation to the Philippines.

My overall theme was to present the common Hebrew greeting, Shalom, “Peace.” It means “to consume the authority of chaos.” At the time there was another tropical storm bearing down on the southern Philippines, which threatened the area where our pastors conference was being held. It was called Tropical Storm Zoraida. We all stood and addressed the storm, saying to it, “Shalom!” Zoraida remained a tropical storm as it hit land. When we drove to Lake Sebu, it rained most of the trip, until we came to Lake Sebu. Then the sun came out, and we had good weather.

I believe that the body of Christ has been given dominion over nature as well as divine judgment. We are currently being tested in this, so that we come to understand and believe that we actually have that dominion. As our faith is, so also will we be able to deal with these problems. And as we do, men will come to us for those solutions, and we will be able to build their faith and teach them the ways and laws of God.

It takes a lot of people to generate the problem; it takes only a few people to present the solution.