Money

Could you give all of your money away today, if you had to? I mean ALL of it: empty your checking account, savings, 401k, pension, the college fund you Have been saving for the kids...everything you have come to rely on, over time, to trust in...could you give it away...could you just walk away from it? This is the question every believer will have to face. I believe soon...years not decades. This is one of the first of many HARD choices believers will have to make going into the time that Jesus will return in:


Revelation 13:16-17 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark of the name of the beast, or the number of his name.


This is the primary plan of the antichrist...the man with the plan to remake the world more equitably...to force people to fall in line. He believes God's word, people's hearts are with their treasure, and he will use that truth to turn hearts towards him.


There is promised a global unified currency system that will require a mark on your hand or forehead: to take the mark means to reject Jesus and worship the antichrist system. To not take the mark means walking away from everything you have accumulated to that point. For real. This will be an easier decision for people that have no regard for the Bible or Jesus....but this will be THE single hardest decision for western (wealthy) Christians. You may not "feel" that wealthy, but if you live in the US you actually live in quite an extravagant way. Even the poorest among us have quite a bit if you compare it to the rest of the modern world, even more so if you compare it to all the people who have lived on earth in the last 6,000 years. There is coming a generation when this statement by Jesus will reach its fullness of expression:


Matthew 19:21-23 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.


The Bible is clear that someday, every living believer will get a chance to test Jesus statement with their own wealth...great and small. You might not feel that rich right now, but you will find out how you really feel about your wealth when you are face to face with the choice of following Jesus and leaving it behind.


MANY are wholly unprepared for this soon-coming dynamic...I am unprepared for it myself, and I have been thinking on it regularly for a couple of years. In fact, I have been intentionally trying to follow the very clear plan in the Bible for getting ready for this dynamic, and have made significant progress...but I still have a long way to go. "Getting Ready" for this aspect of the end times takes time. It requires working your heart intentionally...spiritual exercise to build the muscles of trust and obedience. Jesus said "be ready":


Matthew 24:44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.


Many will not get their hearts ready for this specific dynamic of following Jesus in the most intense generation, and they will be "offended" when they are forced to make this choice. They will actually convince themselves that it is ok to take the new currency mark and still follow Jesus. MAJOR religious leaders will convince them it is ok, too. There will be MUCH confusion in the Church regarding this exact issue (and other issues regarding holiness and obedience), and the result will be a great falling away:


Matthew 24:10-13 And then many will be OFFENDED, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.


Luke 8:13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation FALL AWAY.


II Thessalonians 2:1-3 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the FALLING AWAY comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,


Revelation 14:9-12 Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.


This is worth considering now: "how would I respond if faced with really walking away from all my wealth and means I have always relied on?" There will be a ton of family pressure to do the "responsible" thing and fall in line with the new system. Parents will say "you aren't going to not work and let those kids starve, are you?" Pastors will say "God would never make you choose to not work or give up all your wealth, you can take the mark and just keep loving Jesus." There will be many false teachers, division within families, and utter confusion for those who did not do the work of preparing in advance. Over and over whenever Jesus talked to HIS DISCIPLES about the end times, He told them to "be ready."


There is one way to get your heart totally ready to flourish in this time. Believers who have gotten ready won't just survive, they will thrive. They will run full force into these days operating in signs and wonders. Multiplying food, multiplying resources, calling on manna from heaven. These will be the ones everyone looks to for direction. These will be the ones who know exactly what Jesus is allowing and why. These will be the joyful, un-offended, and UNAFRAID ones...just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. "Threaten whatever you want, King...God knows what He is doing!"


The plan to get ready is found in Matthew 5,6,7, and briefly looks a bit like this: soberly consider where your heart is at (recognize your poverty of spirit). Mourn the lack of faith to walk away from your wealth (blessed are those than mourn). Then secretly and extravagantly start giving it away right now:


Matthew 6:2-4, 19-21, 24-27 NKJV


Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. ...“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.... “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. ....“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?


Matthew 5:42 Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.


If you give enough for it to hurt...enough to cost you some earthly security... you know it is working in your heart to get you ready. Inch by inch, this is how you get ready while there is time.


If you only give out of the extra you have, you might "feel good" about yourself now, but you are doing nothing to prepare your heart for that day...it IS coming...soon. 2008 was a warning. In fact, I believe strongly that Jesus, in His mercy, is going to give the financial system another good shake soon to help people wake up. This is only a stronger warning. Eventually, every believer will not just suffer a fright, they will have to walk away from all of it and live free in the supernatural miraculous realm...just like Israel in the desert. Now is the time to get ready. If a community goes after this concept in unity, their entire geographic location will prosper in the coming time, but a community is only as strong as the choices of each individual member to get ready...to agree with Jesus about the plan and say yes.


This is Jesus' plan. He wants to take away all earthly strength so that He can be the strength of His people!





Haggai 2:6-8 “For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts.