“In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit[ a] and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God. “Behold, I strike my hand at the dishonest gain that you have made, and at the blood that has been in your midst… And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.” (Ezekiel 22:12-13,15).
Corruption is one of the main idols in Ukraine. According to the Scriptures, this results in a curse. The Lord himself says through the prophet Ezekiel: “I will scatter you among the heathen.” Some of the consequences of this curse are now working in our country: millions of people are scattered across the land. Therefore, as priests of God, we must pray for this idol to fall. Sometimes it seems that he is unshakable because his metastases have passed through the whole society. But the Lord says that He has the power to cleanse our land of this curse.
We may win the war, but unless we remove the inner idols, the curses will not go away. At our last spring retreat, word got out that the end of the war is connected with the internal cleansing of Ukraine from idols. We started praying about it and we are already seeing good trends. But we must continue to break through this spiritual wall. Greed does not concern only those in power, but this system permeates the entire society at the level of simple everyday relationships. People begin to look for their own gain in everything, the opportunity to gain at someone’s expense: “The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice.” (verse 29).
Then the Lord says: “ “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.” (verse 30)
The Lord says that He is looking for at least one person who will say, “I pray that this will change,” to break that fast. And there are many of us. We can stand before the Lord for our country in the gap and believe that it will not take centuries for this system to collapse.
Andrei Lugovski, senior pastor of KEMO (Kiev Messianic Congregation).
Word at KEMO Spring Retreat 2023.
Source: Киевская Eврейская Мессианская Община (КЕМО) | Facebook