And Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people did not answer him a word (I Kings 18:21).

 

Our recent presidential election dilemma seems to be an accurate depiction of the spiritual state of the country. We are divided almost exactly right down the middle. Like the Mississippi River that divides the nation, and continually drifts from one side to the other, public opinion is generally so centrist that the extremes on either side can push it a little to one side or the other. It will then resist the pressure and swing back toward the middle. Is this good or bad?

 

The economic interests of this country consider it a good thing. Wall Street leaders stated that their hope for the election was "continued gridlock in Washington." Wall Street is doing fine just the way things are, so they do not want the boat rocked in either direction. They prospered when one party controlled the White House and the other one controlled Congress. They like the huge budget surpluses, they want them to keep piling up, and they do not want anyone to come with enough influence to start spending it.

 

For the moral interests of America, gridlock seems to be a bad thing, but is it? It can be either a great tragedy, or a great opportunity. It will be a tragedy if the good people of this nation continue to sit back and wait for the government to do what they are called to do. It can be a great opportunity if the good people arise and take the moral and spiritual leadership that they are called to take.

 

My prayers will always be for the Lord to give us leaders who will stand for righteousness, truth, and justice. However, I do not believe that the destiny of this nation, or any nation, is found in its civil government, but in the church. Prayer can accomplish more than any election. One little prayer meeting can have more power than the United States Congress and United Nations Assembly combined. Prayer can move the hand of God in a way that no one can resist.

 

The world has been shocked by just how fragile the government of the greatest democracy in the world has proven to be. The whole nation voted, but it seemed for a while that it would be just a few people who lived in a single county, or even a single local judge who would decide who would sit in the most powerful political office on earth. Circumstances set the stage so that when either one prevailed one half of the nation would feel that they were cheated. That set the stage for one to potentially sit in the most powerful office in the world, without much power. Wall Street may have liked it for a while, but even their prosperity is based on the faith of the people in the system, and that faith was close to being seriously eroded. The result of this shaking was an economic decline.

 

It does seem that much of the remaining morality in America is based more on civic morality than a true faith in God and His standards. The stage is being set for the true heart of the nation to be revealed. We will not like what we see. Many who thought that they had been worshiping the true God will find that they have in fact only been worshiping the idols fashioned by our culture. We are in desperate need for the church to arise with the prophetic resolution of Elijah to stand for the one and only true God, and have the power to demonstrate it. This is not the power of the vote, but the power of the Holy Spirit. As we are told in I Corinthians 4:20,  "For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power." Before the church will be released with this desperately needed power, we too must stop hesitating between all of the worldly opinions.

 

The Lord is not a Republican or a Democrat. He is not coming to take sides, but to take over. He is not going to come back because of the will of the people, but because of the will of the Father. The church in America does not need the ability to win votes, what we need is a return to our true Source of power. Then, as the great apostle declared in I Corinthians 2:4, we too will be able to say "And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." We need the ability to supernaturally demonstrate His power to men so that all who worship other gods can come to clearly understand that He alone is the one true God.

 

My main concern is not the indecisiveness of the American people as much as it is the indecisiveness of the church in America. If the church in America had voted for moral truth rather than their idols, and their pocket books, this election would not have even been close.  The last church that the Lord Himself warned in the Book of Revelation, represents the last day church. "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth" (Revelation 3:15-16).