What in the World is happening in our country, our world, and our times? We have had some turbulent, disturbing, and troubling times in the last several months to say the least. I’m sure like me many of you have been wondering, what in the world is happening to our world? Why is this all happening? How could this be happening? We are in a state of bewilderment and bafflement. It seems inconceivable all these riots, looting, killings and great disruptions of chaos and confusion which i
s camped all around us has followed right on the heels of a pandemic from which we have barely recovered. The senseless acts of hate, the criminal acts of violence and the abundance of injustices seems to be raining down on us daily. What in the world is happening? It seems we have more questions than answers today.
I’m not here to give you political perspectives, social injustice perspectives, and/or racial perspectives, as I feel very inadequate in doing so. However, I will attempt to give you some of God’s perspectives as I sense Him at this time.
Without doubt, we are all witnessing and experiencing firsthand a great and rapid decline in culture, a decline in law and order, a decline in social order, and a decline in God’s principles and ways. As well, there’s a clear and rapid decline in justice, righteousness, mercy, and truth. With all of these declines, which seem shocking and surprising, it really is nothing new. Conversely, what is new is the acceleration of these declines and the widespread rage, anger, lawlessness and great anarchy. Great harm has come to many lives, families, businesses and communities. Quite honestly, in my opinion, I believe, we have all fallen short in this time of great pain of injustices in individuals, families, churches, communities, the law, and the government to some degree.
Psalm 89:15 – Your throne is founded on two pillars – the one is Justice and the other Righteousness. Mercy and Truth walk before you as your attendants. Blessed are those who hear the joyful blast of the trumpet, for they shall walk in the light of your presence.
(TLB: Paraphrased)
These two pillars of justice and righteousness are essential and vital for ALL lives individually and corporately and throughout our world. Justice and righteousness play a huge role in God’s heart, and He desires for each one of us to live and abide in the place of justice and righteousness. These are His standards and His requirements – no ifs, ands or buts. Our God is a God of Justice for ALL mankind and He is a God of Righteousness for ALL mankind and they partner together and will always be side by side in God’s heart and ways. Righteousness is God’s moral standard to what He holds as right and wrong and will hold man accountable to those standards. Justice is equality and impartiality of God’s moral law in society and He wants BOTH – He wants to protect ALL LIVES with His Justice and Righteousness.
Spiritually speaking, we have ALL wandered away from God’s value system which has led us to this very tipping point of great calamity and tragedy.
Being in the inner-healing ministry and working with lives that are broken, shattered, and in pain, seeing hearts that are hardened because of injustice and unrighteousness, I can emphatically say, all of us as human beings are trapped in our patterns of hurt, pain, and brokenness. In our lives of brokenness, we walk out sinful behaviors and patterns, as well as unresolved issues within our hearts. Those unresolved issues of the heart, that inner core pain, will manifest one way or the other as we are viewing daily in the news.
John Sandford once said, “The strongholds of lawlessness, individualism and “rights” have eroded the conscience of mankind (especially corporate awareness and care) and sadly, the conscience of the Church as well. That has caused people to think that whatever they do is private and does not affect others. We are corporate, which is first and foremost a fact of our existence, not just an attitude. Everything we do either blesses or affects others. We have not understood that our sins provoke the God of justice. Every sin violates others, no matter how secretly done. That means no matter how much our Father wants to, and does forgive individually, forgiveness does not do away with the need for justice which is, by definition, not individual but corporate.”
“For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
(Mark 7:21-23 NIV)“The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it?”
(Jeremiah 17:9 NRS)
As human beings, every one of us carries the stain of sin that was handed down by Adam and Eve. Man is corrupt, evil, and depraved. The truth and reality of our hearts are deceitful and untrustworthy and left unchecked, or if given an opportunity to express itself, will bring devastation, pain, and ruin. The human heart knows no race, no gender, no color, and no creed. At the very essence of our heart lies selfishness which demands its own way. What we do and what we say is a product of our 
heart and all our actions, attitudes, and desires are conceived in our heart. I can say as I watch the news, I see mankind’s heart bleeding literally and figuratively in much pain and in much need of God’s healing love of justice and righteousness for ALL LIVES . . . There is not one person today that has gone unscathed in what is happening, the young, the old, white, black, Latino, Christian, and non-Christian.
Keep vigilant watch over your heart;that’s where life starts.Proverbs 4:23 (MSG)
Your heart is the common ground where God and you meet. It’s the place where forgiveness is cultivated, where faith first takes root, where love grows, where hope blossoms, where mercy reaches fruition. Your heart is God’s greatest gift to you. It’s also your most significant responsibility. My question is “How are you keeping watch over your heart in these days?”
With the swirl of COVID-19, racial tension, peace protests and anarchic riots, disagreeable politics, and economic uncertainty, it is so much to take in and digest. Structures are surely overloaded in our systems: government, police, communities, churches, schools, and families. Hence, this would be a perfect time to realize we need an intervention—an intervention of a God who is most willing and most able to come and heal our hearts, our lives, and our nation from these enormous difficulties. Only He has the true solution and resolution for our hearts, our families, our communities, our nation and our government.
This is a very strategic time; I believe the Father is giving us an opportunity to evaluate our heart condition so that we can take stock of our family’s, community’s, and nation’s condition. The question is not how to move past this time but how can we ALL move into a place of truth, honor, and healing?
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (AmKJV)
Our government, lawmakers, police, and protestors (peaceful ones and anarchist) are unable to resolve these issues without our Creator, without our Savior and Healer. A greater virus than COVID-19 is ravishing our lives and that virus is an unredeemed heart, a hardened heart and a heart in great rebellion both individually and corporately which demands its own way for power and control.
As I started out in this article, I said I was coming from God’s perceptive, so it is there that I will try to sum up how we can try to move forward in these places both individually and corporately.
First, we cannot leave God out of this picture at this time of history. We must start with God and first know our identity in Christ, not our class, our culture or our race, but know our identity in Him as a Christian, as a son or daughter of the most high and holy God. Tony Evans said, “God racially profiles us in Heaven – if we are white, black, brown we will be white, black and brown for all eternity.” Embrace who you are in Him and move from that perspective before any other perspective.
Next, understand what these social injustices are. Do some homework and dig deep into the complexities of racial matters and do not just take things at face value because many hide behind the “Right Wording of Organizations.” Black Lives do Matter, just as all other lives matter. Understand what the organization is all about. Do your due diligence. Be in conversations across the aisle so we can see through other’s eyes and step into empathy and compassion. Remember, Jesus stepped into the arena of our troubles—He cried with those who cried and rejoiced with those who rejoiced.
Billy Graham wrote:
It’s true that terrible social injustices need to be righted, but this is NOT the whole problem. We will never reverse or turn around the moral leanings without a Spiritual Awakening . . . We must realize that while the law should guarantee human rights and restrain those who violate those rights, whenever people lack sympathy for the law, they will not long respect it even when they cannot repeal it. When the center of our trouble is dealt with . . . then and only then will we live with each other as brothers with brothers.
Thirdly, we need to see our nation back under God. We cannot go forward and see change unless we come to Christ and see Him as our true source of healing in our nation.
Finally, understand personal and corporate strongholds which are automatic, practiced, habitual ways of ungodly thinking that all have a life of their own, seeping out and spilling over to others further harming ourselves and those around us. We see these corporate strongholds controlling groups, masses, and even nations. Even good-hearted Christians can be affected with personal and corporate strongholds. It robs rational thinking, robs free will, creates tunnel vision, and most tragically, blocks out the Word of God. We are fighting a spiritual battle against mental strongholds and the principalities that wield them.
Here is a protocol that we can follow: The way God intended to see social injustices working in all lives is first with ourselves, then the family, the church, and then our community. There is a beautiful system God has already designed and created and shows us how to live in this world with all our differences. Fathers need to come to the table and live out and role model what a father is and how to live righteously and proactively being the priest of their home in godly character. In addition, churches need to be proactive in being agents of healing and change. Do not let race overrule God’s law and order. The church needs to talk, walk, and service these places of pain and be expressions of love in motion with one voice.
We are all hurting at this time. Remember, “hurt people hurt people,” but healed people heal people. Be an agent of healing in your life and in the lives of others.
Dear Lord,
Reveal the presence of these strongholds of __________ (for example: racism, addictions, communism, Marxism, extremist “rights” movements, self-righteousness, abortion, etc.) for they are blocking my thinking and keeping me from knowing Your truth. Show me, Lord, how I have participated in these patterns of thinking and behaving. I confess I have _________ (describe participation of thought, word or action), and I ask Your forgiveness.
Lord, show me the destruction and the cost of the damage that I have caused to those You love or to those around You. Lord, open my eyes of understanding and to see what You see. Lord, I repent of the hurt I have caused You, myself, and others. Write on my heart the pain I have caused You and others, so I will
not repeat these thoughts or behaviors.
Father help me in processing and identifying the bitter roots which made me vulnerable to these streams of thought and 
behavior. I commit myself to doing all I can to restore relationships with You, those I love, and those in my community. Lord, I ask you to wash me, and keep me hidden in You so I am no longer seduced by these strongholds. I renounce these thought patterns; I renounce behaviors accompanying them. I choose to imitate Jesus Christ and submit my mind to the working of the Holy Spirit.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
These are uncertain and fearful times we are living in … until we get our eyes back on Jesus and God’s infallible Word. Then we know where our hope comes from. And we can more clearly see that people are like sheep without a shepherd (Matt 9:36) so desperately looking for a savior who will lead them to righteousness and justice in this lost world. More and more we grasp that everyone needs the Gospel—the good news that the Savior has already come into the world, bringing salvation, everlasting life, along with healing and renewal to every heart and mind. He is able to destroy the strongholds that control us, setting us free to be born anew. This is what Freedom House Ministries (FHM) is all about—bringing Christ’s healing to believers, and even non-believers, who share their hurt and pain with us.
Thank you for making that happen on an almost daily basis as we counsel. Your financial gifts and prayers humble us and keep us doing what God has called FHM to do over these many years. Please place a check made out to Freedom House Ministries in the mail to Freedom House, c/o The Andersens, 3217 Scoville Ave, Berwyn IL 60602-3546. Or you can give online through our website using PayPal or your own personal credit card at freedomhouseministry.com and choose “Make a Donation.” Also, on our website check out our Schools tab where you’ll see that we will resume Course 201 & 202 in September. We would love to save a seat at the table for you!
With an Overflowing Heart of Gratitude,
Mari Anne Andersen
Director, Freedom House Ministry