ISSUE 412

JUNE 29TH 2011

Prophetic Brief
Insight and Analysis for the 21st Century Anatomy of a Nation in Decline - Part 4 Patriotism & the Prophetic

New Video Series

As the nation heads into the 4th of July weekend and celebrates everything red, white & blue, I think it is fitting to deal with the issue of patriotism, a subject that goes back deeply into my personal history. I grew up in military base housing and my family moved quite a bit as my father, an Air Force pilot, was transferred to various posts around the country. In 1966 he received orders for a years detachment in Vietnam where he was KIA Killed In Action. In light of my personal history, these prophetic briefs highlight the question: How can those of us who live in America reconcile our patriotism and love for our country with Gods prophetic purpose? My father enlisted in the Air Force when he was only 17, and in those days you didnt need a university degree to become an officer. He did well as a pilot and was promoted to captain, and along the way he met my mom and they had four boys in quick succession. His assignment was in Strategic Air Command (SAC); their job was to keep nuclear armed bombers in the air 24 hours a day in order to launch a swift strike against the Soviet Union or its proxies. This was in the height of the cold war and for six years my dad was stationed at Homestead Air Force Base south of Miami, FL a strategic location in the Cold War as Cuba served as a proxy for Soviet interests in the region. His primary role was to fly a re-fueling plane that had a boom that could be lowered to transfer aviation fuel to another plane in midflight, allowing B-52s and other planes to stay airborne for extended periods. A KC-135 refueling a B-52 in mid-ight It was while we were living in Miami that he received orders for a one year tour of duty in Vietnam, and six weeks after arriving in country he crashed into a mountain near An Khe in the Central Highlands, killing the entire crew and 10 of the 28 people aboard. It was later determined that flight controllers inadvertently flew the plane into the mountain because their settings were wrong. A fellow pilot flying a twin aircraft and making the same approach that day recounts: It was during the monsoon season and the weather was terrible as we approached the base the clouds were low and we couldnt see the runway. I didnt trust the inexperienced ground control and I chose to dive through a sucker hole a hole that opens in the clouds but can just as quickly close and leave you worse off than before. Your dad never saw the mountain in those clouds and was probably killed instantly.
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We are living in an unmatched time in the earth; a time when crisis is erupting through natural disasters, political destabilization, and economic meltdown. Politicians and religious leaders are all weighing in on these events, but they dont seem to have the answers to a world in intense distress, and are rightly wondering:

What in the World is Going On?

In this series of Prophetic Briefs, Scott Webster addresses questions that are on peoples minds, and brings prophetic perspective to the events happening in the earth today, so that we can stand effectively in a day when so many things are falling apart. View the full six episodes in the series What in the World is Going On at scottwebsterministries.org.
2011 SCOTT WEBSTER MINISTRIES.

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Jeremiah 12:5 (NIV)

If racing with mere men-these men of Anathoth-has wearied you, how will you race against horses, against the king, his court and all his evil priests? If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in Jordan's jungles?
The plane struck a large mahogany tree and the fuselage was split down the middle about 1/3 of the way back. One of the first soldiers to the crash site, arriving out of breath from running up the mountain, said that the pilot my father was not found for four days even though he was still in his seat because the sheet metal had folded around him. His funeral included military honors, the flyover of aircraft in a missing man formation and a 21 gun salute. A few months later he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Air Force Medals that is our family looking at the medals awarded at a ceremony at Luke Air Force Base outside A young Webster family receiving posthumously Phoenix, AZ in early awarded medals; SW standing to mother's leE 1967. Certainly his death had many negative consequences in our family, and his military service and ultimate sacrifice for a nation at war is part of my personal history. So when people express their belief that the insights given to me by the Lord are based in an anti-American stance it is shocking to me, especially the implication that I am not aware of the price paid for American freedoms, or that I just dont appreciate the sacrifice. The irony is that the demonstration of commitment to the nation was a price paid not just by my father but by the entire family. Not aware of the cost? Not appreciative of the sacrifice? Anti-American? Really?!?!?!? (Maybe I will do a future article on the issues I had to contend with in order to grow and mature, and how God used things to shape and form me. In the meantime, you can page down to see the dedication to my father and to all those who paid the ultimate price for their nation).
2011 SCOTT WEBSTER MINISTRIES.

Can I just insert here that I dont know anyone who h a s i t a s ro u g h a s Jeremiah did? The word that God put in his mouth made people angry, and because God had called him and gave him spiritual authority his words were heard by people and politicians alike. This guy was beaten repeatedly, rejected by priests / politicians / prophets and even his own family, and he spent years in prison but he didnt waver and he didnt get angry and lash out. God required that he not only speak the right thing in the face of massive opposition, but that he do so from a right heart motivation. God does test our hearts and He is looking for a good response. Being prophetic is designed to make us more like Christ.
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Learning from Jeremiah

To be honest when I have heard that kind of response it has made me go to God and check my heart and motivation, and receive wisdom from Him I think that always has to be our first response. One of the primary ways He has ministered to me is through looking at the life of Jeremiah, a prophet called to speak distressing news to his own nation. The guy was Jewish down to his toenails; he was a Levite, his father Hilkiah was a priest as were all of his forefathers going back to the time of Aaron and Moses. Yet the people misunderstood his prophetic ministry and his motivations they thought he was cursing the nation or speaking negative things that werent the will of God. They couldn't understand how he could be a good citizen when he consistently spoke about a foreign power occupying their nation At one point Jeremiah tried to stop prophesying because the leader in the temple had him beaten and put in stocks, and when he got out he was directed to prophesy even worse things to the nation and to Pashur, the guy who had locked him up. It tore Jeremiah up to tell those who lived in houses that they would be carried away as slaves and die in Babylon, and he went to God and complained that whenever he spoke it brought him trouble and pain, but if he tried to hold it back it was like having fire shut up in his bones (Jer 20:9). So declaring the will of God got him in big trouble but holding it back not only made him disobedient, it also completely dsyfunctionalized him. Welcome to the prophetic! Jeremiah had to grow and one of the ways God produced development in him was to help him deal with persecution and misunderstanding. Early in his ministry the men of his own small village of Anathoth (located three miles outside of Jerusalem) tried to kill him because of what he was saying. He complained to God about the persecution and God told him If racing with mere men-these men of Anathoth-has wearied you, how will you race against horses, against the king, his court and all his evil priests? If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in Jordan's jungles? (Jer 12:5). Basically God was telling Jeremiah that he better get used to being misunderstood, wrongly accused and thought of as a traitor to his own nation, because a lot more of that would happen in his future.

Big Geopolitical Movements & the Human Heart

Jeremiah was a prophet in a time when big geopolitical movements were happening in the nations. Babylon had besieged Jerusalem but they withdrew because Egypts armies had been mobilized to fight against them. Two superpowers, one on the rise and the other declining, fought for dominance and the economic advantages that military superiority always brings. Judah put their hope in Egypt but Jeremiah had to tell them Pharaoh's army, which has marched out to support you, will go back to its own land, to Egypt. Then the Babylonians will return and attack this city; they will capture it and burn it down. (Jer 37:7-8). Soon after Jeremiah left the city to check on a piece of property and as he walked through the city gate he was arrested and accused of deserting Jerusalem and being a traitor to Babylon (Jer 37:13). He was on an innocent errand and he protested but they refused to believe him; they beat him like a dog and threw him in prison. Can I just insert here that I dont know anyone who has it as rough as Jeremiah did? The word that God put in his mouth made people angry, and because God had called him and gave him spiritual authority his words were heard by people and politicians alike. This guy was beaten repeatedly, rejected by priests / politicians / prophets and even his own family, and he spent years in prison but he didnt waver and he didnt get angry and lash out. God required that he not only speak the right thing in the face of massive opposition, but that he do so from a right
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heart motivation. God does test our hearts and He is looking for a good response. Being prophetic is designed to make us more like Christ. My heart was tested a few years ago when a good brother in the Lord said he wondered if my fathers death made me angry with the nation; basically the guy didnt like what I was saying about some obvious historical realities and also the future in the nation. I was shocked when he mentioned it, especially because he really is a good guy and he loves God. It made me consider afresh how deeply we can focus on a nation to the point that we cant hear the plain word of the Lord. The two oppositional views I have encountered not aware or appreciative of the price paid to secure American freedoms on the one hand, or angry at the nation for the price paid on the other indicate that we must have a broader understanding of Gods purposes if we are going to interact with Him and be prophetic.

Training Prophets
Those who speak the word of the Lord as well as those who hear it must go way beyond simply interacting with a prophetic gift. If you primarily train a prophets gift but dont ensure they have a correct platform of thought they will end up prophesying falsely. Some wrong platforms include: a) being essentially dominated by rational thought; b) imprisoned by cultural strongholds; c) enclosed within nationalistic mentalities; etc. There is a song about 9/11 I heard the other day and it is a good example of this principle; the chorus goes: Im just a singer of simple songs, Im not a real political man. I watch CNN but Im not sure I can tell you the difference between Iraq and Iran. But I know Jesus and I talk to God and I remember this from when I was young. Faith, hope and love are some good things He gave us and the greatest is love. He talks to God and knows Jesus but apparently God never brought up to him the need to be informed beyond the limitations of his national boundaries. There are many prophets like this artist, prophets with a valid and powerful gift but imprisoned by cultural strongholds and whose view is enclosed within a nationalistic mentality. And the consequences for a prophets falseness go far beyond critiquing a song lyric or how many CDs are sold. We just completed a prophetic training seminar here in Atlanta, and one of the modules in our training is called Core Assumptions of a Nations Prophetic Perspective. Marlon Jameson, one of the leaders in our Congress, designed and teaches this module and one of the mentalities he deals with is The Authority of the Kingdom of God Supersedes the Authority of Nations, using Nebuchadnezzar as an icon for the pinnacle of earthly power and authority. Nebuchadnezzar exuded the pride of imperial conquest and living in a powerful nation caused him to lose sight of the fact that his authority and power were circumscribed. The impact of Gods dealing with Nebuchadnezzar provides a pattern for us as we consider how our prophetic perspective is supposed to impact nations. There are four things that Marlon notes regarding the authority of the Kingdom of God in relationship to nations. Daniel 4:34 At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. 35 All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?" (NIV) a) The understanding required to govern in the earth begins with the recognition of the preeminence of heavenly authority over it. Nebuchadnezzar raised his eyes towards heaven and then his sanity was restored (v 34). As believers we must come to a place of recognition that it is God who is Sovereign over our individual circumstances and history only then can we see the events of the earth correctly or have our sanity restored. To correctly interpret what has happened to us we must begin with God, or raise our eyes towards heaven. We dont begin with our nation, tribe or family. Nebuchadnezzar began with the city he had built and it twisted his perception; life does not pivot around you or me as individuals or around one particular nation, but around the Eternal God and His purposes for the earth. Self-indulgent believers are those who lack prophetic sight because all they can see is self. b) The authority of the Kingdom never diminishes and remains constant through time. I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation (v34) Empires rise and fall but Gods Kingdom is constant and ever increasing. American believers
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need to have their sight reoriented, being too heavily invested in the political and temporary makes us immature, rising and falling with the tides of a nation rather than being fixed to the eternal dominion of our God. c) Earthly reputation carries no weight against the authority of Gods kingdom to impose its regulation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth (v35). We know that God sent His Son because He loved the whole world, so when it says the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing He isnt saying He does not love people. The indication is that His will begins in His own mind, not in the mind and will of a nation or a people. The issue here is getting the ranking order of life correct, an important point for many American believers who think God regards their special place when in fact He does not. He does not bow to any empire or regard a nation as special. d) Gods ruler-ship is complete, unlimited and cannot be restricted by the reactions and protestations of men. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?" (v.35). The implication here is that some would protest and try to stop the hand of God from moving but they will have no success. In the final judgment not only will their efforts have been futile but they will not even be able to question God and ask Him what have you done? That is because everything He does in the nations is good and is filled with redemptive purpose, even if it is breaking a nation down and leading it into captivity. As you spend time with family and barbeque at the lake this weekend, gather to watch fireworks or just hang out at home, let your thoughts turn towards a consideration of His Kingdom, and how all nations are subject to His glorious and perfectly just ruler-ship!

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Releasing The New Prophetic Dimension Activating The Capacity To Build Obeying The Command To Finish 2011 SCOTT WEBSTER MINISTRIES. Page 5 of 6

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JUNE 29TH 2011

IN MEMORIAM

David O. Webster was Killed in Action on October 4, 1966; this edition of the newsletter is dedicated to his memory and to all those who have fought for and served their country sacrificially. My prayer is that we never forget that whether in war or peace, prosperity or disaster, life or death God rules over all and His will and redemptive purpose is accomplished in all. Whether it was in guiding the ascent of a nation to a place of global strength or dismantling that same nation piece by piece, His dominion is eternal.
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. 24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. Isaiah 40:22-24
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