(While this word is specifically for African American Christians, I believe it should be read and understood by all Christians, especially citizens of the United States of America.)
Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Isaiah 66:8
We all know the story of Joseph. How he was sold into slavery by his own brothers and separated from his father and family at the young age of seventeen. Then, in Egypt he was unjustly accused and thrown into prison. But through it all (thirteen years) God was with him, maturing him while preparing and positioning him to become the number two man to the most powerful king on earth at that time. And that promotion came suddenly. In one day Joseph went from being a prisoner that had been a slave, to being a powerful ruler of the great nation of Egypt.
Because of the position that God placed him in, he was able to save Egypt and the entire region from famine, including his father and the brothers who had sold him into slavery.
As a result, his father and brothers came to live in Egypt, prospering in their temporary home. That is, until a different Pharaoh came to power and became fearful of this people that he perceived to be a powerful threat to Egypt.
We all know the story of how they became slaves in Egypt, living there four hundred years.
It appears history was repeating itself. First Joseph had been a slave. Now his descendants were slaves. But just as God positioned Joseph for greatness, He was positioning Joseph's descendants for greatness.
We also know the story of how God raised up Moses to deliver this people from Pharaoh, at great expense to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The Israelites had travailed in Egypt as slaves, until in one night they birthed a great and wealthy nation, when Moses led them into the wilderness and eventually to the Promised Land.
And this wasn't the last time God plundered the Egyptians to save his chosen people. When tiny Israel won the Six Day War against a much larger, opposing military machine in 1967, they sent the Egyptians walking home across the desert, minus their weapons.
A Recent Historic and Modern Day Parallel
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and are written for our admonition. 1 Corinthians 10:11
Now, I want to speak prophetically about another group of people. There is a definite parallel between the Israelites and African Americans who were brought to America as slaves.
Like Joseph and his descendants, African Americans were brought to America against their will and forced into slavery, travailing for many years under the cruelty of oppression by white slave owners. But like the Israelites, their travailing was not in vain.
When President Lincoln freed the slaves and the Union won the Civil War, it appeared their travailing gave birth to freedom for their race in America. But the truth is, that freedom was very limited, especially in the South, where they faced racial injustice and inequality for many more years; until God raised up a generation led by Martin Luther King, Jr. and others, willing to defy so called white supremacy by taking a peaceful stand against intimidating violence. Eventually laws were changed and greater strides taken to ensure the equality and opportunity that Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. were such visionaries for.
Still, the battle wasn't over. The Federal Government that had done away with slavery and passed laws to ensure equal opportunity in an integrated society, once again enslaved many in poverty with their seemingly compassionate welfare and government assistance programs. But that perhaps is not the worst enemy African Americans have faced in modern day America.
Genocide has taken place in the United States under the guise of a woman's right to choice. While abortion affects all races in America, it has targeted the African American community and as a result, millions of the unborn have been denied the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that the United States Declaration of Independence speaks of.
Is it any wonder that some African Americans seem to have given up hope of ever being truly free?
Recently I heard the Lord say, "Just as I positioned Israel in Egypt, I have positioned Africans in the United States."
The white man saw slavery as a means to prosper. Africans saw slavery as an injustice. But God saw it as positioning a people for greatness.
Positioned for Greatness
Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side. Psalm 71:21
I believe the Christian, African American community in the United States is going to be at the forefront of the next great spiritual awakening in the United States. And it won't be the first time African Americans have been at the forefront of a great revival movement in this country.
In 1906 revival broke out at a house on Bonnie Brae Street in Los Angles, California among African Americans. Quickly outgrowing the house on Bonnie Brae Street, William Seymour, an African American, moved the revival to a renovated stable on Azusa Street and what has become known as the Azusa Street Revival was born. Modern day Pentecostal churches still consider their beginning to be the Azusa Street Revival, which consisted of black and white Americans.
Saints, God has made it clear to me that once again He is going to position African Americans at the forefront of a great move of God that is about to take place in the United States. While this move will include many other nations, and has in fact already begun in other nations, it will propel the United States into a spiritual rebirth that will make this nation, founded on Judeo/Christian principals, once again a great and powerful force to be reckoned with on the world stage. And I might add, and I say this prophetically, we will stand with Israel as never before, our two nations becoming the spiritual and political leaders of the world (we are already seeing this happen under the leadership of the Trump Administration).
I am a white man that was born in the segregated southern United States. I grew up in a world that was full of prejudice and hatred. As a teenager in the 1960's, even before I was born again, I began to see how wrong that was. Since being born again and as God has developed His character in me, I have come to love and respect all races.
While I am not guilty of the sins of my ancestors, I do feel a responsibility to bring healing wherever and whenever I can. Perhaps that is why God has given me this prophetic word for the Christian, African American community in the United States.
In addition to the word I have already shared in this article, I hear the Lord saying this:
You (African American Christians) are about to experience greatness in a measure you have never before realized.
Surely you were born for such a time as this!
Surely we were all born for such a time as this.
And to my African American brothers and sisters I say, not prophetically but out of the character of God that dwells within me, I love you and appreciate you for who you are. And I look forward with great anticipation to who we are all becoming.
The Lord is growing to fullness in His Body, where there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Gentile, black nor white, etc. (see Galatians 3:28-29). We are all one in Christ, Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
So be it!
Lanny Swaim
