Sept. 11, 2001, was a day that changed America forever. Who among us will ever forget the image of those blazing, crumbling towers? Who could forget the gruesome sight of those who jumped to their deaths from the 110-story towers or the images of ash-covered New Yorkers in the streets? Or the days and weeks of sorrow that followed as the death toll climbed during search-and-rescue efforts?

But has America really changed since that day? Or have we too quickly forgetten and gone back to business as usual?

Rosh Hashanah is one of the highest holy days on the Jewish calendar. God works in times and seasons and never does anything haphazardly. Over the last 10 years since God first launched us into the prophetic healing ministry, I have noticed that each September has been spiritually a significant month for us. It was in September 2002 that our ministry was birthed, and with each September since God has brought a significant change and transition. September marks the first month of the original Jewish calendar, with Rosh Hashanah marking the first day of the New Year. The Jewish feasts and holy days mark important times and seasons in the Spirit. God still works in line with His original calendar.

This is the third and final article from our recent Are You Ready? video series. In the first two articles we looked at how God warns and deals with nations in great sin, then at what God has been saying to America about the economy, natural disasters and what's to come if America does not change. We saw that America is like a prodigal raging down a path of self-destruction. Today we share what we believe is God's solution for America—what it will take to turn our country from its current path of destruction back to God and His restoration.

Editor's Note: This short but noteworthy prophetic word about the recent riots across England is from Sharon Stone, European apostle for Christian International Ministries, an organization pioneered by Bill Hamon of Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. She relayed this message to Hamon upon being asked what the Lord was showing her about the volatile situation.

"Due to the imminent collapse of society, we regret to announce we are closing at 6 pm tonight." This notice was written on a sandwich shop window during England's riots and looting. Here we have natural prophetic voices and spiritual prophetic voices blending throughout this disorder, declaring a broken society where an entitlement mentality based upon excessive benefits has led to criminality.

 Editor's Note: Ken Malone shared this prophetic word with us, which was given during a recent meeting in Tampa, Fla., and judged to be for America and the American church. It is about the ending of a season from June until the end of September 2011 and of the Lord's ekklesia entering a new era beginning in October that will position the church for the future.

June through September 2011 are finishing months—months in which the body of Christ must finish well. Beginning the first of October (which is Rosh Hashanah), we will move into a new era.

By the time many of you receive this, Congress may have found a solution to the current debt-ceiling crisis. The immediate danger may be averted—temporarily.

The real issue, however, isn't the budget, the debt ceiling or anything else, as much as it is a philosophical battle over the direction of the country. This is the root of the intransigence and increasing bitterness exhibited by both parties.

In March of this year, approximately a week after the earthquake in Japan, I abruptly awoke at 1:23 a.m. I did not give it much thought, until I again suddenly awoke at precisely 1:23 a.m. the very next night. Knowing that the Lord was speaking through this prophetic sign, I carefully examined all the 1:23, 1:2-3, 12:3 and 123 scriptures in the Bible. I discovered in the 123 verses a clear prophetic message to America. The first thing that caught my attention was that two of the 123 scripture passages in the Gospels proclaim a sober message to prepare the way of the Lord, by making a straight path for Him.

There are three basic categories of Christians. The largest group consists of people who, though they try to avoid the darkness in the world, have no hope that the world can be redeemed. Assuming Christ's return is imminent, they retreat into what seems a shelter of apathy concerning the non-Christian world around them. Yet most are not truly apathetic. Their souls, like Lot's, are vexed by the conduct of unprincipled men (2 Pet. 2:7-8). Their compassion, though, is kindled even if it's limited. Rarely do they extend themselves beyond the needs of their immediate family and closest friends.

It is interesting to me that one of the greatest states in our Union, New York, has recently made legal the marriage of two people of the same sex. There is a lot of sin in the world, and along with God I am against all of it, to include any that may operate within me.

However, when something as profound as this happens in our nation and I barely hear a peep from people who call on the name of the Lord Jesus, that scares me.

 In the aftermath of the devastation of 9-11, coupled with the series of severe and destructive hurricanes, historic Gulf oil spill, wars in the Far East, uprisings in northern Africa and the Middle East, and the devastating earthquake in Japan all happening in just the last few years, one is prone to ask many questions. In times of uncertainty, the “why” question appears in its many forms. But perhaps the question to be asking is not just “Why?” but “How?” 

 How are we to respond in such times? Difficult times come–whether it is in our own lives, or in a family, church, business, city or even nation.

If you are reading these words, then you’ve probably already chosen this day whom you will serve. But could it be possible that there are yet things you need to put away in order to truly worship the Lord in spirit and in truth and love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind? I submit to you that it is possible, and for many of us even probable.

Many people who have experienced a spiritual dream may write off the event as some type of weird result of eating too much pizza before retiring for the night. Some believers even have the attitude, “Well, if God wants to show me something, He can just show me!”

This brings up a good point: Why can’t the Lord just show you what is going to happen without using all the strange symbolism often accompanying a spiritual dream? I believe I have found an answer to that question.

Editor's note: Pentecost is Sunday, June 12. In this article, the late Art Katz, a Jewish believer whose prophetic and teaching ministries were internationally recognized, tells why some of the biblical promises about Pentecost have not yet been fulfilled for Israel.

“And it shall be in the last days,” God says, “that I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind [alt. ‘flesh’]; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy.  

 And I will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke.  The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come.  And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:17-21).

Don’t look back: Three words that together make up what I believe is a timely prophetic utterance for the body of Christ in this hour. Let me write them again: Don’t look back.

Many are carrying hurts and wounds from the past. We don’t shake them off and come up higher because we keep looking back to the people and circumstances that crushed our hearts. Instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to use the injustice to propel us to places of greater authority in the kingdom like Joseph did, we rehearse our past in our own minds like a scratched CD.

As God’s children, we never have any reason to fear. If we stay close to Him, that will always be true, no matter our circumstances. Our Father is good. Our Father is loving. Our Father is more than we could ever expect. His goodness extends into all areas of life—including the battles we find ourselves in.

When we are attacked, some of us prepare for the long haul. We build fortresses and walls and settle down for a decade-long siege. We do not realize and perhaps aren’t open to the possibility that there is goodness even here, in the midst of hardship.

 What’s coming in the next few years? There’s bad news and there’s good news. The prophet Amos in ancient times brought a set of indictments against Israel that read very much like the sins of America and the Western world.

1. They rejected God’s law (Amos 2:4). In many ways too numerous to list here, so have we.

2. They believed in lies concerning false gods and demonic philosophies (Amos 2:4). The list of deceptions in modern times is long and spans a range of doctrines and philosophies, from open theism taught in the church to post-modernistic philosophy dominant in the world around us. The former denies the foreknowledge of God and, by extension, the fullness of His sovereignty; the latter writes God out of the equation altogether. And those are just two examples.