Fulfilling Our Nation’s Destiny–Part 2

–by Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

 

            The fulfillment of our nation’s destiny lies within the hearts of our nation’s believers. God’s justice is dispensed based on what is happening in the hearts of His people and not on what is happening in the hearts of others.  Believers are the representatives within America who carry the destiny that God sees for our nation. 

 

Proverbs 14:34 declares, “Righteousness exalts a nation.” However, the righteousness that exalts a nation is not righteousness as determined by man.  Through the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary, righteousness has been imputed to those who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior. (Romans 4: 22-25): Speaking of Abraham, Paul writes, “And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”  To impute is to assign, to empower, to allot.  When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, God assigns righteous to us and empowers us to live righteously in Him.

 Righteous living is seen in those who honor God by following His ways.  (John 14:15) Jesus said, “if you love me, keep my commandments.”  Through our imputed righteousness in Jesus Christ, we are to live lives that honor Him. Not only does righteous living honor God, but righteous living also brings blessing into our lives. Many blessings come to us because, through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are able to make better choices.  God’s Holy Word has given us a road map to attaining the heart attitude for righteous living.  Joshua, Chapter Five, is only one of many passages of scripture that outline that heart attitude

 

In Joshua 5, the Israelites have followed the Ark of the Covenant across the Jordan River near Jericho.  The conquering of the Promised Land is both historical and spiritual.  The battles represent spiritual battles we must all overcome in order to walk fully in the promises of God in this life.  Israel came out of Egypt with a slave mentality, wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and developed into a nation empowered to fulfill God’s destiny for them.  God prepared them spiritually for the battles ahead.  The first step was consecration. 

 

All those who had left Egypt had entered into a covenant with Jehovah through circumcision.  However, all those who had left Egypt, except Joshua and Caleb, had died in the wilderness.  Although they were God’s chosen, the new generation had not yet entered into the covenant and had to be circumcised as a sign of their consecration unto the Lord.  Consecration comes as we embrace what God has prepared for us and choose to walk with Him in covenant.  Consecration goes hand in hand with biblical regeneration. 

 

“Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17). Regenerated people can testify that things are different now. We have received a new power and pattern for living. Regeneration and consecration bring with them new life, and new desires and new goals. 

 

In the New Covenant, the sign of consecration is baptism. In believer’s baptism, those who have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, enter into the baptismal waters to declare their decision to leave the old life behind and enter into a new life consecrated to our heavenly Father.  (Romans 6:4)

 

It is in that new life consecrated to God that we will become more than conquerors in the chaotic world around us. It is there that believers will, through righteous living and intercession, fulfill the destiny that God sees for our nation. When we believers humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways, God will forgive our sin and heal our land. (2 Chronicles 7:14.)

 

Father, we pray for Your guidance to walk in the righteousness that You have imputed to us.  We covenant with You to leave our old lives of defeat and discouragement behind and to walk in victory in Jesus Christ.

 

Amen.