“It is a terrible thing to fa! into the Hands of the Living God” (Hebrews 10:31 NLT).

2011 has witnessed an incredible shaking of many Nations around the World! Unbelievable Uprisings, after decades of controlled peace in many Arab Nations. Daily on the television we are confronted with Nations like Egypt, Libya, Iran etc. being changed, and in all cases people are being killed on the streets. What’s happening? Are we experiencing the first days of the “Last Days”? I can’t answer that question; but I know “all Creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth” (Romans. 5:22) at this very moment in World History.

So what about Australia? You don’t need me to remind you of the incredible Floods, Cyclones and violent weather bringing disaster and damage to property, resulting in the death of so many lives. It has happened throughout the whole Nation and is still happening! After experiencing our longest drought in living memory, now water as never before recorded! I believe the Spirit of Almighty God is disturbing Australians right now in their comfort zones, something Spiritual is happening that will shake our Nation more than we are presently experiencing in the Natural realm. God said in Haggai 2:6-9 “I will shake all Nations”, so, Australia is not going to miss out! It doesn’t have to be violent, with uprising in the streets, but it can shake unbelief, greed, pride and fill the hearts of millions with a hunger and thirst to know the Living God. It happened in England in the 18th Century, when across the Channel, in France all was murder, bloodshed and crime in the Revolution.

In the Bible I’ve discovered a key to why we are being shaken. In 2 Samuel: 21 we read, “There was a famine during David’s reign that lasted for three years, so he asked the Lord about it; and the Lord said, “The famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites”.

Now, the Gibeonites must rank among the most despicable people ever mentioned in Holy Scripture. They deceived and tricked Joshua into Vowing before God to grant them security to live among the Children of Israel (Joshua 9). Before God, this Vow could not be broken; but King Saul murdered them and to David’s great surprise years later, he discovered the cause of the famine was actually this act of disobedience to God. Simple? Harsh? Call it whatever you like; but God was not happy with the murder of the Gibeonites. Hence the famine! It wasn’t until David humbled himself before the Gibeonites and made Restitution and Blessed the Gibeonites with their demands that God ended the famine. (2 Sam.21:14).

I use that story to illustrate how National disobedience and unbelieving leadership can thrust a country into dreadful turmoil. The trials and disasters caused by these floods, who is to blame? Is it an Act of God? Will the multimillion dollar Premier’s Enquiry be the answer? Of course some good mitigation plans will emerge, at great cost, but the cause of the disaster will not be answered. Who caused the floods?

The Bible says in Job, Chapters 38-41 how God rebukes those who criticize His Creation “where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth”? “Who kept the seas inside their boundaries”? “Who can tilt the water jars of Heaven”? “Who said to the seas “thus far and no further, here your proud waves must stop”? Read these chapters and you will discover God is more imposing than His Creation. If you can’t challenge His Creation, how much more is it impossible to challenge the Creator?

From these Scriptures I feel confident to give the following reason of why God is presently shaking Australia. 47 years ago, at the beginning of my pastoral ministry, we were sent to the Central Coast of NSW. Being country people, we would visit the seaside regularly. I noticed a problem, people who purchased land by the ocean in those days had to build their houses behind the sand dunes. Now people didn’t want to just live near the ocean, they wanted to see the ocean! Today, the sand dunes, by and large are gone. Local Government has greedily allowed the removal of this “little ribbon of sand” that has locked up the ocean to be destroyed and houses and High Rise Apartment blocks etc. can now be built on the ocean’s edge. The most expensive Real Estate in the Nation, (eg. The Gold Coast) has now become a doorway for a Tsunami to enter and destroy literally thousands of homes and lives. In Jeremiah 5:22 God says “Have you no respect for me? Why don’t you tremble in My Presence? I, the Lord, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross.” With these disastrous floods we cannot blame God, however as a Nation, has our rebellion, stubbornness and greed caused an abuse of God’s Creation and its laws that govern it? Everyone cannot be guilty but in all natural disasters and shakings the innocent suffer along with the guilty as in warfare. Thousands of civilians one night in London alone during World War II. How many civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan? – that’s war! In natural disasters and shakings, truth is often the victim and we are only informed of half the story.

Everyone is allowed an opinion and I’ve shared something from my heart with you. “If I’m a prophet--- so be it! If I’m not a prophet--- so be it anyway”.