propheticmoments

Right now a deepening blanket of fear fueled by world instability and economic uncertainty lies over our nation. For several years I've been warning believers that the kind of security and stability many of us have known in America during the last half of the twentieth century has ended. I have said that we must therefore learn the meaning of true faith and true dependence on our Savior as our stability and our provider. The last half of Matthew 6 must now become reality for us. "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor do they reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?" (v.26). American believers have placed their faith in their prosperity (and thought it was God) to a degree most us have been blind to. This will be tested in days to come by the fires of instability and turmoil. The shaking that has come upon us will intensify and expose everything in us that has not been built upon a true foundation in Him.

Having said this, I do not believe that America’s economy will collapse, but instability and uncertainty will get much worse. We will be like riders on a roller coaster, filled with fear because of the speed and violence of the changes of elevation and direction, when the truth is that for believers the ride is perfectly safe, fastened to the tracks in such a way as to ensure safety. Fear arises when we listen to the whisperings of the enemy of our soul designed to separate us from the sense of our Lord’s perfect love which casts out fear (I John 4:18). Anchored to the tracks in His love, we remain safe and secure in His faithfulness. Lose touch with that and we fly off into depression and darkness.

In this day a spirit of fear seeks to decimate the people of God, to wrap them in oppression, and to lock up their giving to the things of the kingdom, thus enforcing darkness of heart and crippling the church. Matthew 6:22-23, "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" In Hebrew idiom a generous man was said to have a "clear eye" while a stingy man had a "bad eye". One who stops giving materially, or ministering to others in love ensures his own darkness and oppression. Sustained giving, even in the face of fear, keeps the lights on in the household of our emotional and spiritual life. We have been freed to give and to focus on the things of the kingdom of God because our Father in heaven faithfully provides for us (Matthew 6:33). This is the message of Scripture and the promise of God. This is the certain antidote to fear in days to come.

The roller coaster of material instability is upon us and will remain, but for the believer the danger is only an illusion sent to produce fear. Fear shuts off the flow of the gospel and cripples the ministry of the body of Christ. Only true apprehension of the Father’s perfect love and a choice to have faith in His faithfulness form the antidote to the fear that threatens to overwhelm so many of us. In days to come we must learn to rely solely on our Lord for provision rather than the world’s lost stability.

What a wonderful season of adventure in Him! In these coming days of turmoil, how many ways will we find to keep giving when every instinct says to cut back? And how many ways will He find to miraculously provide for and rescue us? I'm looking forward to the testimonies.