"America's Josiah Season"

November 9, 2004

I read this today. I thought it was good.

Chuck D. Pierce
President, Glory of Zion International Ministries
www.glory-of-zion.org
Vice President, Global Harvest Ministries
www.globalharvest.org
 

"America's Josiah Season"
by Ron Wood
Touched by Grace
www.touchedbygrace.org
ron@touchedbygrace.org

Two days after the U.S. election, the Lord twice gave me a Scripture which has two layers of prophetic application. Many Americans prayed in desperation for mercy for America and for God's will to be done in the selection of our president.

"Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke...I truly have heard you..." 2 Kings 22:19 (NAS)

These are the words of a simple prophetess spoken to a repentant king.

Josiah was the king of Judah when the book of the law was found in the house of the Lord. Due to tremendous apostasy and gross idolatry, great moral confusion had gripped the culture and unimaginable neglect of God's ways had become the norm in Israel.


Financial House in Order

From his youth, Josiah walked in the ways of David. In his tenth year of reign (he was only 18 years old) he started setting "things in order" by turning offerings over to the workmen repairing the house of the Lord. He said, "No accounting shall be made with them...for they deal faithfully." He delegated the work and released dedicated funds.

Financial reform is more than just reducing the national debt, or wisely using welfare, or governments eliminating roadblocks to small businesses, but it includes religious affairs as well. In the kingdom of God, we are seeing a return to entrustment of large sums to missional ministry teams led by pioneering catalytic leaders who implement effective transformations. These leaders can be trusted with financial responsibility due to their personal integrity and their proven track record of honest dealings. We need to take a lesson from Josiah: get the funds into the hands of people who can do the work, then get out of their way.

Financial reform started a spiritual reformation, for in the process of doing their job, they discovered the Scriptures. As Derek Prince used to say, "You treat God the same way you treat your Bible." In other words, we relate to God the same way as we relate to His word: either respect it and obey it, or neglect it and thus despise God's rule in our lives.

Josiah's response to God's Word was to humble his soul, tear his clothes, and seek the Lord. He repented for how ignorant and how wrong they had been. Huldah the prophetess answered the king and interpreted the times for Josiah. She revealed God's heart and showed how the Lord had been watching Josiah's reaction to His written word.


Respect the Scriptures

Josiah gathered the people and read them their sacred Scriptures. Josiah began to lead them in a process of national reformation. They tore down their high places, halted gross immorality, desecrated and destroyed the altars to alien gods, cleansed their land of defilement, and reinstituted the true worship of Jehovah. It is hard for us to imagine the depth of depravity their culture had embraced.

Great blessing and prosperity accompanied these reforms. This is always the case when the salt and light of God's superior society -- by living and upholding God's wisdom and God's ways as shown in the Bible -- is injected into any culture. Much later, Josiah foolishly went to battle with an Egyptian force and was killed in an unnecessary engagement. Perhaps the pride of success had gone to his head. But regardless, he had served his generation in an honorable way.

The righteous judgments that were due to Judah as a nation were forestalled for a generation due to the courageous leadership of a great reformer. Josiah took advantage of a season of a revival of values to institute necessary reforms to forestall divine wrath.

By turning to the word of God in repentance and by pursuing what was right (this is faith in action), they preserved the kingdom and blessed the people. In the next generation, sadly, leaders once again turned back to a failed policy of wickedness, immorality, and idolatry. They departed from God's truth and disrespected the consequences of sin. The nation of Judah became terribly oppressed and was then finally carried away into captivity.

God indeed deals with nations, not just individuals. Nations, like individuals, have divine destinies (prophetically envisioned opportunities) that can be achieved or thwarted.

As Josiah went about his process of reforming Judah, he deliberately destroyed the unholy places which had corrupted his nation. In a free society, sinful people will build idols or create institutions or foster movements that are like smokestacks streaming pollutants into the air. These strongholds of sin are often defended by foolish people in the name of liberty or personal rights. In America, some of these smokestacks are labeled "media." They are often sources of lies and deceit: casting spells, belching accusations.

On one campaign, Josiah encountered a memorial. Was it a place of false worship? He asked, "'What is this monument I see?' The men of the city told him, 'It is the grave of the man of God who...proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.'" (2 Kings 23:17) Josiah determined not to desecrate the burial site of the prophets who had spoken against idolatry, saying, "Let no one disturb his bones."


The Bones of the Prophets

The bones of the prophets lead us to the second warning. When God gives a word concerning evil powers or wicked forces that are infecting our religious or national culture, spokesmen who are hearing and declaring God's word, the Lord's agents of change, need to be very careful. They need to be humble and careful to fully obey.

Many a hillside is littered with the bones of the prophets. It makes the soil crusty and hard to plow.

Jokingly, I used to say whenever I saw an old-fashioned country church surrounded by a cemetery with the graves of parishioners, "Those are the graves of the pastors they stoned." Some of that is undoubtedly true. Religious demons can inflame people to act like the devil. But the burial plot Josiah uncovered wasn't of prophets who had been killed by the people, but prophets who had only partially obeyed the Lord and were subsequently killed by God.

Any time a prophet is sent by God and has an assignment to take on, address, or confront an idol, a throne, a principality, or a dominion, or is told to rebuke a demonic horde which has become incarnate in a human being who has authority over people (perhaps a dictator), that prophet is walking into a dangerous place with a very specific mission with narrow parameters of safety. Picture Elijah as he confronted Ahab and Jezebel.

The only safe place for prophets of war is a posture of total obedience from start to finish. Not all prophets are called to engage in such front-line skirmishes. If they do, they need to be aligned with God's generals, apostles of transformation, and they need to be covered by a shield of intercessors.
 

Helping the Redemption of Christ Move from the Cross Into the Culture

The modern Josiahs and the prophets who precede them (or accompany them) are agents of God's kingdom helping the redemption of Christ move from the cross into the culture, beyond individual salvation to affecting degrees of transformation among the nations.

Sunday, I had a vision of Christ on the cross looking down at potential leaders being gathered for "investment" by His mantle. We had just heard of young ministers in Greece being prepared to plant churches and gospel schools in Iraq. I had just read of Chinese, house church leaders sending out missionaries to the Middle East in a "Back to Jerusalem" movement. I thought of the Scripture,

"He stood and surveyed the earth; He looked and startled the nations." Habakkuk 3:6 (NAS)

The eyes of the Lord are still searching for those whose hearts are toward Him. He is still watching to see who will respond with conviction when they hear His word. He is looking from the cross for those who are unafraid of death in order to release life for the nations to be saved.

by Ron Wood

© 2004 by Ron Wood, Touched by Grace Ministry, P.O. Box 12749, Wilmington, NC 28405 USA. Permission to copy provided content and byline are intact. For more resources, visit www.touchedbygrace.org. Write us at ron@touchedbygrace.org. 

 

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