The Famine Has Begun (Excerpt)

Behold the days are coming when I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, but a famine of hearing the word of God.

God's plan for either shaking a nation, redeeming a nation or warning a nation has always been the preaching of the word of God; it has always been God sending a preacher.

Surely the Lord will do nothing but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets. God said to Jeremiah, "Behold, before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee to be a prophet unto the nations." And then later, Jeremiah could say, "The Lord touched my mouth, and He put His words in my mouth." When God wanted to reach Jeremiah's generation He touched his lips, He put a word in his mouth, and God delivered the Word thru the prophet.

Now, in every generation God has raised up and set aside chosen vessels. These have been touched with the burning coals from the fire of the altar of God. God has put His word into their mouth, and He has sent them out, and He has used this principle ever since the beginning. Remember, God has no other plan, God has no other alternative, He has no other plan to save or warn a nation, a people, or a society other than sending a preacher. He sends men of God anointed to preach His Word.

In Genesis 6 and 7, we hear God saying of that generation, "The end of all flesh has come before me for the earth is filled with violence thru them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth."

Now here is an entire society about to be annihilated. Here is an entire society that is going to be wiped out. Men and women, children, cattle, the whole society is going to be annihilated. The end of all things is come. What is God's plan? How does God send mercy? How does God deal with this last generation? He sent a man. He sent a preacher. The scripture says Noah, a preacher of righteousness, 2 Peter 2:5.

He didn't send a politician to try and legislate some false piety to bring the people back to God. He didn't send a poet or an orator to try to play on their emotions. He didn't send a strongarm general to try and raise an army and to try and force some sort of morality on the people, dictate morality. He raised up a preacher of holiness, a preacher of righteousness and for 120 years this man went from city to village to town. He went everywhere preaching, not just judgment, the Bible says he was a preacher of righteousness.

Yes, he warned, he built an ark. This man was moved by the fear of God the Scripture says. And a preacher who is moved by the fear of God is not much a motivator of success. He's not much interested in self-esteem. He doesn't preach hype. He doesn't preach politics. He is moved by the fear of God. He knows his generation is dying and going to hell, so this man stands and he preaches righteousness. That generation had no other call. Had no other effort from the hand of God other than God sending a man with a message.

I want you to get that principle in your mind; we are going to see it further as we go. This is the way God has been working from the beginning.

When the wickedness of Nineveh came up before the Lord, He determined to destroy that entire population within a set time, 40 days after the time that his servant had arrived on the streets of Nineveh. And what does God do? This generation is doomed. This generation is about to fall under judgment. What is God going to do? Is He going to work thru a politician? Does He work thru legislators? Does He work thru poets? Does He work thru attorneys? Does He work thru any other form? No! He sent a preacher by the name of Jonah, a Jewish preacher.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah saying, "Go to Nineveh that great city and preach against it, for its wickedness has come up before me."

You know the story. Jonah flees to Tarsus, ends up in the belly of the whale. But God has no alternative plan, God has no other plan. He says you are going to go, you are my only plan. Spits him out of the belly of the whale, sends him back. The Scripture says the word of the Lord came the second time unto Jonah saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh and preach it the preaching that I tell you." Nothing else but a man walking the streets.

Crowds gather. This man is not preaching hype. He's not trying to win their favor. He doesn't care what they think of his preaching. They are about to die and go to hell. This man says you got 40 days and you're dead! Forty days and it's over! You talk about hard preaching! You talk about tiptoeing around sin -- No! This man did not tiptoe around sin! He said it bluntly, frankly and put it to the point -- you are going to die, judgment is coming, you have 40 days! That was God's only plan. . . .

Then Paul is raised up and Paul says, "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Paul makes it very clear, unmistakably clear, that when God is about to judge a nation, when God is either about to bless with a revival or He is about to send judgment, He uses preachers. He raises up men of God that have been shut in with Him, He gives them the message, He anoints them, they come forth fearlessly from the presence of God, and the Scripture, according to Paul, says God hath, in this time, manifested or revealed His Word thru preaching. That's Titus 1:3.

Now, let's talk about our time. Let's talk about this present generation.

As I see it, if there was ever a generation that needed straight Holy Ghost warning, convicting, soul-stirring preaching, it is this generation. It is our time. We are far more perverted than Sodom. We are far more violent than Noah's day. We are far more wicked than Nineveh could have ever conceived to be. So if ever a generation needed the Word of the Living God, it is today! We need powerful preaching, more than any past society. We need a smiting conviction that smites the heart. Instead, sad to say, what we most need we are not getting in the United States. Instead, we are witnessing a famine of hearing Holy Ghost preaching.

I say it again, God's only plan is thru the preaching of His Gospel. That was the plan for Christ's generation, for the apostles' generation. That's the plan for this last hour. Folks, it's not thru politics, and everyone running around the country who tells me we are going to organize, we are going to legislate holiness, you don't know your Bible! God raises up anointed, fearless prophets and preachers of His Word to bring a nation, a generation to their knees! Or to harden their hearts before judgment comes!