An Invitation to Pray

I am fascinated by God's interactions with the seer Amos, one of the prophets in the Old Testament. (Those that God communicated with primarily visually were called seers, and those God communicated with primarily verbally were known as prophets.) The ancient Hebrew kings had seers in their courts to advise them on God's counsel on a given matter. Some, such as Samuel (1 Samuel 9:9) and Amos were both seers and prophets. This was a very important role. One appalling aspect of God's judgment on Judah was alluded to in Lamentations 2:9 (MSG):

"her prophets are useless-- they neither saw nor heard anything from GOD."

This implies that they were SUPPOSED to get active direction from God through hearing His voice, dreaming dreams, or seeing visions. It was their job to hear from God. Except, God stopped talking. The idea that God would go silent is so horrifying to me. It's like couples going through a divorce. They start out "in love," but things change. They're both alive, they are still in a defined relationship, but they are no longer talking to each other. Misery. In Amos Chapter 7, we have examples of this process of "seeing" recorded. First God shows him something, then they talk about it. Then the seer then intercedes on behalf of the people. Here is Amos 7:1-8 (NIV):

This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the kings share had been harvested and just as the second crop was coming up. When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out "Sovereign LORD, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!

So the LORD relented.

"This will not happen," the LORD said.

This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: The Sovereign LORD was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the deep and devoured the land. Then I cried out, "Sovereign LORD, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!"

So the LORD relented.

"This will not happen either," the Sovereign LORD said.

This is what he showed me. The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD asked me, "What do you see, Amos?"

"A plumb line," I replied.

Then the LORD said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer..."

God has been showing me some frightening things lately. Heavy things. I was reluctant to share them publicly, (What if I'm wrong? What if I've missed God! What if I look foolish?). But as I was journaling yesterday morning about these things, God quoted Habakkuk 2:2 to me:

"Write this. Write what you see."

Just under two weeks ago, I was praying and saw a computer keyboard being violently flipped over in apparent frustration. It went flying completely off the desk and onto the floor and I could see there was a sticker in the upper left-hand corner. The sticker read "D19," and I knew immediately that "D" stood for days and the number 19 stood for quantity of days. My initial interpretation was that the frustration was because the computer wasn't working. (Data was missing? Computer virus? No electricity? No internet?) I couldn't see the monitor, only the useless keyboard. So why wasn't it working? Cyberattack? Will there be a cyberattack in 19 days? I didn't get an explanation from God, but 19 days from that vision will be 4th of July, the American Independence Day celebration. Will there be a cyberattack around 4th of July? An alternate interpretation is that the 19 days is duration, not a countdown-- that there will be problems affecting computers for a period of 19 days.

Then two nights ago, God gave me a vivid and startling dream. I was looking out over a city scape of low buildings, they appeared to be mostly 2-3 stories tall. My vantage point was at roof-top level. Suddenly, there was an intense flash of the brightest white light in the distance. I turned to see it and I saw the fireball forming of a nuclear detonation. It was an airburst above the top of the buildings. As I watched the fireball, I saw the bluish shock wave expanding outward in every direction. And it was coming towards me, clearing everything in its path. It took just over a second to reach me, and oh the violence of it! I woke up just as the shockwave arrived. It was 1:00 AM.

But what city was it? I don't know. I didn't notice any skyscrapers, just the low buildings. Architecturally, it resembled urban sprawl common all over the middle east and north Africa. (And in parts of America, for that matter.) Lots of low buildings in mostly earth tones.

But what does it all mean? I believe it means that there will be a cyberattacks in America, and that somebody is about to get nuked... which leads to the obvious follow-up question. Why is God revealing this? What are we supposed to do with this information? First of all, I believe this is an invitation to pray. In the spiritual realm we are to intercede with God to relent, just like Amos did-- just like Moses did-- again and again. We are to ask God to spare us (and them) this great calamity-- to ask God to bring us to repentance. To ask God to help our leaders (and theirs) to navigate away from this rocky shore and back to safe waters. Joel 2:17(NIV) gives us a model:

Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, "Spare your people, O LORD." Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?' "

I believe God wants us to repent for ourselves, and to intercede for others. (In the book of Jonah, we see how God pronounced judgment on Nineveh, but He canceled that judgment when the people repented.) So what happens if we ourselves repent and reconcile with God? Will He relent from this potential future. Possibly? Even if He doesn't (Jeremiah 15:1), why not spend the time talking with God now, getting close to God now?

As practical matter, what If God doesn't just want us to pray? What if God is warning us of what's coming so that we can prepare? In Genesis 41:28 and Acts 11:27-30, God warned of major famines in advance, so people could prepare. In Daniel 2, God showed king Nebuchadnezzar the course of future world empires, and in Daniel 4, and Daniel 5, God warns kings Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar of God's pending judgment on them personally.

If God IS warning us so that we can prepare, how exactly do we go about it? You start with a scenario-- the problem-- and then you figure out steps. "How does one eat an elephant? One bite at a time." You work the problem one bite at a time. So, let's say there is a cyberattack here in America (well within the capabilities of Russia, China, Iran, and N. Korea.) Or what if there is a natural disaster in your area? (Hurricane season is approaching.) Here are some scenarios to consider:

• What if the electricity goes out for a week, (or three?) (No electricity means no Walmart, no gas stations, and no city water or city sewer after a few days.) Where do you get food, if the grocery store is closed? How do you cook food without electricity? How do you obtain clean water? How do you get rid of garbage and human waste? How do you pay for stuff if your credit card won't work and the ATMs are dead?

• What if the electricity stays on, but the internet is down or the banking systems are hacked, cutting you off from your funds. Do you have paper records of important documents, account numbers, balances, etc.?

• If there is no electricity and no internet, then there will also be no police services, because they aren't going to send their people out if their own radios aren't working. Are you prepared to be responsible for your own security?

• Do you have a battery powered radio-- a way to receive news besides the TV, internet, and cell phones?

• What if you have to evacuate suddenly? (People in LA had to do it during the recent fires.) Where do you plan to go? How do you plan to get there? Do you have enough gas to make it without stopping at a gas station? (Does Aunt Susie know you're coming to her house in the countryside?) What would you bring with you? What if you had only 10 minutes to pack and get on the road-- could you manage?

The list could go on and on, but these are good starting points. And so my friends, please prayerfully consider these things. If this resonates with you, pray. Pray for our country, pray for our leadership, pray for peace in the middle east, pray for repentance. If you feel physically or mentally unprepared for crises scenarios like those I described, then do something about it. Make a plan. Alternatively, you might think this is all nonsense and that it was all just a very bad dream. In that case, live your life as you have been and I wish you well.

"The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you;

the LORD turn his face toward you

and give you peace."

Numbers 6:24-26