Monday, November 15, 2010

"To Proclaim Liberty To The Captives"

The American Indian people are a small remnant of hundreds of thousands of indivdual and distinct nations that once thrived across the North American continent. Their ancestors not only suffered humiliating defeat, but were nearly annihilated by the ethnic cleansing policies of white Europeans who sailed across the Atlantic seeking to colonize what became known as the New World.

What began in 1492 with the Italian-born explorer, Cristoforo Columbus, whose treachery against the indigenous peoples of Hispaniola began when he discovered their access to vast amounts of gold, culminated in the nineteenth century with Manifest Destiny, or the belief that it was the divinely sanctioned right of the white man to expand across the American continent, to dominate the land from sea to shining sea, while actively murdering thousands of Indians standing in their way. Meanwhile, the United States Government managed to find a way to break nearly every treaty they ever made with the different Indian nations, swindling them out of their land, and destroying their way of life forever. By their very actions and through words spoken over them calling for their demise, the government bureaucrats cursed the American Indians.

"For the wicked in pride and arrogance hotly pursue and persecute the poor... His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, oppression, (fraud); under his tongue are trouble and sin, mischief and iniquity." Psalm 10: 4, 7

I believe this spiritual curse against the Indians is the primary reason for the unprecedented levels of terrible poverty and despair on many Indian reservations today. Native people are too often the victims of violent crime, and many suffer from addictions to drugs and alcohol. The rate of suicide is higher in the Indian communities than anywhere else in the United States. Many native communities are beset by serious health issues. Type II Diabetes and Heart Disease are rampant due to poor diet and alcoholism. The federal government's answer to Indian poverty was allowing the tribes to open up casinos on their reservations. This has not only brought gambling to Indian Country, but an increase in fraud and political corruption within certain tribal business councils.

After the American Indians were forcibly uprooted and exiled from their ancestral lands and pushed on to federal reservations, there came upon them yet another plague of sorts, a "conversion movement".


Conducted by self-professed Christians, these deceitful religious groups' primary motives were not only steeped in religious pride and church legalism, but a greedy desire to take even more lands away from the Indians.

"With our tongues we prevail; our lips are our own to command at our will, who is lord over us?" Psalm 12:4

These groups believed the best way to deal with saving the Indian's soul was to "kill the Indian, save the man" while destroying Indian families by forcibly taking children away from their parents and putting them in specially designated "Indian Schools". Many of the children placed in these institutions were the victims of terrible cruelty inflicted by sadistic instructors determine to indoctrinate them into accepting the ways of the white man.
Bereft of the love and compassion of God, and the leading of the Holy Spirit, these schools were nothing more than religious indoctrination camps which produced a bitter harvest of broken spirits filled with hurt and rejection, and generated a great degree of hostility and suspicion towards Christianity in Indian Country.

God loves his native children. This is why He sent His beloved Son, Yeshua, into the world, so that none may perish.



"To grant consolation and joy to those who mourn in Zion...to give them an ornament of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a heavy burdened and failing spirit...that they may be called oaks of righteousness, lofty, strong, and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice , and right standing with God, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." Isaiah 61:3

Believers need to stand together in prayer for the Indian communities of America. We need to ask the Lord to raise a mighty army of indigenous brothers and sisters, purchased by the blood of the Lamb, and led by the Holy Spirit, to trample the spiritual strongholds that have prevented true revival from taking place, and allow them to witness the Gospel message of love and forgiveness; to be a light for Christ to those languishing under the mantle of spiritual darkness.

"And they shall rebuild the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former desolations and renew the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations." Isaiah 61:4