“Repentance is the only way to win My favor. There can be no intimate interaction between Us unless you maintain a humble, submissive heart. I have toppled kingdoms because of their pride in their own strength and resources. I have delayed My provision to them in time of need. I have used the unlikely, the underdog, the seemingly weak to destroy their pompous attitude and humble them for all the world to see. When they came to repentance, I restored My lifeline to them so that they once again could accomplish My work.
“For many years I have called you, My people, to repentance. I have asked you to humble yourself so that I can move freely through you. Instead of seeking Me with an open heart, allowing My Holy Spirit to expose every hidden sin, you have chosen to correct the wrongs that you see in those who do not know Me. You have attempted to change your world and call it My way of doing things. That is pride, and I am not with you in it. How much success have you had? How much closer has the world drawn to Me? If you are truthful, even with all your activity, things have gotten darker. You have also become weaker because you have been too busy to spend enough time with Me to gain My strength and hear My heart.
“How long must I continue to call you before you hear Me? What will it take before you understand that My goal is your proud heart, not your zealous activities that look like My work. You need to wake up! You need to rediscover what I originally taught you. If you look back through the corridors of time, you will observe the religious activity and the prideful attitude of those who believed they were doing My work. In reality, they were very busy maintaining their own lordship immediately before I humbled them, whether they be nations or individuals. It will be like looking in a mirror. That should terrify you enough to bring you to repentance. You know what is coming next if you don’t! I will humble you.”
2 Samuel 14:14 NIV
“God does not take away life, instead he devises ways so that a banished person may no longer remain estranged from him.”
2 Chronicles 7:13-14 NIV
13) “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,
14) if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (Another translation reads, ”I will hear THEM from heaven…”)
In the time that I have been a follower of Jesus Christ, I have lived through the foolishness of the fist-waving, foot-stomping, devil-commanding, power-praying, finger-pointing, people-condemning, sign-carrying, bible-thumping, rights-demanding, holier-than-thou spectacle that some call Christianity. In a specific time of need, I have seen thousands of people attend rallies designed to unite themselves against the enemy.
One such rally even called in a “Christian minister” who called himself a maledictionist. He was called to bring curses down upon the particular enemy of that time. Thousands attended that meeting. It was shameful. All the world saw the foolishness done in the Name of Jesus to change our world.
What is so fascinating about almost all of these functions is that the 2 Chronicles 7:14 verse above is used as a rallying cry for their justification. It is held high as the definitive verse to show the righteousness of our battle, the sureness of our victory.
I have meditated long and hard on 2 Chronicles 7:14 and have come to the conclusion that it means exactly what is very clear the first time you read it. God was calling His people (Christians) to repent of their own sins if they wanted their land healed, not come against the wrongs in the land and those committing them. We are to represent the character of Jesus to them so that they might accept Him and turn from their wicked ways through His power.
That is not a very popular position to take. The usual immediate response when pointing to the verse and taking it word for word is, “You mean we are supposed to sit around and do nothing?” It is as if humbling ourselves, praying, seeking the face of God, and turning from our wicked, prideful, not needing God ways is far behind “rallying for a cause” on the fruitful works activities list. Seemingly, praying, repenting, and seeking God with all our hearts are considered inactivities, rather than the most honored activity of our Lord.
A good friend of mine said the Lord told him that we are at a crossroads, as a people and as a nation. I totally agree with him. I would suggest, however, that we have been there for some time. God, in His graciousness, has been calling us to intimacy through repentance for quite a while. He has used the incredible sin in our land to drive those who see it to their knees and remind us of our own desire to be independent of Him. He has also used it to show us that we would rather proclaim His promises, use His Words, and flaunt our heritage before those who are needing Jesus, than humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, asking for forgiveness of our sins. That act alone testifies of the pride and independence that He is after in each of us.
Forgive me, Lord,
Jim Corbett
