Can You Return An Apple Once It's Been Plucked?

 

The other morning while I was in prayer, concerned over the coming wrath of God because of the sins of this nation, I heard these words in fast succession flood my spirit:  

Can you return wine into a bottle once it has been poured?

Can you stop an arrow once it has left the bow?

Can you return an apple once it has been plucked?

Can you raise the sun once it has set?

Can you bring back the time that passed one minute ago?

Such words to ponder! God was speaking to me in His wisdom. I could do nothing but shake my head because of His acuity but also because of the alarming reality of those words.  Is America experiencing the wrath of God? Has judgment begun? In short, I don't think so. However, what I do think is God has pulled back and allowed America to go the way of her wicked desires. This isn't judgment as we think "judgment" but rather a type of forsaking us wrath preceding judgment. The pattern of God's "wrath" appears to follow this chronological order: Patience, Longsuffering, Warning, a Forsaking Wrath (where He pulls away and we get what we choose in our rebellion), then Horrible Calamity, followed by Final Judgement. We are at a point in this nation where the Bible is no longer respected but is perceived as interfering with people's sinning. It has become an inconvenience, nuisance, and disruption. So to resolve this "problem" lawmakers are decreeing laws that negate Biblical commandments (IE: abortion, homosexuality, gender reassignment, fornication), etc. SIN has become socially acceptable. "For because of these things (sin in general) the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 5:6).

When God's eternal justice is no longer surpassed by His eternal mercy - that is to say His attribute of mercy is expended - His judgment or wrath is necessarily manifest. At this point, America has seen patience (tolerance), longsuffering (forbearance), warning (natural tragedies), and the period of FORSAKING WRATH. I feel that is the point America is heading into. It's an inevitable consequence. His forsaking wrath is REMOVING RESTRAINT! Examples of forsaking wrath would be those in Psalm 81:11-12, "But My people did not listen to My voice, and Israel did not obey  Me. (WATCH CLOSELY) ... So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices." Also Romans 1:24, " So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies." In 2021 this is the extent to which we have turned. You don't have to be a genius to see how disobedient we have been! We have written laws to make it legal for men to marry men, women to marry women. We can now murder a baby who is fully developed, 9 months old, whose mother had just given it birth. We recently had a law passed where children as young as three can now decide to change genders and if the parents object to the child's desire they can be arrested and the child removed from the home! We are allowing transsexuals to enter our schools and read stories to four-year-olds teaching them they are neither a boy nor a girl but are whoever (what gender) they want to be. When we forsake the simple rules for living and human existence God laid out at the foundations of the world, we are let go to our own devices. Notice the wording in the Bible ..."GOD GAVE THEM OVER." Giving us over is God's forsaking us wrath and unfortunately, America is now in this phase of retribution. "Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). Forsaking us wrath is a proclivity toward lesbianism and homosexuality.

Also evident of forsaking us wrath is clearly seen in Romans 1:27-29 as a depraved mind, which scripture identifies as a reprobate mind (verse 28). When God slowly pulls back His restraint, you'll see that those who practice the aforementioned, actually approve of others who do the same (verse 32). How many people have you seen marching in the streets, approving one another for the right to kill babies up to birth and even after birth? How many have you seen marching in the streets, approving one another for the right to change their gender and mocking the Creator who made them male and female exactly as HE DESIGNED? "Don't be deceived, God is not mocked," says Galatians 6:7, "For whatever you sow that will you also reap." Whenever anyone or group of individuals violate the precepts of GOD'S WORD, he, she, they, whoever, will suffer the respective consequences. Most assuredly America is facing this form of judgment! Those who persist in sin, even as a whole nation will be given over to tyranny and God will forsake and remove any restraining grace if they fail to repent. God's judgment begins with the house of God first. That's us! We must, therefore, repent ... seek His face, turn from our own wicked ways, THEN AND ONLY THEN will God heal our bruised and dying nation.

America is not characterized by people who are unfaithful to God's precepts, not really. There is only a small minority of individuals who are grossly disobedient and too many of these have been allowed by the faithful to gain high positions of influence in our cultures, education system, media and entertainment, and unfortunately into the halls of Congress in Washington DC. This is tragic! Those individuals who are rebuked by God's forsaking wrath are largely responsible for God's consequential wrath on our nation. Psalm 29:2 states, "When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules, people groan." I don't know about you, but I'm groaning. Today I'm urging you once again to humble yourself, repent of any sin(s) you've committed, pray, seek God's face, turn back to Him if you have slipped away so that God will honor His word and heal our land. God is merciful and He can appoint more time for us to get it right BEFORE the next step which is calamity like we've never seen! The ball is still in our court. In truth, God's "restraint" has been the faithful, praying Christian who intercedes for the world and its sinners as Christ remains in us and is that restraining force maintaining a light in the world. We must not lose heart regardless of every evil thing around us (2 Corinthians 4:16.) May all of us recommit and work toward our own spiritual maturity, pray for the lost who presently hold office, and continue to elect, new, mature believers in order to sow godly policies that will manifest God's blessing upon this nation for years to come. I cannot put an apple back on a tree once it's been plucked but God can!

Until He comes,

-Pat-