Here’s another section of the ACPE ‘Word for 2010’ that clearly spoke to me in particular. This is something that the Lord is stressing right now in my life—‘get out of debt’:

Breaking Debt Cycles

Key Scripture passage:

“The spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).

We felt that the Lord had given us an “eye of the storm” time period to get out of debt. In fact, as we discussed the many prophetic warnings about a second economic shaking, we felt that the Lord in His mercy had extended a period of grace to His people because many were not ready for another shaking.

Supernatural ability to get out of debt is being released. If you will start paying your debts, even in very small amounts, God will supernaturally get behind your efforts and help you get out of debt.

Response: Actually this word is good in any year. But in the midst of recession when so many Christians are having a hard time even paying our current bills much less get out of debt it is particularly poignant. Also it reminds us of the importance to rely on God for supernatural help in getting it done.

Fact is, God can give you new ideas and download information and wisdom to you that can help you get out of debt and even have extra $money to invest in ministries.  This is the essence of a ‘Kingdom economy’ that is not ‘business as usual’ but relies upon God in a major way.

I have heard many prophetical folks saying that right now is just the ‘calm before the storm’ or like in this document ‘the eye of the storm’—a time for us to rest and get prepared for another coming maybe even greater recession or even depression.

I believe that the severity of the next economic dip may depend upon how his church responds to his offer of bringing major revival. A new awakening is coming whether the Lord just needs to awaken his church with a ‘sleeping beauty kiss’ or whether a swift kick will be necessary. He still has major purposes in mind for America and he is not done with us yet.

The American church (and Western Church for that matter) has become so enmeshed in the dominant secular/materialistic culture that most Christians in this country are far too disconnected from the supernatural Christian Biblical view that would bring His Kingdom into the midst of their daily lives.

In order to rise up and be the Church and people that we are called to be it will be necessary for the Church to cast off the bonds of the dominant culture and allow the ‘rule of God’ to in flood our daily lives.

Hopefully we will not have to become desperate before we allow the Kingdom to come to our homes, jobs, businesses, marketplaces, and churches.            

In his devotional for today- “The Enemy’s Secret Strategy”(Link NLA)-John Bevere says the following about the goal of our enemy Satan to marginalize Christians:

Hollywood, religious people, and our culture have painted a warped and limited image of God’s people. What is the distortion? We have an enemy named Satan, who is called “the ruler of this world,” “the prince of the power of the air,” and “the god of this world.” He influences the world’s systems and sways the minds of those who do not belong to God. He has fallen angels and demons to help carry out his grand strategy.

The sad fact is that too often the church has limited Satan’s chief strategy to certain behaviors, like trying to get people to drink alcohol or watch sex scenes in movies. He’s much more crafty than that and uses a wide variety of snares and diversions. We’ve missed his primary purpose. Because what he fears most is Christians discovering who God’s made them to be—extraordinary people with abilities to carry out remarkable and unusual feats. This should be the image society has of Christians.

Response: You can see this everywhere in America today and particularly in Europe and the UK. Christianity is being marginalized and most of the time falsely identified with a couple of ‘far right’ issues now considered out of the mainstream.

However, the reality is that when accurate polls are taken Christians are still the real mainstream in this country but a great delusion is reining over this land and the Western world. Christians have allowed the enemy and in some ways have helped him to redefine and marginalize the church.

The media now portrays Christians as mean, angry, and judgmental folk who care more about their antiquated beliefs than about people. 

We are living in times where what is ‘good’ is now sometimes considered bad in this society and what is scripturally ‘bad’ is now the goals of many. Nevertheless we should let our lights shine in the darkness and do everything we can to make life better for ourselves and those we come in contact everyday.

Christians need to accurately portray the gospel and the Kingdom in our everyday lives blessing everyone who comes in contact with us—this puts the lie to how our enemy defines Christians and breaks through the deception and prevailing delusion.

May we let the Holy Spirit enliven us and let us become the example and face of Christ in a fallen and deluded world.        

(Image by Lel4nd (busy) via Flickr)

Historically in America we are in a transition time politically and economically when ‘business as usual’ no longer works. Anyone who tells you they know where this is going to end up is just wrong or prophetic.

I know I’m not the only one that has been going though some difficult times economically in my business and in our family. Church and ministry leaders are finding it far more difficult to fund their ministries in 2009 than in previous years. So many in the Christian community are suffering along with everyone else in this economy.

The church that I’m part of has had to find ways to cut expenditures without downsizing valuable ministries. The economy in wealthy Orange Co. Southern California has taken a heavy hit and nearly every family is being affected in one way or another which affects giving.

In the midst of this downturn one program in the church has grown exponentially—our food and thrift warehouse. The Lord has sent capable people our way to administer our food bank. It really is a miracle when you consider that a couple of years ago it was just an empty warehouse but our pastor had a vision that one day we would be supplying food to 1000’s in need. Didn’t really seem possible or even needed 2 or 3 years ago but now we are sending entire containers full of cloths to Africa and Southeast Asia and we are feeding 1000’s of needy folks even many in our own congregation that are going through some tough times.

We are now handing out roughly $100,000 worth of food every month—there are some real miracles happening when it comes to the exponential increase in our suppliers. Not only that—it has become a real ministry outreach and an opportunity to provides for folks on many different levels including healing.

One of the major backbones of the church is our prayer ministry program—HOPE ‘House of Prayer for Everyone’—on Wednesday morning we have a Marketplace prayer group that meets and prays over the businesses of church members, over the sales of the sales folk in the congregation, and we pray for jobs for those out of work. It is a practical time where many have received prophetic insight and direction from the Lord on how to carry on in these hard economic times. Lately we have seen lots of ‘break throughs’ in business where we seem to be going one way while the economy is going another. Not only that but new innovative businesses are being launched with incredible potential.

For years, all of us Christians have carried on our everyday business like everyone else in the country and that has been good enough in this wealthy land—now like everyone else the Christian community has been going through some tough times. It is no longer ‘business as usual’ and I submit to you that it never will be again. I repeat—It never will be quite so easy for us in the future as it has been in the last 60 some years.

It is time for Christians to be involved in God’s Kingdom Economy. One way to do that is sponsor ‘Marketplace Prayer’ groups in every church and allow the Lord to reach out in a new ways and bless us with his inspiration corporately and support one another in our everyday businesses and occupations. Let Him expand our horizons and business visions in Jesus name, Amen.

(Dome of the Rock—Jerusalem via Wikipedia)

Things have changed enough for the better in the last two months that I am now in the middle of a 2 week vacation in our motorhome—a vacation I really needed–Praise God. At the end of June I really didn’t see how I was going to pay the current DMV registration that was due on the RV much less take a vacation in it this year.

The last week of June at a Wednesday morning prayer service Pastor Mike prophesied over me that my work was going to get a whole lot easier and all of the stuff I was then worrying about was going to be resolved and that I was going to receive ‘God’s favor’.

I sorta wondered about what ‘God’s favor’ meant and involved–how that was any different than what I already had but it sure sounded good. Anyone out there ever receive a prophetic word that was full of good sounding stuff and traditional ‘prophetic filler’ that really didn’t mean a whole lot? If you receive ‘God’s favor’ how do you know for sure except good stuff starts to happen?

Well in this case, ‘God’s favor’ has been miraculously demonstrated to me literally on several occasions—here’s one incredible incident:

I had just spent 3 or 4 hours with a new client going over some of his needs for his new store (I sell market equipment to pay the bills). I was afraid that this was going to be a complete waste of time and effort. I had already been there twice before and sent him 10 pages of quotes and we really didn’t seem to be getting any closer to doing business. I threw up one of those traditional prayers like I always do in this situation— “Lord just give me favor in their eyes—don’t let this be a complete waste– I really do need something out of this—anything”.

At that point I really had little hope that I would see anything in the way of sales for all of the time and effort I had invested. The owners were Middle Eastern Muslims and usually the business climate is full of mistrust and like warfare in these cases. The only time in my experience that I really receive any large sales from Middle Eastern folks is when I have already done business with them in the past or with a relative and received a good referral. These were folks that I didn’t know nor did they or any of their relatives know me.

Right after I threw up that short prayer, the owner that I had been dealing with said— “I want you to come meet the big boss.”  We went to the front of the store and there was a circle of folks drinking tea with one guy obviously at the head of that informal table—he was wearing a teashirt that said “Jerusalem” and had a picture of the Dome of the Rock mosque on it. My heart sunk a little seeing that as I was introduced to “Ali” the big boss and money man of the operation—the one who makes the real decisions over anything substantial.

The moment we shook hands he proclaimed—“I just saw a vision of you standing with a Bible preaching or teaching—are you a Bible teacher?”

I was totally shocked and amazed and blurted out: “I am a Bible teacher!”

Ali shouts out- “I knew it, I knew it!”

Then he turns to those around the table and says: “This is a man we can trust—give him an order”.

And it was a very nice order indeed–Praise the Lord!  

(Image by John McNab via Flickr)

2009 has been a difficult time for the Davis family. 2008 wasn’t so good but then 2009 rolled around and the bottom fell out of the economy in So. California. At one time or another this year, all 4 of my adult children have been out of work—we ended up with 3 extra adults living with us along with 2 grandchildren. Meanwhile my business and income dropped 30% while our expenses with 5 more mouths to feed increased exponentially.

By the end of June we were in a crisis with far more bills to pay than money. I really didn’t know what to do but continued to pray for some answers which didn’t seem to come.

I went to that last Wednesday morning prayer service of the month rather down and with little hope. The Pastor gave me a word that my work was going to get a whole lot easier and that I was going to receive God’s favor. Unknown to Pastor mike, the previous 3 months had been the hardest I had ever worked for the least results. I wish I could say that I received the word in faith but I didn’t—this is not a ‘name it and claim it’ testimony. I left with a wait and see attitude.

Immediately our situation began to change miraculously. The same day I sold two huge orders and had more referrals than I had all year. In 4 days we had enough money to pay the bills that month which had seemed so hopeless.

One son who had been unemployed for 4 months but couldn’t get any unemployment money—his application was lost– then found–than delayed because of a technicality–he finally got a check the next week. Since then all three at home ended up with new jobs one by one—now we just have one son and two grandchildren still living with us.

Meanwhile, with the economy going one direction—downhill, my business has been incredible and full of down right miracles lately.  Next post I will tell you about one.