I live in the United States of America but, what I’ll be saying here could be true for any nation if we consider the simple concept of what we are seeing.

Any person that follows me or reads things I write already knows that I love to take Biblical stories and bring to life spiritual points that are relevant for us today. I believe that God, through his spirit placed the stories in the Biblie for us to see spiritual aspects of what is happening. We must allow God’s spirit to open our understanding into these things. I also believe that we can see the whole unfolding of the Church we speak of today in the Book of Genesis. We do that by just applying the spiritual aspects to what we read.

So, let’s go to ( Genesis 12:1&4 ) to see if we can find ourselves.

( Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: ) Now, let’s skip down to ( verse 4 ) So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

As most people know and understand, we are speaking of Abraham here. I want you to know that we will go all the way to ( Genesis 17 ) before God recognizes Abram as Abraham. Why is this significant? As we build this I pray I can make the spiritual application that will help each born again believer see exactly where we need to go ( as believers ) in our spiritual walk.

I ( verse 4 ) we see that Abram ( took Lot with him ). Didn’t the Lord tell him to ( leave his kindred )? We’ll look at this and lay the foundation of every believers salvation and spiritual progress, if any. To begin with, the name ( Lot ) means ( Veil ) such as a piece of cloth a woman wears to protect or conceal her face. Therefore, let’s say that this verbal exchange between God and Abram was the very day of his salvation. Lot, and the fact he went with Abram is a picture of the fleshly body that was ( a veil over the very spirit of God that lived within him. On the day of every person’s salvation, we have the very same ( veil ) over the very same spirit.

As we move foward here, let;s see what happens. If you will read ( Genesis 13 ) you will see where there became ( a strife ) between the people of Abram ans the people of Lot. Therefore a seperation came. Abram didn’t want any strife so, he said, let’s seperate. Can you see the ( spiritual growth ) of Abram here? He is ( shedding his flesh ) just as every born again believer has to do.If you will read in ( verse 9-10 ) Abram gives Lot the choice of which way he would go. Now, look at ( verse 10 ) And lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plains of Jordon, that it was well watered every where,

You can continue to read here but, Lot chose the easy way, we might say. Two things here, our flesh will always make that choice, what we can see with our eyes, also we see the spiritual development of Abram. willing to take the least travelled road. As you continue to read though, you will see that God’s spirit continues to speak to Abram. Can you see anywhere God ever speaks to Lot?

I made mention of Abram’s name changing to Abraham in ( Genesis 17 ). This is a picture of the day that a born again believer totally surrenders to the Spirit of God. On that day, God calls each of us by a different name. If I use myself as an example. This is what I would say. When I was born again; my name was Marshall Clayton. As I grew spiritually and, one day totally surrendered to Christ, my name became Marshall Christ. I know that is in theory but, that is the picture we are seeing.

If you will continue to follow that life of Abraham you will notice he is still not perfect. He makes bad judgment calls even as a man that is seeking to do God’s will, so do I.

Our Churches are filled with people of all sorts, from people that are not saved to being absolutely sold out to the cause of Christ. As we follow the fleshly life of Lot, I’d like to show you what ( I believe ) to be the problem we have spiritually in our land today.

I often contend that I’m not a teacher, no man is.We are simply vessels that are willing to seek to share truth. It’s the Spirit of God’s responsibility to teach each person that is bnorn again. As I say the things I say about Abram and Lot and, the things they do then you must allow God’s Spirit to help you decide whether I’m right or wrong.

The whole idea of revealing the things I seek to reveal here is to bring us to the place where Lot and his wife are told to leave Sodom by the two men sent from God. Everything I’ve said to this point is to simple show you spiritual growth or, the lack thereof.

So, let’s go to those scriptures ( Genesis 19: 26 ) But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. You can read this whole chapter and allow the Spirit of God reveal things to you but, I’ll focus on simply Lot and his wife. This is where I’ll seek to bring to light where we are spiritually today.

If we go back and study some in ( Genesis 18 ) we will see that God actually revealed to Abraham his intent to destroy Sodom before he sent the angels to do so. Abraham argued a case not to destroy it because of righteous people there but actually could not find even ten righteous people. However, believe it or not, Lot was seen as righteous. ( 2 Peter2:6-9 ) And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; ( 7 ) And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: ( 8 ) ( For that righteous man dwelling among them, and seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds; ) ( 9 ) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

According to what we are seeing, Lot was seen as a righteous man. Although he didn’t look very righteous. As far as I know, even though Lot was seen as righteous, we don’t see any good thing that came out of him. As a matter of fact,; in the last part of ( Genesis 19 ) we see where both of his daughters were ( with child ) by their father and, their families were seen as not serving God, you can study that fact out.

We also see that his wife was turned to a pillar of salt. ( I wonder ) if that event hadn’t happened to his wife, is it possible that both daughters and Lot would have looked back as well? Did fear of what would happen to them stopp them from looking back?

We live in a world today where it so much world in our Churches that we actually see very little movement of the real Holy Spirit. When did this begin and, just how deep does this problem go? God the father is a man of his word. He would not allow Lot to be destroyed with the unrighteous. However, I can see how that this, in itself, became a problem.

Where many people make their mistake is not recognizing themselves as being sinners or simply not being transformed into all God desires for his people to be. In other words, you don’t see yourself as being as bad as Lot living in Sodom. You don’t get drunk and have children by your daughters. The truth is that your complacency is still sin in God’s eyes.

Notice this; can you see how that if God would have allowed Lot, his wife and daughters to die with the ungodly then Moab or the children of Ammon would not be here at all? ( Genesis 19: 34-38 ) Let’s say as a father to children and, a husband to your wife, you decided thirty years ago not to be obedient to the Holy Spirit of God. You had a very spiritual pastor in your Church that preached with conviction and, was seeking to see the Church he pastored, the Church you are a member of; transformed into all Christ desired for it to be. However, you didn’t like what he was preaching and, refused to become more like Christ.

Therefore, you became like Lot. In Lot’s case his servants began to have strife with Abram’s servants. You and, you family had strife with God’s family and, a seperation came. Yor sought the easy way. The Church you now are a member of, the same Church is full of the world and God is not welcome there. It looks good but, the very Spirit of God has been dismissed.

Now, consider Lot’s wife. She was turned to a pillar of salt. What if we consider this exodus by these two angels of God and Lot’s family a type of the rapture. Are you so content with this world, although you say you are born again that if the rapture took place you would be looking back, longing for the things of this world? Just like Lot’s wife? She was turned to a ( pillar of Salt ). Look at this : ( Matthew 5:13 ) Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under by the foot of men.

Every born again believer has enough salt within them to salt the entire earth. Look at how much Lot’s wife had? But, it was completely usless if it is not shaken out of the shaker. It’s just a pillar of worthless salt. Now, we can debate all day about ( the righteousness ) of Lot’s family. We can even consider their exodus from Sodom a type of their salvation however, if what they or, we call salvation is not used for God’s glory, what good is it?

If you choose to study out the lives of Abraham and Lot; you will find that they both had equal opportunities to seek and do God’s will. The both had plenty of resourses to work with. We can see failures in the life of Abraham but primarily his desire was to walk with God. Right on the other hand, Lot chose a different path to the ruining of his family.

I personally believe it’s all relative. Whether we are speaking of ourselves after the rapture or, our lives after we are saved. How much we are willing to die to ourselves after we are saved is totally related to how we will stand before God, after the rapture.

All this is speaking of each of us as individuals but, look at us a a nation! The Unitied States of America was founded on Biblical concepts. I’m sure if we go back and look at what those people then believed, we would probably disagree with some of their spiritual views but, the principles they governed themselves by were spiritual in nature. Were they all honest and God fearing, no they weren’t but, our laws were based on truth and Biblical standards. To put this in respect to ( salt ); the power of God through and by those that believed ( sprinkled upon this country ) salted our people to the place that even those that didn’t believed understood the importance of the power of God.

As a nation, we have forgotten where our laws and power came from. Most of our Churches have lost the savor of the ( salt they once had ). Can you see how Churches could be considered to be ( Salt shakers ) scattered all across this country. The problem ! Most people, starting with the pastor of the average Church are more like Lot and his family rather than being like Abraham. This is not something that happens quickly. Just like Lot starting out with good intention, then, choose the easy road and, ended up in Sodom.

As we study scripture, all the way back to Adam, there’s always been a ( Godly Line ). Abel, Seth, Noah Abraham, Jacob and so on. The picture we see is a choice. When we, as a nation made the choice to walk away from God then, we end up in Sodom. Now, let’s consider something. Let’s say that God will help us as a nation to get out ( of Sodom ) or, from the spiritual condition we are currently in. You might say it has nothing to do with the Spirit but, I beg to differ, everything we do has to do with our spiritual walk.

As I’ve stated. look at what Lot and his daughter did once they were free of Sodom. ( they created their own Sodom ). If God choose to help us now, would we be willing to rethink our spiritual walk? We look at what we call the ( Deep State ) in our Country. Well, guess what? Our Churches are filled with the same ( deep state ) mentality. It doesn’t matter whether you are Methodist, Catholic, Baptist, Assembly of God or any other religious organization, that ( deep state ) desires to maintain control of what they have.

Therefore, even if you defeat the political ( Deep State ), unless you are willing to defeat the religious ( deep state ) we lose as a nation. I personally believe that the spiritual walk of any family, Church or nation has to begin within the heart of the individual and, grow from that point. Do we have a problem with that? yes, we do. Why? because it becomes a ( catch 22 ). The spiritual backsliding of a nation cause the political corruption of any nation. Once any people walk away from the Godly aspect of our lives and, lose the political stands then, it becomes very hard to ever bring it back to the place it once was.

In closing ( on a personal note ). I don’t believe it’s too late for our country. However. ( 1 Peter 4:17 ) For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Can we get ( the deep state leaders ) of our Churches to yield themselves to the Spirit of God for the greater cause?

( Psalms 9:17 ) The wicked shall be turned into hell. and all the nations that forget God.

In our nation ( the United States of America ), if its ever been a time when every born again believer, every spiritual leader must yield to and, listen to the Spirit of God, it right now in this time in history. We must forget about money, popularity, power, influence and completely do what God’s Spirit tells us to to. If we, our Churches, individual believer are not willing to seek God, stand for truth and righteous even if it cost us all we have then, this nation will forever be led by a spirit other that the ( Holy Spirit ). Actually, it is now led by another spirit but, that doesn’t mean it can’t be changed ( now ) but now is the time we must stand.

If we think we can sit on the sidelines and not exhault Jesus Christ, right now, bring him back to front and center, then we lose. Our true worship will forever be ( behind close doors ).

( Joshua 24:15 ) And if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Joshua made this statement about he and his household. I take the same stand about me and, my household. As far as Joshua, he alone didn’t make much difference in his nation. My stand alone won’t make much difference in our nation but, if we all stand together then, God’s will prevail. We must return to the old paths of righteous living.

Marshall Clayton

2 Timothy 1:7