As hurricanes and fires wreck and ravage America, the question must be asked: Is God answering
our prayers?
Discover the vital key to answered prayer-next, on The Key of David, with Gerald Flurry.
Greetings, everyone.
We have just recently seen a massive hurricane strike Houston, Texas, and the southern Texas
coast, and it was one of the most destructive hurricanes ever to strike America.
And then immediately after that the Texas governor declared a day of fasting in Texas;
I think it was just a day after the hurricane hit the coast.
And then about two days after the hurricane began, the President of the United States
declared a NATIONAL day of prayer, and surely you'd have to think that there were thousands,
perhaps even millions of people that responded to that, and THEN a few days later we see
that there was really the largest hurricane EVER to strike from the Atlantic, hit the
Caribbean and Florida and other states.
And we have to I think if we're honest, ask ourselves, well, is God answering our prayers?
If you look at our own history, U.S. history, you'll see that God DID answer our prayers
MANY times.
Now, that's a historical fact and you can prove that I think from history without any
real difficulty.
But does God answer our prayers today?
If you look in your Bible you'll see ABSOLUTE promises from God that He will answer our
prayers, that He will answer them, and our own history of course, as I said, proves that.
But prayers alone are not enough.
If you look in your Bible and examine it closely you'll see that prayers are not enough, and
the prophet Amos showed us how to get results and how to get answers to our prayers in a
very technical, detailed way.
And this is all end-time prophecy and I'll discuss that a little more in a moment.
But let's look at Amos chapter 4, verses 5 and 7.
I just wanted to mention the last part of verse 5.
It talks about, "O, ye children of Israel," it's talking to the children of Israel.
Now, who are they?
If you don't know who Israel is, then you won't know to whom this is addressed.
Notice verse 7: "And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three
months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain
upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered."
Withered.
Now, while those hurricanes, Harvey and Irma, were hitting the U.S., there were raging fires
on the west coast because of drought and the dry season, and as the Bible says, it was
WITHERED on the west coast, as it was FLOODING all over the south, well, in Texas and Florida,
especially.
So God DOES prophesy about those events, about those disasters that do happen from time to
time.
But all of this happened at the same time, just like Amos said it would.
It'll be raining too much in one city and not at all in another.
This is EXACTLY what Amos says will happen in this end time.
And he tells us then how to make sure it DOESN'T happen and how you can PREVENT it, and it's
right there in your own Bible.
Amos IS an end-time book and our booklet on Amos will prove that to you if you don't already
have it.
But when we see such calamities, God certainly expects us to seek Him.
When we see something like this coming, He expects us to respond to Him in that way,
and to pray, yes, but it takes a lot more than prayer.
That's what most people simply do not understand.
Notice verses 8 through 11.
Verse 8, I'll just read the last part of each one of these verses just to illustrate something
to you.
Amos continues in this way, he says, after all of this, "...yet have ye not returned
unto me, saith the LORD."
That was verse 8.
And then verse 9 says, talks about all the problems that you'll have with the fig trees
and the olive trees and the farming and so on, and he says, you see these problems, "...yet
have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD."
You STILL won't return to Me after ALL of these crises that are REALLY super crises,
crises of all crises in a sense.
Verse 10, the last part of it.
God talks about the problems we have and then the disasters that are coming, and He says,
"...yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD."
STILL you haven't returned to Me.
He keeps repeating this over and over.
Verse 11, the last part.
He talked about all of our sins, and says, "...yet have ye not returned unto me, saith
the LORD."
Here is four times in four verses God REPEATS that phrase, "Yet have you not returned unto
Me."
'In SPITE of all of these calamities, you still haven't RETURNED to Me.'
Not just prayed, but RETURNED.
Did you know that we have a history with God?
America, and Britain, the Jewish nation?
They are the ones specifically prophesied about when it's talking about Israel in this
end time.
So when God is talking to Israel or addressing Israel, He's not talking to Russia or China
or Japan or the Arabs in the Middle East and around the world, or the African people mostly
in Africa, and our book on The United States and Britain in Prophecy explains all that
to you.
And we HAVE to understand it if we're going to know who Israel IS, and if we don't know
who Israel is, we can't understand these prophecies.
They simply will not be understood.
Now, that's why you need our book on The United States and Britain in Prophecy.
You DO HAVE to understand who Israel is to know the nations that God is addressing right
now.
That is critical!
Verse 12, notice what it says: "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel:" He's
warning Israel, "and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel."
Verse 13: "For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind," well, this is the
God that creates the mountains, He forms the mountains, and creates the WIND, the wind
that propels the HURRICANES, He CREATES that wind, and we need to KNOW that, to have faith
in the great God.
He goes on to say that He creates the wind, "and declareth unto man what is his thought,"
He even declares what your thoughts are.
He knows what you're thinking!
This is NOT another human being; this is God Himself we're talking about, "that maketh
the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God
of hosts, is his name."
So here is the God that creates the WIND that MOTIVATES all of these hurricanes that really
plays a central role, and God just keeps REPEATING these phrases over and over so He hopes you'll
GET it!
He doesn't want to see us suffer in these calamities.
He doesn't want to see that at all!
This is the Creator God, and He says, now, He's talking to a people that are called Israel
in the Bible, and they need to heed this message.
In our booklet on Amos there is a chapter entitled The End is Come, and it talks about
the bad news, and the good news that really lasts forever, and this is addressing really-if
you prove this to yourself-it's addressing the American people, the British nations or
the British peoples-that includes the UK and Canada and Australia and New Zealand and South
Africa-and all of that again is proved in our book on The United States and Britain
in Prophecy.
Now let me read to you Amos 8 and verses 1 and 2.
I just want to bring out one point here about the end time.
Amos 8, verses 1 and 2.
Verse 1: "Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
And he said, Amos, what seest thou?
And I said, A basket of summer fruit.
Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel;" the end time, and
He says, "I will not again pass by them any more."
This is our last chance to receive a warning from God.
That's what the book of Amos says, and that's what our booklet ILLUSTRATES to you.
Now let's go back and get a little background of these other verses I just read to you.
This time we'll read Amos 3, verses 1 and 2, and notice this interesting point.
Amos 3 and verse 1: "Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you," AGAINST you,
"O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt,
saying, You only," you only, "have I known of ALL the families of the earth: therefore
I will punish you for all your iniquities."
God KNOWS us and He's holding us ACCOUNTABLE.
This applies to SPIRITUAL Israel, or the Church, God's own Church, and it applies to the NATIONS
of Israel.
And He says, 'You ONLY have I known of all the families of the Earth.'
Well, we'd better know who Israel is and who these nations are, because God says He is
holding us accountable for that HISTORY that we've had with God that other nations have
not HAD.
God wants us to focus on Israel in this warning.
Verse 6, it says: "Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid?
shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?"
Well, there should be fear when we hear what God says in these prophecies.
Then verse 7: "Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto
his servants the prophets.
The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?"
See, God is likened to a lion.
If you were out in some area in Africa where there are a lot of lions, and a wild lion
came roaring at you, well, you would be afraid.
Well, what God is talking about here is a much greater fear that we ought to have.
This is MUCH greater than a lion coming at you, and that's where God promises to HELP
you if you hear what He roars and what He prophesies in His trumpet message.
Are we willing to HEED what God warns us to do?
Are we willing to RETURN to Him?
God was the KING of ancient Israel for a good portion of the time, and God says, 'I want
you to get BACK to that.'
You have a HISTORY with God, and you need to understand that or you won't understand
these prophecies.
God says, "Well, who CAN but prophesy?" once God gives this message.
The lion has roared.
The Lord God has spoken, it says.
Do we BELIEVE God?
If we will HEED what He says and what He has spoken, well, THAT'S the way to prevent calamity!
But we have to pray, but we also have to repent and heed God's message!
Or God says He will not hear, and that's something that ought to really resonate with all of
us at this time.
Verses 11 and 12, it talks about-let me just quickly read that, a little more background
here-and it shows you the problem that God's own Church is having.
Notice in verse 11 and 12 of chapter 2 of Amos it says this: "And I raised up of your
sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites.
Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel?"
so they had people to warn them, God raised them up, "saith the LORD.
But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not."
Well, most of God's people, 95 percent of them today, have turned AWAY from God and
they WON'T prophesy!
But God says, "Who CAN but prophesy?"
If you understand these prophecies that He's talking about, and the devastation that will
come if we DON'T heed what He says.
We must HEED what God tells us if we want to avoid many, many crises.
Here is God's own people saying, "Prophesy not."
It isn't something that people naturally want to do.
You don't want to have any BAD news, but even this BAD news is wrapped up in the best news
you could ever possibly hear.
It's ALWAYS good news with God, even the trials and tests.
And when you go through ALL of these terrible trials that is prophesied for Israel, He says,
'Then they get to know God!'
Of all things, it takes THAT for them to get to know God, to get to know Him.
And this is also of course showing you that there is a split in God's Church.
It is very interesting when you study into this book of Amos, and see some of these nightmarish
prophecies and dark visions, if you want to call them that.
But Amos DID have some pretty hefty bad news for us to hear.
But let's turn now to, we'll just take a look at Colossians 2 and verse 19.
I just want to paraphrase that.
Colossians 2 and verse 19.
It says there that God's own people have lost their Head.
Now, that is the worst POSSIBLE mistake you could make.
And if you look at the book of Amos, 25 times in this little book of Amos he used the word
"Adonai" when he was referring to God.
Now, that's more than ALL of the other minor prophets, combined.
There are 12 minor prophets in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible, and why would Amos use
this "Adonai" so much?
"Adonai" means "Headship, the Head."
You can read that in the Companion Bible.
But here's the beauty of this.
Understanding the word "Adonai," it means in talking about God, it means "the God that
blesses."
Amos was dealing with all of these prophecies, making all of these negative prophecies because
of the people's own transgressions, and he kept REMINDING himself over and over and over
that this is the Adonai, the leadership, the Head, and He blesses, He blesses even with
the trials and tests that He gives us, even with the CALAMITIES He gives us.
They are blessings in the end, and that's what Amos I think had to do to keep himself
positive.
Because if you just see quite a bit of bad news, you can become negative yourself, but
if you understand it with God's perspective, it is inspiring and uplifting in SPITE of
the trials, in SPITE of the difficulties.
So this is all, you see, all these trials and tests and calamities come in the context
of BLESSINGS, in SPITE of man and in SPITE of his rebellion.
They STILL bring blessings to man, and that is phenomenal.
You turn these trials into blessings.
We are serving the God who blesses people.
God is love!
He is love!
And He blesses people all the time!
Now, we have to think like God.
It says in Philippians 2 and verse 5: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus:" so we have to THINK like Christ, we have to THINK like the Father when WE talk
about these trials.
God is a God of love, and even in those trials, they are jam-packed with blessings because
it makes us RETURN to God and come to our senses and RETURN to the God that we have
a HISTORY with, the God that performed ALL those miracles in the Hebrew Bible or the
Old Testament.
Now, we need to know about that history and understand that and realize that God is holding
us accountable for that.
Notice, here's some very good news in chapter 5, we'll continue from chapter 4 in Amos.
I want to finish this prophecy he was talking about.
But he says in verse 1 of chapter 5: "Hear ye this word which I take up against you,
even a lamentation, O house of Israel."
Then verse 4, still addressing the house of Israel, and notice what God is working to
ACHIEVE here.
Verse 4: "For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall
LIVE: " You shall LIVE!
Well, now, there's another phrase.
He wants to keep repeating it until we GET it!
Notice verse 6: "Seek the LORD, and ye shall live;" the first words of verse 6.
And then verse 8: "Seek him," we have to SEEK God, not just pray.
We could pray and not even get close to God if we're not obeying God.
That should be clear to anybody I think.
Verse 8: "Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death
into the morning," or the morning and the sun rising and so on, "and maketh the day
dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea," well, how about that?
"the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his
name:" That is EXACTLY what He did in these hurricanes!
He calls the waters out of the sea and pours them upon the land.
But what He's telling you here is He wants to do that to water your crops and give you
prosperity and all kinds of blessings.
But if you don't HEED what God says, well, then it comes in the form of hurricanes or
something like that.
God HAS to get our attention if He's going to give us eternal life and rule over the
entire universe.
He's going to have to get our attention.
That's what His goal is, and there are a HUNDRED prophecies that tell you about that, even
more than that.
Verse 12, notice what God says: "For I know your manifold transgressions," well, that's
a problem, "and your mighty sins:" well, you see, THAT'S what God is concerned about.
He does want us to repent of our sins and follow Him and REAP all those blessings that
God just POURS out upon you if you obey Him.
Verse 14: "Seek good, and not evil, that ye may LIVE:" there it is again.
He says that like, really, four times here, just like the other expression about not seeking
Him even after all these calamities, but here He says: "Seek good, and not evil, that ye
may LIVE:" God wants us to live, not only in the future, but right now!
He wants us to really LIVE the abundant life.
Read John 10 in the New Testament.
He talks about that.
He wants you to live an abundant life-peace and prosperity and all the good things.
That's what God wants for ALL of us!
He doesn't want us to die in calamities.
He doesn't want us to DIE in terrible trials and difficulties.
God doesn't want that.
God wants YOU, He wants YOU to LIVE!
He wants EVERYBODY to really LIVE, but He does have to bring these trials upon us because,
well, we turn to our transgressions.
And when we're involved in those transgressions and pray, God will not listen or answer that
prayer.
He simply will not do it.
Well, you can read Amos 8 where it goes on to talk about there's going to be a famine
in the land.
God is only going to get this message out there so long and then He's going to take
the message away, and punish His people, but we can ELIMINATE that, we can AVOID that if
we will just heed what God says and RETURN unto the God that we were obedient to, at
least at times in our history.
Until next week, this is Gerald Flurry, goodbye, friends.
God is cursing America with natural disasters in this end time.
These curses are far more terrifying than a lion on the attack!
Request Gerald Flurry's free booklet The Lion Has Roared to learn the fate of the greatest
nation in the history of the world.
The Prophet Amos wrote the strongest warning message in the entire Bible.
He foretold the catastrophic events rocking America today.
Read The Lion Has Roared to understand why this nation is being punished.
Discover the inspiring conclusion to today's horrifying headlines.
Catastrophic, nature-related phenomena are forcing their way into American life with
troubling frequency.
Request our free booklet Why 'Natural' Disasters? to learn whether earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis,
super-storms, floods, droughts and wildfires are actually increasing.
If so, is it merely coincidence-or is there a cause?
Both religion and science struggle to answer.
But there is an answer-and it gives profound and even inspiring meaning to these seemingly
random disasters!
Read Why 'Natural' Disasters? to understand how.
America today is heavily burdened by sin.
Sin is the cause of all human suffering in the U.S. and around the world.
Request Gerald Flurry's free booklet Repentance Toward God to uncover the difference between
godly repentance and worldly sorrow.
Learn how true repentance will help solve all world problems.
Read Repentance Toward God.
It could change your life dramatically!
You will also receive a copy of our free reprint article "Will God Respond to America's National
Day of Prayer?"
All our literature is available free of charge, at no cost or obligation to you.
Request The Lion Has Roared, Why 'Natural' Disasters?, Repentance Toward God, and "Will
God Respond to America's National Day of Prayer?"
Order now!
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