Hi everyone this will be my last blog for a couple of weeks. I am getting ready to travel all over the place to finally end up in Europe!! I have been wanting to post something that my brother wrote for a while now. The Lord has placed this message on his heart to share with America so I am going to post it on my blog as well. Here you go….
A message to the American Church: Economic Collapse
“You have trusted in the Almighty dollar America . Now what will you trust in when I overturn the moneychanger’s tables (Mk. 15-17)? When I turn the tables on America and this rich nation becomes poor. Economic Collapse. Economic Collapse. Economic Collapse. Do you not perceive it? Before it happens I announce it to you. (Isa. 43:19, 48:5)
“You have turned your eyes from the one who gave the blessings onto the blessings themselves. Therefore, I will take from you that which I gave you, that your soul may be saved in the last day. I will cause you to look unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith (Heb. 12:2). Put your hope in God. Turn from your evil ways and repent, lest I come on you suddenly like a thief in the night at an hour you do not expect (Mt. 24:42-51). Turn to me and I will turn to you and refresh you with My Spirit (Acts 3:19)For I am a jealous God and you have filled the land with idols (Is 2:8) You have said in your heart, ‘My love.’ You have set the forbidden idols up in my sanctuary and bowed down low to them. Therefore, this is what the Lord says, I will not keep silent anymore. For I have given you time to repent. I have showed you the way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13). But you have not listened. You have set your face like flint and said, ‘We will not follow you’. You have said in your heart, ‘We will perish before we burn these, our lovers from the earth.’ Therefore, this is what the Lord says, I will no longer delay. I am coming quickly and will tear him to pieces who trusts in wicked things. I will assign his portion with the unbelievers (Lk. 12:46) You scoffers would not listen to me in the day of trouble. Therefore I will tell you what I am going to do. I am going to take your portion away and feed it to the hungry. I have heard the cries of the desperate. I am telling you, I will remove your lamp-stand from it’s place (Rev. 2:5)Get ready my people, get ready. The time is near. I have heard my people say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.�
Economic Collapse coming
Guys, there is an economic collapse coming! We have already seen a scare in the economy in the last couple of years and many people have already been affected by this recession. This is not what I am talking about. This is only a part of it, I believe sort of a warning from the Lord. A deeper economic crisis is beginning now! It is going to increase in the next 3 years. I feel strongly that we will start to see little things shake up in our economic situation over the next couple of years but I believe in 3 years, 2014, we will be in the heart of an economic crisis. I believe this crisis will last 8 years from 2014 until 2022. I have been asking God, “How bad is it going to be? Recession? Depression?� What is the level of this thing?� I have strong confirmation that this will be worse than the great depression of the 1930’s! The Lord keeps saying to me “this will go deeper than you think!�
Why the judgement? We have Forgotten God
God is the one who made America rich. But instead of thanking Him, we have turned our eyes from the giver onto the gifts themselves and forgotten the One who gave the gifts. A simple example that we can all relate to on some scale is Christmas. We celebrate Christmas because of Jesus. Yet how many of us Americans have made it about gifts, shopping, food, football, etc…? We have forgotten about Jesus. This is an example of putting the gift in front of the giver and the one who it is all about. This is just a simple example to convey what I am trying to say. In America , year round we have turned our eyes onto the gifts from God and forgotten the giver (Romans 1:21-23). We have done this on every level in many other ways in our culture, ways that I will address as you read on.
“Righteousness exalts a nation…â€� Proverbs 14:34
God has blessed our land with many good things because America is built on godly principles! In comparison with other nations, we have great systems that run, for the most part, very efficient. From our hospitals, to our airports, Road ways, Government, schools, etc…In the last few years some of these things have been getting worse. I believe it is because the opposite of that proverb is also true , “unrighteousness brings a nation low.â€� The more we walk in ungodly ways the more our nation with it’s systems and services, along with everything in it, will begin to crumble! God has blessed us with money and material things. All you have to do is just step outside of our country into some of these other nations and you will see just how much God has blessed our nation. We have fine cars, big houses with big t.v.‘s, 2 or three computers in our homes, and the finest couches and furniture. We go to the grocery and get whatever we want: meat, chocolate, any flavor of drink, we have 20 different kinds of bread to choose from, the best wine if we want it, etc… We have these things because God has blessed our nation. We should not feel guilty about having these things. They are a gift from God. But these things have turned into a curse for many americans! We have gotten fat on the good things and forsaken the One who gave them to us! We have turned our eyes from the giver onto the gifts! The bible says this is idolatry.
The 1st 2 commandments
Having other gods before Him and worshipping things that our hands have made is breaking the first and second commandments! Exodus 20:3-6 Commandment #1 “You shall have no other gods before me. Commandment #2 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Idolatry is not just bowing down to a foreign God in the shape of a huge statue. It is bowing down to anything and putting that thing in front of God Himself. It doesn’t even have to be the obvious things that we think about like drugs or sex or witchcraft. It can be good things: t.v., music, ipods, sports, internet, facebook, food, or even relationships. Though I have seen people literally bow down and pay homage to football players, t.v. shows, movies, laptop computers, etc… most of the time we worship these things in less obvious ways. We worship these things by giving it all of our attention and making it top priority over the things that are truly important in life. We worship these things by building our entire lives and schedules around them. Spouses, children, friends, and even God are not allowed to interrupt that time or else! We worship these things when we cannot let them go or quit watching it or stop eating it, or give it up, or sell it, etc…Anything that is good can be abused and overused. Someone once said that “an idol is anything that we have to check in with before we can say yes to God.â€� Because God is loving, He is going to take the gifts away so that we can again focus on Him and other relationships that our souls may be saved. He is going to make us poor now so that our eternity will be made rich! May we freely give up these things before He has to take them away and may we turn back to relationship with Him and others!
God’s heart is Good toward us!
God has not wanted to judge our nation. He has raised up many voices for many years telling us to turn back to Him and that judgement is coming if we don’t repent. People have prayed for our land until they are blue in the face. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard 2 Chronicles 7:14 quoted over our nation:
“ If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.� I know of people who have went weeks without food just to pray for our nation to turn from our sins. But we, as a church whole, have not listened! We have not humbled ourselves and sought His face! Now God is going to have to, as a loving father would, give us a spanking so that we will come back to Him and obey Him.
Loving Fathers discipline their kids
If my son David is running into the street repeatedly and I yell to him, “David, don’t run into the street�, yet he constantly disobeys me, finally I will have to take a different approach. I will need to stop yelling and I will have to, as Proverbs 13:24 says, take my hand to his backside! Why do I spank him? Because I don’t want him to have fun? Because I just like spanking him? Because I want to take my anger out on him? No! I spank him because he is my son and I love him so much and I don’t want him to get run over by a car. I will afflict a little pain now so that much pain, namely death, can be avoided in the future! I believe God has stretched out His hand and yelled for us for many years not to run into the street. He has cried and wept over us and screamed in desperation saying, “ America ! Wake up! Turn back to me!� But we have not listened, therefore He is going to have to spank us as His children so that we will live and not die physically and spiritually forever! God disciplines those He loves (Hebrews 13).
“O.k. well Practically, What should I do?�
So what should you do? Glad you asked! This is the whole point of the message! I believe the most important thing for you to do is to get rid of idols and distractions in your life and get back to relationship. Relationship with God foremost. Compare Mary and Martha (Luke 10:39-40). Martha was distracted by many things, good things like serving Jesus (Have you put your work for God in front of God Himself?) but Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and heard his word! Get rid of those things that cause you to miss out on your time with the Lord and listen to His word for your life! He also wants us to focus on relationship with others and to get rid of those things that distract us. The Lord told me to cut back my internet on my phone because I was always looking down playing on my phone instead of focusing on the people in front of me, especially my family. So I cut back my internet from unlimited internet to only so much internet a month. The result, I have been a lot less distracted and it has benefitted my relationship with my family! Our relationships are going to need to be deep going into this economic disaster!
Practical Questions to ask yourself
Here are some questions to ask yourself? Is the news in the morning distracting you from spending time with God? Do movies at night steal from your time with God? Do you watch t.v. instead of playing with your kids, or is the t.v. distracting you from relationship with your spouse in the evening? Are you on the internet while your spouse/ God/child/friend/ is trying to get your attention? Can you not pull away from that youtube video? Whatever you have to do, do it, it is urgent! If something causes you to sin cut it off! Mt 5:30 “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.� Are you willing to cut your internet off? Are you willing to just have the digital box and cut cable off if God tells you to? Are you willing to quit your immoral job if God says so? If not, why? If not, then maybe He is not your Lord! Maybe you are just professing Him with your mouth. Lk 6:46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?� Jesus was saying if you don’t do what I say I am not your Lord! You are your Lord! Your cable is your God! Your job is your God! Your money is your God! Do you make decisions based on your money or what God says? What if God told you to leave your job and go to the mission field? What would you say? “God, what about money?� I can’t do that. I won’t be financially secure!�
Even personal relationships can distract you from spending time with God himself? Too much of anything is not good! Life is made up of radical balance! Is relationship with God distracting you from the people he loves? (Sometimes God wants me to get out of my prayer closet to hang out with family and friends-it is a balance!) Am I putting my job over my family or God? These are just some examples that I could think of that might apply. Please don’t limit yourself to these questions. Ask yourself and God, “Is there anything in my life that is distracting me from relationship with God or others?� “Have I surrendered my entire life to God?� “Is there anything in my life that if God asked me to give it up right now I would not be able to?� I-pod? Computer? Cell phone? Boyfriend? “Am I following Jesus or am I just going through the motions of church, work, home, youth group?�
Let’s bless God’s heart
God is shaking things up in the world so that the important things of life will come to the surface and be seen for what they really are! While God shakes our economy, the unshakeable kingdom inside of us will remain and shine forth brighter than ever! No-one can shake that! (Hebrews 12:26-29, Lk 17:21) Love, joy, peace, and relationships will remain! Just imagine the whole world in chaos but you are full of peace and joy because you are spending time with God. He is our strong tower (Proverbs 18:10)! He is a rock when everything else is crumbling! The lost and fearful will flock to that kind of person in times of desperation. That is another reason God is shaking the world, so that people will see their desperation and come to Jesus. Church attendance sky rocketed after September 11th! The lost will be saved! But only if we are choosing to spend time with HIm will we be unshakeable! I believe this is God’s point! I believe He is bringing this because He wants His kids, church kids and lost kids to truly know Him. He is a loving Father who’s heart is aching to know his children and for them to know Him! May we bless His heart by spending time with Him and bringing His lost sheep back to His heart!
