Shaking Is A Promise, Not A Problem!

From a prophetic perspective, I have been paying close attention to the "shakings" going on around the world.  All over the world, people have been experiencing a "shaking" in their finances, their jobs, their businesses, and losing their personal homes.  In the United States alone over 2.3 million homes have been foreclosed on and are now held by the banks who intend to hold onto to this real estate and rent the houses out while they bundle these properties into reits and roll them into securities that can be sold on Wall Street as derivatives once again.  Millions of dollars are at risk once again driven by the greed of the bundlers on Wall Street that got our nations into this trouble to begin with.  This is a serious time.  God is going to shake the nations once more because we do not heed his voice.

In the book of Hebrews, chapter 12 verses 25-29, it says: "See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire."

So how should those of us who are followers of Jesus respond?  Well. the first thing we need to do is recognize that these shakings are a promise, not a problem.  From a kingdom perspective those in our present economic systems may have their plan, but God has a plan that will foil their agendas.  There is coming a major reorganization of economic order that will dispel those who presently are manipulating the federal reserve and banking system. This reorganization will be caused by shifting technologies, ordinary people's ingenuity, and God positioning leaders in high positions of authority just like he did in the days of the Babylonian captivity, the medo-Persian empire, and the rebuilding days of Ezra and Nehemiah.  This new economic order will be preceded by a major period of godly young people who have cried out to God and have prepared themselves to serve in the king's court.  They will be like those great young men found in Daniel chapter 1.  They will be well-favored in appearance, skillful in all wisdom, discernment, and understanding.  They will be apt in learning knowledge (graduating from the Ivy league schools), competent to stand and SERVE in the king's palace- and they will be fluent in the literature and language of the Chaldeans.  In other words, these coming leaders will be influences within the cultural governmental contexts of their nations.  They will be working within the bureaucracy, invisible to the public eye, and many will not recognize God at work. He is going to bring in His Kingdom through a Godly, kingdom oriented, stealth leadership who will work to dismantle the corrupting influences now affecting the world cultures of government, finance, business, arts, entertainment and media, health care, education, and religion.  PLEASE NOTE:  "The church-world as we know it will be shaken too!"  God is going to dry up every resource that empowers these wicked systems.  Daniel Chapter 4 gives us the prophetic picture of why.

After building a hugh image in his own honor (Dan. 3) and demanding everyone to worship his image, Nebuchadnezzar has another dream.  In this dream, a very large tree which was strong and growing toward the heavens is chopped down.  Daniel interprets the dream and explains to his king that God is going to humble Nebuchadnezzar due to his arrogance and pride.  There are several factors that led Nebuchadnezzar to his downfall.  (See Daniel 4:4,30)  This sounds like the American dream:

• He was living a very comfortable life.
• He was very prosperous and lived in a very large palace.
• He was proud of his accomplishments when he proclaimed "Is this not the great Babylon that "I HAVE BUILT?"  
• In his arrogance he said, "I HAVE BUILT" this royal palace which is the SEAT of government by the MIGHT OF MY POWER and FOR THE MIGHT AND GLORY OF MY MAJESTY!"

Daniel as chief counsel speaks to the king and says, (see Daniel 4:27) "break off your sins and show the reality of your repentance by having a right standing with God and the moral and spiritual rectitude to show rightness in every area and relationship you have in life."  STRONG WORDS HERE.  I wonder where the godly leaders are today who are leading the way to encourage our world cultures to be accountable to God like Daniel does.  During my study at George Fox University with Dr. Len Sweet, a book by Edwin H. Friedman’s entitled A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, was presented to me to read by my dissertation advisor.  Friedman’s book concerns itself with the crisis of leadership in America civilization, which he characterizes as a ‘failure of nerve’. This crisis of leadership is found throughout American civilization, in national, state, and local politics, in the legal system, in schools, businesses, and in families, which receive particularly close attention.

Friedman attacks the manner in which organizations primarily adapt themselves to their most dependent, recalcitrant, and anxious members, rather than to ‘the energetic, the visionary, the imaginative, and the motivated’ (12). He argues that the devaluation of the important of self-differentiation as the key to leadership is the origin of many of our problems in the area, causing leaders to depend more upon their ‘expertise’ than on their capacity to be decisive. More technique and data won’t solve problems that arise from embedded emotional processes. A failure to understand the manner in which these processes operate causes us to believe that they can be resolved or regulated ‘through reasonableness, love, insight, role-modeling, inculcation of values, and striving for consensus.’

In Friedman’s extensive experience, the crucial factor that distinguished families that flourished through crisis and those who failed was the presence of a ‘well-differentiated leader’. Friedman seeks to show that strength lies in ‘presence’ rather than ‘method’, ‘to enable leaders to avoid trying to instill insight into the unmotivated’, show the unhelpfulness of leadership concepts such as ‘role-modeling’, ‘emulation’, and ‘identification’, and how self-differentiation ‘can make the dependency of the unimaginative and the recalcitrant work for instead of against them.

WE NEED LEADERSHIP!  However, we do not need more elected leaders - we need Godly bureaucrats.  People who remain in position for years to come who will speak the truth to our elected officials and call them to account.  Bureaucrats can work within and reform the corrupting influences of our cultural systems.  If not, God has only one other solution - Shaking the system until it collapses and a more equitable and just system is put in place. If you study the historical background of the Quaker revivals of the 17th Century God used leaders to birth a new form of government in Philadelphia as an example for our early leaders to follow.  It honored God, it honored people, and it provided a great foundation for a new republic (see Micah 6:8).  However, when every generation chooses its leaders and its direction- the outcome will be bases on it's worldviews- good or bad!  When the church decides to become a cultural acommadator rather than a cultural influencer;  It's only a matter of time... before God will shake our nations.  He will use strong weather patterns, fires, earthquakes, Tsumnamis, stock market crashes, bank collapses, a mortgage crisis, and bring our enemies to deconstruct our way of life.  Who has ever heard of two young men, ages 26 and 19 shuting down an American City like what just happened in Boston.  It's time to wake up Church!  The choice is ours! (See II Chron. 7:14)

Hebrews 12:6 explains to us that, "The Lord corrects and disciplines those he loves." The writer goes onto explain that these corrective times are evidence of being a son and daughter of God!  Wow, that means if I'm feeling the heat it's evidence that I am a child of God... because a father does not correct children who are not his own. Hebrews goes onto to say, "You must submit to and endure correction- even though it is unpleasant for a season."  The final explanation to "understanding discipline" is that "God corrects us so that we become sharers in his holiness."  When the church loses it's influence- it's not because we didn't rally enough people to vote who we wanted in office.  We lose influence because we are not reflectng the character and nature of a loving God.  We are not living in the old testament world.  The NEW TESTAMENT says, "Where sin abounds, GRACE MUCH MORE ABOUNDS."  (Romans 5:20)  

We are called to disciple the nations not alienate them. In many ways, I sense the church, like Jonah, has been called to preach to a place like Ninevah. (See Nahum 3) It was a city full of lies and robbery. It was a place known for it's violence and cruelity. Think about the US, violent movies, videogames, school shootings, bombings, and terroist going back home after terroring a city and blending back in as though nothing had happened. A city which brought down others to lift themselves up!  Wow. The whole thing should have been sent right to HELL.  However, God called Jonah to call this place to repentance. But, He didn't want them to repent do he refused to go.  So, so what did God do?  He shook a ship, sent a fish to devour Jonah, who in turn threw him up on the shoreline of Ninevah to ensure that the city was givn an opportunity to repent.  This is what is happening to the church worldwide.

Isaiah 6:8-13 says:

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”  And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;

keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

Make the heart of this people dull,

and their ears heavy,

and blind their eyes;

lest they see with their eyes,

and hear with their ears,

and understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.”

Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”

And he said:

“Until cities lie waste

without inhabitant,

and houses without people,

and the land is a desolate waste,

and the Lord removes people far away,

and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

And though a tenth remain in it,

it will be burned again,

like a terebinth or an oak,

whose stump remains

when it is felled.”

The holy seed is its stump.

GOD HELP US!