PROGRAM SUCCESS – JANUARY 2009
PAGE 27
Where are my people?
By Pastor Leon Bing
North Jacksonville Family Worship Center
Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I
will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NLT)
This is one of the most quoted verses of scripture in the church
today. However, there is a question that I believe God is asking, that
is, “Where are my people?” I have been grieving over this thought
now for the past few months. Here in Jacksonville, Florida we have
been seeing our murder rate on the rise, traffic homicide on the rise,
and many other crimes, again, on the rise!
Both statewide and nationwide crime is just totally out of control.
And not only is the crime rate so high, but it is how most of these
crimes are committed that just blows my mind! Recently we have
heard about a father throwing his two sons over the balcony of a hotel
then jumping himself…, to a mother who has murdered nine, yes nine
of her new born children and placing their bodies into flower pots in
her yard! Sound like a Hollywood movie doesn’t it. Unfortunately it is
not, these occurred within the past month.
It was a recent murder here in Jacksonville that inspired me to not
only write this article, but to minister this word at several local
churches in town. And I plan, as long as the Lord permits, to continue
to minister this word. There was a 13 year old girl that was killed by
a bullet that went through her room as she was reading a book. She
was around the 62nd murder victim in Jacksonville this year. And had
she been watching television, playing with her doll, or doing any other
thing, she would have been just the 62nd victim. We would have
grieved just as bad, but she would have only been a number, (her family and friends excluded). But because she was reading a book, the
very next day, the Mayor, State Attorney, Sheriff, FBI, Dept. of Justice, and several other agencies held a press conference to address the
murder rate in Jacksonville.
Well there have been two different groups of ministers that held press
conferences to announce programs that they were starting. One was a
revisited program. There are Para-church organizations that also have
started programs to address the issues relating to the crime and other
social issues here in town. This is the question that I have, “Where are
the people that God is looking for?” In other words, where is the call for
the body of Christ to “humble themselves and pray and seek my face
and turn from their wicked ways”? Because it is then and only then
that God will hear from heaven and heal our land! Programs are good
in there proper place, and yes many are benefiting from “grant money”
received for these grants, but the solution to the problems that we are
facing is only found in one place, 2 Chronicles 7:14
I continued to search the scriptures to find out more of what God
was saying to me, and it was revealed that we were in the midst of a
drought in the land. A spiritual drought!
Let’s take a quick look at a passage that will show us the state of
the people of God in the nation today.
Jeremiah 14 (NLT)
1 This message came to Jeremiah from the LORD, explaining why
he was holding back the rain:
2 “Judah wilts; her businesses have ground to a halt. All the people sit
on the ground in mourning, and a great cry rises from Jerusalem.
3 The nobles send servants
to get water, but all the wells
are dry. The servants return
with empty pitchers, confused
and
desperate,
covering their heads in grief.
4 The ground is parched
and cracked for lack of rain.
The farmers are afraid; they,
too, cover their heads.
5 The deer abandons her
newborn fawn because
there is no grass.
6 The wild donkeys stand on
the bare hills panting like
thirsty jackals. They strain
their eyes looking for grass to
eat, but there is none to be
found.”
7 The
people
say,
Pastor Leon Bing
“LORD, our wickedness
has caught up with us. We
have sinned against you. So please, help us for the sake of your
own reputation.
8 O Hope of Israel, our Savior in times of trouble! Why are you
like a stranger to us? Why are you like someone passing through
the land, stopping only for the night?
9 Are you also confused? Are you helpless to save us? You are
right here among us, LORD. We are known as your people. Please
don’t abandon us now!”
This drought that we face is a spiritual drought as I stated earlier. I
know you would not think that we were in a spiritual drought in the
land with all of the programs and conferences and revivals that
churches are hosting just about on a weekly basis. But heed this warning! Just as Sampson shook himself and knew not that the Spirit of
God had departed from him, so does the churches in the land that are
in a state of having programs and conferences and in some cases
revivals, and God is not there! I’ll give you a minute to let off the
steam. Okay, with