Just released on Jonathan Cahn's facebook page, Transcript of the key note address Presidential Inagural Prayer Breakfast. Bolded text by me.
Hope
https://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/j...ress-jonathan-gave-at-the-pre/558000007557020
THE MESSAGE
TO AMERICA
JONATHAN CAHN
jdc©2013
THE PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURAL
PRAYER BREAKFAST
KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
January 21, 2013
Members of the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast Committee, Senators, Members of Congress, Governors and government representatives, Ambassadors and delegates from other nations, ministers and people of God, friends, and media
We are gathered here in Washington DC, America’s capital city, on January 21, 2013, the morning of the Presidential Inauguration, with one agenda and one purpose, to come before the Lord and in His presence to seek His face and pray for His blessing, His will, and His purposes to be accomplished for this nation, for its government, for its leaders, for its president, and for its people. And it is fitting that we do this on this day which more than any other represents the future of our nations. We are here to inaugurate God’s own purposes.
We’ve come here from every part of this land and from every background and persuasion to stand before the Almighty, Who transcends politics, movements, and men, and before whom kings and kingdoms rise and fall. Presidents change, political parties come, from ages past, and go, and nation’s ascend and descend, but we come before Him who changes not but who remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. We come before Him, before whom men and women, kings and prophets, peoples and nations have come to seek His face in troubled times. We come to pray for America.
But how do we do that? How do we pray for America? Do we pray for riches, for power, for the success of our national agendas? The Scripture tells us that God hears the prayers of His people. But that we must pray according to His will. If a man has a terminal disease, we don’t pray for an increase in wealth, we pray for healing. And if a city lies in danger of destruction, we don’t speak flowery words, we sound the alarm. We pray for blessing. But true blessing only comes in the will of God. So we must pray according to that will. And we must not be afraid to speak the truth. We must give voice what must be spoken. We must sound the alarm that must be sounded. We must address what must be addressed. And so this message will not be politically correct, nor will it be political. It will be biblical. It will be true. And wherever it falls, so be it. I will not hold back. And if I offend you, I apologize but I cannot apologize for offending you. Without truth, there is no love. On a day that so embodies the future course of our nation, it is critical that we must both pray and speak what is true.
In ancient times, there was a nation known as the kingdom of Israel. It had been founded on God’s word, dedicated to His will, and consecrated to His purposes. And God blessed it with prosperity, power, security, peace, and a place at the head of nations. But the people of Israel made a fatal mistake, in the midst of their blessings, they turned away from God. They began to remove Him from their lives. Step by step they ruled Him out of their culture, out of their government, out of their economy, out of their public square, out of the instruction and lives of their children, they ruled Him out of the kingdom. They would still at times invoke His name but it was increasingly hollow and meaningless. They had made themselves strangers to the God of their fathers and their foundation.
And as God was driven from their lives, they brought in foreign gods and idols to replace Him, gods of sensuality, materialism, violence, idols of wealth, carnality, and sexual promiscuity. They abandoned the ways of God, the laws of God, the standards of God for immorality. As the prophets cried out, they now called evil,’good,’ and good, ‘evil.’ What they once knew to be immoral, they now celebrated, and what they once knew to be right, they now warred against. It was a culture turned in upon itself, a civilization at war against the very foundation on which it had been established. And the righteous, who simply remained true to what they had once all known to be true, were now vilified, marginalized, mocked, labeled ‘intolerant,’ increasingly banned from the public square, and, ultimately, persecuted. The nation’s culture grew increasingly vulgar, godless, and darkened. They now defiled, ridiculed, and blasphemed the name of God. It was as if a spiritual amnesia had overtaken the kingdom, as if they had never known God or His ways. And they descended into the darkest sins of the nations which surrounded them. They offered up their children as sacrifices to the gods, on the altars and fires of Baal and Molech. And they now stood under the shadow of judgment and in danger of destruction.
And God called out to them, to return, to come back, to be saved from destruction. He sent to them seers and prophets to wake them up, to call them back. But they wouldn’t listen. They mocked the prophets and persecuted them. And they hardened their hearts. And finally something happened that brought them into the first stage of judgment.
But there was another civilization that was likewise founded on God’s word, dedicated to His will, and consecrated to His purposes, from its very inception – America. Those who came to these shores four centuries ago to found a new civilization did so by dedicating it to God, committing it for His purposes and glory. America was to be a city on a hill, a civilization to which others would look. It was to be a holy commonwealth. And so they modeled it after Israel of the Bible. They brought forth its first governments in the name of Jesus and for the glory of God. They established its first school system for the purpose of teaching the Word of God. And they foretold that inasmuch as America would follow in the ways of God, that God would bless it, that it would become the most powerful, the most prosperous, the most blessed nation on earth, the head of nations. And it would all come true.
America would become the most blessed nation on earth, a refuge for the world’s exiles, a light for the world’s oppressed, a beacon against the dark forces of tyranny which threatened to engulf the world. America was blessed with prosperity, power, security, peace, and a place at the head of nations. America was blessed as no nation in history had ever been blessed.
But something happened to the city on the hill. As the people of ancient Israel, in the midst of their blessings, committed a fatal error, so have we. We too have, as a nation, turned from God. We, too, have removed Him from our lives. Step by step, we, too, have ruled Him out of our culture, out of our government, out of our economy, out of our public square, out of the instruction and lives of our children, we, too have made God a stranger. And though we still at times invoke His name, it rings increasingly hollow and meaningless. We have made ourselves strangers to the God of our fathers.
And as we have driven God from our national life, we have brought in other gods and idols to replace him, gods of sensuality, materialism, violence, idols of wealth, carnality, and sexual promiscuity. And as did Israel, so, we too have abandoned ways of God, the laws of God, and the standards of God, for immorality. The nation that was established to bring the Word and light of God to the world, now fills the earth with pornography. We too now call evil ‘good,’ and good, ‘evil.’ And what we once knew to be immoral, we now celebrate, and what we once knew to be right, we now war against. American culture has become turned in upon itself, a civilization at war against the very foundation on which it has been established. And those, who simply remain true to what had always been known as true, are now vilified, marginalized, mocked, labeled ‘intolerant,’ and increasingly banned from the public square, and, ultimately, persecuted.
We have now reached the point, this day, that a minister was driven out of the public square, barred from praying at the inaugural service for the simple reason that years ago he preached a sermon simply saying what the Bible has always clearly said regarding sin. It is a new America in which one can be banned from the public square simply for believing the Bible, where profanity it treated as holy and the Holy as profane, a new America where the Bible is treated as contraband and nativity scenes are seen as dangerous.
Our culture has grown increasingly vulgar, godless, and darkened. We too now defile, ridicule, and blaspheme the name of God. It wasn’t that long ago that American television closed its broadcasting days with sermons. Now our televisions and computers screens are filled with word and images once unimaginable and God and Jesus have now become objects of comedy and mockery. It’s as if a spiritual amnesia has overtaken the land. The Lord asked Israel, “Can a nation forget its God?” And yet Israel forgot. And now we too have forgotten. America too has forgotten her God.
And we too, as a nation, have partaken in the darkest of sins. Tomorrow is also a milestone of history. Tomorrow marks the fortieth anniversary of the day that America legalized the killing of its unborn children. Israel offered up thousands of its children. America has offered up millions. Fifty million souls are not here today. Fifty million people will not be here, watching or cheering at the inauguration. They’re silent, for their lives were legislated out of existence, even from this city. And in order to hide the magnitude of our moral descent, we redefine words and change their meanings on this and other sins. And yet a thousand apostate ministers swearing on a thousand Bibles will not change a jot or tittle of God’s word. Though silent, they cry out in bearing witness to the darkest of our sins. And God hears them. And as He spoke through the ancient prophets to Israel, so His words now echo down to us, “When you lift up your hands to be in prayer I will not listen. For your hands are covered with blood.”
The city on the hill has grown dark. Its lamp has grown dim. Its glory is fading. For God is not mocked. No nation can war against the very source of its blessings and expect those blessings to remain. And as it was with ancient Israel, the city on the hill now stands under the shadow of judgment.
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How does judgment come to a nation? After defying all of God’s calls and warnings, the nation of Israel would experienced something unprecedented. It was the opening stage of judgment. God removed one of Israel’s blessings. Years before the nation’s destruction, He allowed its hedge of protection to be lifted. He allowed an enemy to make a strike into the land. It was a wake-up call to avert national destruction. Nothing else would reach them. The strike was limited and temporary. The nation was now given a period of time to turn back to God or enter into judgment.
This first opening biblical sign of national warning and judgment is this initial removal of the nation’s hedge of protection. So it came to pass in America on September 11, 2001. It was on that day that we witnessed the nation’s hedge of protection removed. An enemy was allowed to make a strike on the land. As with Israel, the strike was limited and temporary. It was a wake-up call. And for a short-time it looked as if America would wake up. It looked as if we were on the verge of a national revival. People flocked to churches and spoke of God. And then, a few weeks later, it was all over. There was no revival. There was no change of course. America continued down it course of spiritual departure from God but did so now with even more fervor. Eleven years after 9/11, the nation stands not closer to God, but much farther away.
As I saw the smoke rising out of New York City that day, and then as I stood at the corner of Ground Zero, a revelation began coming to me. The revelation would take the form of a book called The Harbinger. The Harbinger was release last year and from the first week of its release it’s become a national best seller, spreading across the nation and even into the Halls of Congress.
The revelation of The Harbinger is this: There exists an ancient mystery that lies behind everything from 9/11 to the collapse of the American economy - A mystery so precise that it actually reveals the actions of American leaders before they take them, the exact words of American leaders, before they speak them., a mystery so exact that it gives the dates, even the hours of some of the most dramatic days in recent history. In the last days of ancient Israel, before its destruction, nine harbingers, nine prophetic signs of national judgment, appeared in the land. Those same nine harbingers are now reappearing on American soil. Some have appeared in New York City. Some have appeared in Washington, DC. Some have involved the highest leaders of the land, even the president of the United States and they touch every realm, the political, the economic, the cultural, the spiritual, and affect every American and every American’s future.
The harbingers are revealed through an ancient Scripture, the vow that Israel made after that first strike of warning. It appears as Isaiah 9:10. Instead of repentance, they responded to the warning with defiance. They said this: “The bricks have fallen. BUT we will rebuild with hewn stone. The sycamores have been cut down, BUT we will plant cedars in their place.” What they were saying was this: “God, you won’t humble us, you won’t cause us to return. We will continue on our course. We will continue to abandon your ways. We will defy you and even more than before. By our own efforts, we will rebuild and come back stronger than before.
This vow of defiance would seal their fate and usher in their destruction. And it’s the key to nine harbinger of judgment. We don’t have the time to even begin to open up the mysteries of the harbingers except to say that they are all manifesting now to America, and to touch on just a few.
The Fifth Harbinger, the Stone of Judgment. For this to manifest, a particular kind of stone must be chiseled out of mountain rock and placed on the ground of destruction, where the strike occurred. Three years after 9/11, the Stone of Judgment appeared and was lowered onto the pavement of Ground Zero where a ceremony took place, with American leaders pronouncing vows of defiance over the stone.
The Sixth Harbinger, the Sign of the Sycamore, a biblical warning of national judgment. For this to manifest, a sycamore must be struck down at the ground of destruction. In the last moments of 9/11, as the last tower came crashing to the ground, it sent forth a shock wave and a beam that strikes an object. The object was a tree. The tree was a sycamore. The Biblical sign of national judgment - the sycamore was fallen.
The Seventh Harbinger called in Hebrew – the Erez. This sign of judgment appeared in the sky at the corner of Ground Zero two years after the calamity.
The ninth harbinger, the vow of judgment itself, the vow of bricks and sycamores, as recorded in Isaiah 9:10. It very utterance in the last days of ancient Israel, would lead the nation to destruction. For this harbinger to manifest, an American leader would have to proclaim the vow of judgment from the capitol city, and it would have to be linked to the attack, to 9/11. If you see this happen, know that it is a stunningly clear sign that your nation is under judgment.
On the day after 9/11, the United States Congress gathered on Capitol Hill, the same place where the inauguration will happen, to give America’s response to the calamity – just as ancient Israel had presented its response to its calamity in Isaiah 9:10. The man appointed to speak for the nation was the Senate Majority, Tom Daschle. He makes his way to the podium and presents the nation’s response. At the end of his speech, the words of the ancient vow that brings national judgment come forth from his mouth. He says this: “there is a passage in the Bible, from Isaiah, that I think speaks to all of us at times like this. “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone…” He then speaks of the tree that is struck down. He speaks it without even realizing there is an actual tree that was struck down and just discovered that day. He speaks of the stone of judgment that is to be placed Ground Zero, which will come to pass three years after he declares it. He has no idea what he’s doing, but the vow of judgment is pronounced. Israel’s fatal vow becomes America’s and is recorded in the Annals of Congress.
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And it is ominous. It will set the nation’s course. It will lead to the next national shaking, a shaking that won’t involve buildings, but the implosion of American power itself, the collapse of the American economy, a collapse that still affects everything we do. In The Harbinger it is called the Second Shaking. And behind this second shaking, this economic implosion, likes a stream of still more ancient mysteries. We don’t have the time to speak of these except to mention this one mind boggling reality.
There was a day given in the Bible, called on the Hebrew calendar, the 29th day of Elul. Once, every seven years, on that date, Elul 29, the nation’s financial accounts would be wiped away, all accounts of credit and debt, wiped away. It was originally meant to be a blessing, but as Israel turned away from God, it became part of a judgment, a sign for a nation that had driven God out of its life, and pursued idols of wealth, a sign that strikes that nations financial realm.
The peak of the collapse of the American economy took place at the end of September 2008. On that day the Stock Market crashed 777 points. It was the greatest crash in Wall Street and American history. When did it happen? The greatest collapse in American history took place on the 29th day of Elul, the exact day given in the Bible to strike a nation’s financial realm and wiped out its financial accounts, the sign given to a nation under judgment.
But Elul 29 is part of a seven year mystery. What happens if we go back seven years from that greatest crash in American history? It takes us to September 2001, the month of 9/11. But something else happened that month – the other greatest Stock Market crash in American history up to that date. And when did that take place? The other greatest Stock Market crash in American history took place on the exact same Biblical day, the day appointed to wipe away a nation’s financial accounts – the 29th day of Elul. The two greatest crashes in American history up to those days – both took place on the exact same biblical day, on the one day appointed to strike a nation’s financial realm, a sign to a nation that has driven God out of its life. And as according to the ancient mystery they each took place exactly seven biblical years apart to the exact day, and the exact hours. And there’s a prophetic mystery here, a prophetic warning, that if America does not return to God, that American prosperity and the American age itself will come to an end.
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Since The Harbinger was released, that which was foreshadowed within its pages, is actually coming true. The harbingers and mysteries haven’t’ stopped, they’ve continued to manifest. In fact one of them took place this year and involved the president who is about to be inaugurated into office. And one of the mysteries in The Harbinger, something called The Mystery Ground, actually involves this day, the inauguration, or rather the first inauguration of which this day is a continuation.
It was the day that America as we know it came into existence, April 30, 1789. It was the day the nation’s first president was sworn into office, the inauguration of George Washington. Washington placed his hand on the Bible and then gave the first ever presidential address. And in that speech, on America’s first day as a fully-formed nation, is embedded a prophetic warning. He said this:
the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation
on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which
Heaven itself has ordained
What was he saying? He was saying this: America’s blessing are based its relationship with God. If America ever disregards or forgets or turns away from the eternal rules of order and right, the laws, the precepts, the standards, and the ways of God, if America ever departs from these, then the blessings of God will be withdrawn from the land. This is the prophetic warning embedded in our national foundation. And it is coming true in our day. We are now witnessing America disregarding the eternal rules of order and right which God has ordained. And the warning is, that if we do so, then the smiles of Heaven, the blessings of God will be withdrawn.
When judgment came to Israel, the destruction returned to the same ground where the nation had been dedicated to God, the Temple Mount. The calamity returns to the nation’s ground of consecration.
After Washington gave that prophetic warning, he and the nation’s first Senate and House of Representatives, all proceeded on foot from Federal Hall, the place of the inauguration, to a site especially chosen for the nation’s first government to pray and dedicate America’s future to God. And that’s what they did on that first inauguration on America’s first day as a formed nation – they prayed and committed the nation’s future to God. That was the nation’s consecration ground.
If we can find out where that ground is, we will have a mystery. Where did it take place? It happened in the nation’s capital. But the capital then was not Washington, D.C. It was New York City. Where? The place where they dedicated America to God on its first day as a nation, America’s consecration ground.. is .. Ground Zero. America was dedicated to God at Ground Zero. The ancient mystery, the calamity returns to the nations ground of consecration.
And it was on that ground that the harbingers appeared. It was in that soil of America’s consecration that the sycamore grew and was struck down. And on 9/11 a shock wave went forth from Ground Zero and struck an object, Federal Hall, the very place where Washington was sworn in, and where he gave that prophetic warning of what would happen if America ever turned away from God. It struck the foundation of America and put a crack in the foundation of that foundation.
And all around Ground Zero, every building was ruined or destroyed… except one. Which one? It was the little stone chapel inside of which they dedicated America’s future to God. And why was it protected? It was protected because there was an object outside the chapel which absorbed the full force of the calamity. The object was the harbinger. The sycamore. You see, the purpose of the harbingers are not to consign a nation to judgment, but to awaken it to redemption. For in 9/11 America was brought back to its ground of consecration. It’s a message of return, for the voice of God is calling this nation to return, in prayer, in humility, in repentance, in hope.
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And here we stand today on the 21th day of January 2013, in the capital city, on the same day, the continuation of that first Inauguration day. And on that first inauguration, they gathered together in prayer and consecrated America’s future to God. And here now we, who are of that future, for whom they prayed and consecrated the nation, now come together, on that same day, likewise in a gathering of prayer before the Almighty.
We stand here, centuries later, in witness to God’s hand of faithfulness and blessing on this land. But we stand here also in witness to the fact that America has done exactly that of which, on that first day, we were warned never to do. We bear witness that we have turned from His eternal ways of order and right. We have turned and are rapidly turning away from His face.
And that is why it is so crucial that we have gathered here, in this place, and on this day. For very shortly, the president will place his hand on an object… the Bible. And I say to you, Mr. President, we have come here to pray for America, for its government, for you, its leader, and for its future. We pray for your blessing and for your prosperity in the will of God. For only in God’s will can we ever know true blessing. The answer is not found in the agendas of man, but in that on upon which your hand will rest, upon the Word of God. For everything else will pass away, but the Word of God will abide forever. And so it must be asked, with respect…
Can you lay your left hand upon His word and then with your right hand enact laws against it? Can you invoke the name of God to assume the presidency and then use the presidency in any way to endorse that which clearly wars against the ways of the God you invoke? Can you stand in the city name after our first president, and perform the act that he first performed on that first day, and ignore the warning he gave on that day to the nation. Can you do all that and disregard the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained. Can you utter the words ‘so help me God’ if you should in any way take part in helping to lead a nation away from the God whose help you invoke.
We pray for your blessing in the will of God. For if a nation that once knew the Almighty is called to return to Him, then so too must the one who leads it.
You will hold in your hand the Bible of Abraham Lincoln. But do you not know what Lincoln said and did. In the midst of the darkness that engulfed his land, a darkness he saw as the righteous judgment of God, Lincoln issued a call to the nation to return. Abraham Lincoln said this:
It is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon
The overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in
humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead
to mercy and pardon; And to recognize the sublime truth, announced in
the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
And, insomuch as we know that, by His Divine Law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?..
We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us….
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness…”
So Lincoln sent forth this call for America to repent, to return to God, and to seek His mercy. Soon after the call went forth, the tide of war would begin to turn and would ultimately lead to national healing.
The words of Abraham Lincoln ring out to us today – those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
Has this nation now grown so far from God that we can’t imagine a president doing so today? Mr. President, if you look to Lincoln as your model then dare to follow him in his actions.
For all the politics, and all the parties, all the inaugural balls, and all the voices of political correctness, and all the sounds of applause will grow still and silent, and we will all, we will each, stand before the Almighty. And it will not matter then how many votes we won or praises we garnered– only this – were we faithful to Him and to His word.
The voice of Lincoln now cries out to us and pleads, ‘Let us humble ourselves, confess our national sins, and pray for forgiveness.’
As it is written and promised in the word of God:
If My people who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.
We have come here on the 21st day of January 2013, to the capital city on the day of the Presidential Inauguration, for that purpose, to humble ourselves and pray, and to seek His face, and to turn from our evil ways.
The time is late. The hour is critical. A great nation proceeds in rapid spiritual descent. And the signs of warning and judgment are manifesting in the land. The shadow of judgment is upon us. And for those who would be ask “How, in light of judgment, can one be saved, or safe?” We give this answer - The word in Hebrew for safety and salvation is Yeshua. Yeshua is the name which we know in English as ‘Jesus.’ Outside of Him there is no safety. But inside of Him there is no fear. It was for Him and in His name that this nation, this civilization, this city on a hill, named America, came into existence. And it is only to Him and in His name that its problems can ultimately be answered. He remains the answer, the light in the darkness, and the hope when all other hopes are faded and gone. And to all who come, He will receive. And He calls out ‘Come.
For all you who dwell in darkness, it’s time to come. And you will not be turned away.
And for all you who know Him, for you His people, it is time to put away any shade of darkness and compromise – and take up the mantle of your calling.
It’s time to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world you were called to be, in truth, in power, and love. It is time to light up the darkness.
It’s time to be strong. It’s time to be bold. It’s time to be radical.
The watchmen are crying out, and the trumpets are sounding.
And the voice of the Lord is calling to this nation, and saying “Return,”
And calling to His people and saying, “Return,”
Let the word go forth. Let the power of God be seen in this land. And let revival burst forth like a mighty river.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord
Prepare the way of the Lord
Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God
Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill shall be cast down
The crooked way shall be made straight
And the rough way shall become a plain
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed
And all flesh will see it together
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken
Kumee Oree Ke Vah Oreich
Arise and shine for your light is come
And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you
And nations will come to your light
And kings to the brightness of your rising
In the name above all names that are named
Yeshua Ha Mashiach, Jesus the Messiah
The King of Kings
And the Lords of Lords
The Light of the World
The Hope of America
The Lion of the Tribe of Judah
And the glory of His people Israel
AMEN & AMEN
