This word is submitted by Teresa Seputis (ts@godspeak.org)

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                     The State Of The Nation 
                   of the United States Of America

This word is directed specifically at the United States of America in
January, 2004.  Many people have been asking if the United States is
falling under God's judgment.  God's answer is -- it has not been
determined yet and it will depend on the response of the believers
in the nation to their God.

There have been some "words" released that God has already pronounced
judgment on the United States.  Those words are not from God, but
from fallen carnal hearts and minds, mixed in with some second heaven 
revelation of what the devil desires to do to this nation.  Some have 
presumed to speak for God and have released "words" that say the United 
States has already been tried and weighted and found wanting and God 
will punish and destroy her.  That is false prophecy, it is not the 
voice of God.  He has not yet finished His evaluation of the United
States.

However, it could become the voice of the Lord to the believers in the 
United States if they do not make a whole-hearted commitment to His 
Lordship and do not walk in ways and honor and serve and obey Him.

The true word of the Lord to the United States can be found in the
parable of the vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-6.  God has cleared and planted 
a vineyard in the United States.  He has planted it with the choicest 
of vines and provided all that is needful for that vineyard to produce 
a good crop.  Now God is watching and waiting for the harvest.  If He 
sees only bad fruit, His judgment will fall on the United States in 
the from of a lifting of protection or tearing down of it's walls. 
Once His protection is lifted, then her enemies will be able to 
destroy her and trample her down. 

But if the yield is good fruit, then God will continue to protect and 
care for His vineyard in the United States. He will cause the nation 
to prosper and restore her economically. God is looking for a good 
harvest, a crop of good grapes.  His greatest desire is not to judge
the nation of the United States, but to send great revival to it.
He wants to release life and not death over the nation of the United
States.

However, you must understand something very important -- it is not the 
unbelievers that He is watching and evaluating, it is His own people -- 
the ones called by His name.  Their choices, decisions and behavior will
effect what happens to their nation.

Quite frankly, a portion of the crop to date has not been so good. 
His people have not been committed to obey and honor Him.  They are 
walking in unforgiveness, bitterness and strife.  Many have a greater 
concern for their own prosperity than for the Lord's will.  This has 
to change. His people, those called by His name, must become good 
fruit. The next two years, 2004 and 2005, are a pivotal time for 
believers in the United States.  It is crucial to lay aside your own 
agendas and to become very serious before your God.

If you are a good crop, your nation will be spared and blessed. If you
want to become a good crop, you must put aside all strife and contending. 
It is time to forgive those who you have ought against. It is time to 
make a serious commitment to obey God and then to actually walk it out. 
It is time to turn from sin to holiness. It is time to allow God's Holy 
Spirit to convict and to expose areas of woundedness that keep His people 
from serving Him -- then to allow Him to heal you in those areas.  
Believers must stop trying to cover up and conceal their inadequacies 
and shortcomings, they must stop trying to justify themselves.  Rather 
they must come to God in humility, admit their problem, and invite Him 
to change them -- to remove those things from their lives and hearts
and thinking. As His people yield to God in this manner, God will
transform them.

God's people must stop conforming to the standards of this world and
must be transformed to the image of Christ.  Their behavior and their
attitudes must change.  Like Christ, they must see what the Father
is doing and do only that.  Like Christ, they must be so committed to
obey and honor God that they say, "Not as I will, but as You will." 
And they must obey the command to love the Lord their God with all of
their heart and all of their soul and all of their mind.  

This is what God considers good fruit. This is what He is looking for 
from His people. What He finds in them will determine the fate of
their nation.  What will He find over the next two years?