City Transformation: God's Plan for Spiritual Impact! America, the Beautiful? Ask anyone on the streets of America's cities and you'll most likely receive the same answer: "America is the greatest nation on the face of the earth!" Despite attempts by terrorists to cripple America's pride, patriotism has never been stronger. The flag has never flown higher. But there is more to this story. Beneath the sabre-rattling there is a storm raging in the heart of America. "Alcoholism, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, abortion, homosexuality, school violence, child abuse, pornography, rape, robbery and murder pervade our nation. America is drowning in wickedness and immorality. By all measures, this storm threatens to erode the moral and political foundations of America" (source: Wake Up America, Inc.). Church closures, ministerial failures, court rulings, hostility to public prayer, the removal of public Christian symbols and the growth of paganism and occult: All of these are indicators of a desperate need for more than a revival. We need a national great awakening. Pastors are crying out for help. City officials are bewildered. Is there hope for our cities? For our nation? For our families? For our churches? The answer may be very simple, even unsophisticated. However, in our complicated and educated culture we may have difficulty believing that something so profoundly simple could change a nation! The answer is prayer! In II Kings, Elisha comes into Jericho carrying the mantle of the freshly translated prophet Elijah. The elders of the city meet the newly anointed prophet and describe their dilemma. "This is such a pleasant place," they declare. "But the water is bad…and there is no fruit." In fact, the water is deadly. People are dying from drinking it. Why? Why would you ever call any place "pleasant" that was barren and offered deadly water? How could one live in such a place and put their family at risk? For over forty years, America has been spiritually barren. There has been no discernable net growth of the Christian church in America. There has been little fruit. And the spiritual/moral water of the nation--the media, the pop culture, the music industry, the movies, the video games--is now so bad that our children's moral and mental health are at risk. We have lived through a moral revolution. Or should we say, devolution? This is not the same nation it was some half a century ago. And yet this land--America--there is no place like it on the face of the earth. It is such a pleasant place! We can no longer allow the beauty of the land, the love of country, the inspiration of our past to anesthetize us. This will not be a pleasant place, in terms of religious liberties and moral order, if we do not see a significant spiritual and moral awakening…and soon! Elijah ordered the men, "Get me a vessel, pour salt into it, and take me to the source of the water in the city!" Pouring salt into the spring, he purified and healed the waters abating the spirit of death among the people and releasing new vitality in the land. God is today saying, "Get me a vessel!" The spiritual change we must see always begins with a man or woman on his knees, crying out to God. It begins with someone like John Knox who cried, "Give me Scotland, or I die!" The church is not the source of the spiritual water in our cities, it is only the channel. The source of spiritual and moral life comes from deep inside men and women whose personal lives in God allow them to become rivers of fresh, new life into the city. The church is simply the medium. "Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water," Jesus declared. If our cities are going to be changed, they must be changed one Christian at a time, beginning with the pastors of the city, until the dry streambed of our congregations is again at flood stage, and a river breaks forth into the city. ProjectPray    P. Douglas Small, President P.O. Box 1245 · Kannapolis, North Carolina 28082-1245 Phone: 704-938-9111 To send us an email, click here! Site Design by Eric Wilbanks Return to top