IT'S NOT THE ECONOMY...

Last Tuesday the United States held its annual election day. The party out of power bolstered by a strong independent group known as the Tea Party claimed a huge upsurge in the House of Representatives and a real increase in representation in the Senate. There was also a great increase in the number of Republican governors. This pattern was repeated in many state legislatures, such as North Carolina which has the first Republican majority legislature since the 1800’s.

All this has many politicians and pundits making a variety of claims. I’m sure you’ve seen many of them – repudiation of the current administration’s policies, demand for change, throwing out people who do not represent the population they are supposed to serve, and so forth.

More specifically, I hear people talking about how the real issue is the economy, how that is the great problem in America, how the focus has to be on fixing that – including such actions as cutting spending, continuing the Bush era tax cuts, and so forth.

I’m writing this to tell you the real problem in America is not the economy. Most certainly not. Yes, abut 10% unemployment is high and bad, and yes, there are probably even more out there unemployed who are not counted. But the real problem for these United States is that the people – as a whole – have forgotten who they are, if some ever knew. They are focused on their own income and security, while steps have been taken to dismantle the fundamental structure of the country.

The United States, as I have written before, was founded by a group of spectacular individuals who were well grounded in the Christian faith and who sought God’s blessings on this enterprise. The original bold documents were laid out to provide and protect individual liberty and to reward individual effort. In fact the original holders of political positions were not really full time politicians. They had other jobs, like being a farmer or something else. It was like many of our state legislatures used to be – part time jobs filled by people connected to the real economy and society of the country. But over the years we have come to have career politicians, people who have never held a real job in the economy and thus have little or no understanding of the economic system that drives the country and job creation. Senators and Congressmen serving many years! And people out of office working in Washington as lobbyists until they can be appointed or reelected to another position.

Some times in the past when I was involved in the business world I would go to meetings and functions with these people or their staffs in Washington, “inside the beltway.” The discussions even in the informal time before or after the meetings were all about politics. I remember thinking – no one in the rest of the country cares about what these people are talking about.

This great separation of the “leaders” from the population was never so clear as in the past two years when the federal government pushed through dramatically new legislation and actions that were not wanted by the American people. This population, this 330 million people, was ignored by an elected elite that considered itself above it all, perhaps wiser and better than the rest.

The past two years saw steady moves to a socialist system, a federal takeover of much more of the countries activities. But it is the private enterprise system that is the engine that has driven the country up to such economic heights.

And it has been the strong Christian beliefs of some of the population that has led the country to take bold steps in the past to defend other less powerful nations and peoples. The action of a leader apologizing to the world for the actions of the US is out of line with history. Yes, of course, the country has made mistakes, and when that happens they should be apologized for. But in this secular world, the US has been the greatest force for good the world has seen these past many years. Had the US not entered World War II in Europe as well as in the Pacific, something many did not want to happen, the world would be living today with the Nazis in control of Europe. Britain alone could not have defeated Hitler and the Nazis. That’s just one good example, one very good example. The same can be said for stopping Japanese aggression in the Pacific.

Over the years this country has been the base for sending countless missionaries into the world, for sending huge relief efforts to areas devastated by drought, by war, by famine, by typhoons and earthquakes and other natural disasters.

There is only one true responsibility of a national government – to protect the country and the citizens against foreign enemies. Everything beyond that is an add-on that does not have to be included.

We see today an enormous number of people who now feel they are owed things by the country, by the government – people refer to this as entitlements. So for those people the issue of going forward to the best of their abilities (hopefully with their eye and prayers toward God and seeking his guidance) does not exist as it once did in the country.

The founding fathers, clearly guided by God, created a country where people had the environment and the opportunity to go forward with their God-given talents and pursue to the best of their abilities the areas they wished to pursue. That’s it. That’s all. No one is owed anything by a national government. Yes, there has to be provision for those truly physically or mentally unable to participate fully, but that is a very small number indeed, not the huge numbers today expecting to receive from the government.

Here seems a good time to move more into the preacher role. God is the source, not the government! God is the source. We have this extraordinary government and society because clearly this land has been blessed by God in its founding, because there have been so many godly people living here. One of the Psalms points out how God has claimed the godly for himself. And there are many verses in the Bible that point out how God blesses people. There are also verses that point out that people are to work hard. Also that that work is not to take all the time from waking to going to bed.

The great problem in America is that most Americans have forgotten who they are. That includes the magnificent heritage of the creation and history of the country. And it includes the role that faith in God has played. I would say that is why the country has been so successful. As so many Americans pull away from God – which we clearly see in the entertainment world, the political world, the media and everyday life– the United States slips steadily from the shining platform it had reached.

Some voting advice: Don’t elect ungodly leaders. Don’t elect people who think the economy is the greatest problem in the country. Don’t elect leaders that will take the country to failed social systems that have long ago been disproved in Europe and Asia. Don’t ever elect leaders who cannot see truth and hide behind phony facades like political correctness. And don’t elect leaders who have had no personal experiences in working in the system that prospered the country.

This recent election at least shows a sizable number of Americans know something is wrong. Well, it is. We are rapidly approaching the time of Jesus’ return to earth. And in the US there is a national falling away from God, almost a rebellion against God; a blatant disregard of things God has boldly warned us about in the Bible; and a blind acceptance of people as leaders who even a cursory glance would show are highly unqualified and even dangerous.

May God have mercy on the United States of America.

PRAY AGAINST THE STORM! ORDER IT AWAY!

TO ALL THOSE WHO LIVE ON THE ATLANTIC COAST:

A couple of years ago when the coast was threatened by a storm similar to the current hurricane EARL, I sent an email asking all along the coast to take action. And the threatening hurricane then was indeed kept at bay, offshore.

It's time to do that again.

Most of you have heard me or read my writings talking about John 14:12-14 and Mark 11:22-24.

In John 14:12, Jesus states that those who believe will do the same things he had been doing.

In Mark 11:22-23, Jesus makes the point that anyone who has faith can say to their mountain, "go and throw yourself into the sea," and if he/she believes and does not doubt, it will be done as they have said.

Well, it's time right now to put those verses and your faith into action. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of power and not just word! It is these verses and others that lead us to realize that in Jesus all things are possible.

What did Jesus do? He healed the sick. He also changed the weather. And he says we can do the same thing.

Well, we do. People do receive their healing! And the weather is changed!

What is the mountain today for people along much of the Atlantic Coast - the storm EARL.

I have always believed it is those most directly affected who have the most urgency and most responsibility to pray and who have - in Jesus name - the most power is a situation. So go outside and face the ocean, wherever you are, face East, and in Jesus name, speak to the storm EARL today, right now. Order it's winds to diminish. Order it to turn away from the coast and disappear. And whatever else the Holy Spirit guides you to , all in Jesus' name.

The miracles we have seen in this ministry have all happened because we take Jesus at his word.

So what are you waiting for?

May you always live in the blessings of God.

JOHN

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

A Message For Those Who Teach And Preach, and for Those Who Listen

Not long ago I read a remarkable thing by the Christian writer Oswald Chambers. He observed that people called by God first “do” and then they “teach.” I partly agree with that. After God’s initial dramatic call on my life, I studied and prayed, wrote, and did other things. Then there was a period of focusing almost entirely on healing, always accompanied by teaching. There is nothing like being in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and seeing God work – especially when for many present this might be the first time they have ever seen God work. As I moved along I found myself teaching more and more.

One day about five years ago Jesus clearly said to me, “John, tell them who I am and that I am coming soon.” He has repeated that, sometimes with elaboration, several times since. So I do. Now we still heal the sick and do other things in ministry, but the focus is on teaching and preaching all about who Jesus is and that he is coming soon. So in reality, first I “did” and then I moved into more “teaching,” still “doing” along with “teaching.”

I have seen this pattern in others. One famous world-wide minister was for years focused on miracle healing programs. He held those everywhere. Then while still doing healing programs his focus seemed to move to teaching. He held programs on teaching about how to minister. He referred to his ministry as an “end times” ministry. Why? Probably because he in some way heard something similar to what I heard. Jesus really is coming soon. It’s a time of picking up as many for the kingdom as possible.

Maybe doing builds the faith needed to teach the Word with boldness and confidence. Maybe.

Why is teaching so important? Because knowing Jesus – receiving him as your Lord – is more important than anything else. Remember, the Bible does make the point that teachers of the Word are held to a higher standard. (James 3:1).

Once years ago we were asked by a relief organization to go to a difficult war-torn country and oversee provision of certain necessities to the people. One problem to us was that we were told we could not tell the people in that country about Jesus. We could just provide the necessities of life that the people did not have – in this case housing. Well, we realized, what does it matter if they have housing and do not know Jesus? Very little. Years later, I was asked to interview to be head of that organization, but the same issue troubled me, so I did not follow up.

What does it matter if you are healed physically but do not know Jesus? Nothing, really, except that for a miniscule moment in time you are healed. Because long-run, you will live in absolute torment unless you do receive Jesus.

If you are thinking about teaching the gospel, never forget that teachers are held to a higher standard. Jesus is preaching and teaching through you. It is the Holy Spirit who is impacting the listeners.

There is another insight to all this, a warning not only for all preaching and teaching the Word of God but also for all listening to such. Once in a city when I had begun to speak to various local ministers, one said to me, “John, when you’re going about meeting all these preachers, you’re going to find that many of them haven’t even been born again.”

Now there is an indictment! He was saying that many of those preaching and teaching the Word don’t know Jesus, don’t have a regenerated spirit, and quite obviously don’t know the Holy Spirit. And they are preaching and teaching others, on Sunday mornings in churches and elsewhere. Yet teachers of the Word are held to a higher standard.

We need to be wise about whom we listen to and sit under, in person and on television and in books. Always, always be guided by the Holy Spirit in such matters. As regards a local church, here are a couple suggestions – Do you see God moving in the church, people actually healed, miracles happening? If you can’t answer yes to that, you need to consider where you are and why you are there. When you listen to preaching on Sunday mornings or whenever you do listen, is it inspired? Do you receive any confirmation in your spirit from what you hear? Does it line up with the Bible? And is the fullness of the gospel being preached, all those many things Jesus did for us and told us to do that are so often not ever mentioned?

Something to ponder seriously.

Sign of the Times: STEPPING INTO THE NIGHT

Sunday (March 21), the light went out on the American season, an end to an amazing run.

Rather than continue to shine above the others and show the way to a better life, the US took a major step to joining the world’s countries in their trod toward uniformity and mediocrity. Socialism, the government knows better, a government unfocused on the one true God or on truth – that’s the way of the world. The United States has now joined that world.

Jesus overcame the world.
In him we do too.
Thank God.

The current US government, put in place by an undiscerning people blinded by too many years of preferring image to substance, has taken steps not only to nationalize health care but to move in numerous other ways in other areas of life toward national control.

It is a worldwide government that the antichrist heads in the end times. It is a worldwide government that terrorizes and destroys and is itself eliminated by Jesus in his return.

The US Sunday took a step off the cliff into the morass that is humanism, progressivism, socialism, or communism. Take your pick. Countries with those philosophies have always failed. The US has stepped from the light into a dark night. It is ironic to note that the amazing economic success of China in recent decades has come from its conscious move to adopt many of the basics of the historical American economic system. Now it is even a great holder of American debt, a position it is uncomfortable with.

Some time back I used to wonder what role the US played in the last of the last days, in the time before Jesus’ coming to call out the church, in the seven year tribulation. Now I know. Nothing significant. The US is in free fall from the position of being a light in the world that it held much of the last century, falling to be just another inconsequential society and nation.

That’s what happened Sunday. You may not have recognized it. Maybe you don’t want to get involved. But oh you are now. Just think - all those years of offering criticisms about other national governments with their dictatorships and government control and frightening views. Well, now you’re living in one of those places.

Fortunately Jesus is coming soon. So believers, your day of relief is in sight. Thank God. But for most of you Americans, alas, your night has just begun.

Signs of the Times: WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE? WHERE ARE THE PRAYERS?
[written in May 2009 but still very pertinent]

For decades Americans for the most part have focused on their own lives – their jobs, their houses, their cars and boats and for some their clubs and sports. They have not been interested or shown interest in looking beyond that small constricted circle.

What was happening in the rest of the world? What is going on in the greater spiritual world? Was there more to the spiritual world than just going and sitting through an obligatory one hour program each Sunday?

Well, now Americans are finding out. There was much more going on. There is much more going on.

In just a little over a hundred days the underlying formal structure of the country and the formal moral fabric has changed more than it ever has. We now have a leadership that either does not know the foundations of the country or does not care about those foundations, and that is clearly determined to lead the nation and the society on a road away from Jesus Christ and freedom and to a road of big government, invasion of personal life, much less freedom, and the truly socialist view that government knows best. The last great society that followed that view was the USSR, and it was a complete failure in the lifetimes of most adults living.

Americans, true to their narrow self focus of so many decades now, late last year and early this year paid attention to the economy. Nothing matters to Americans like the economy. So steps to improve that were accepted. But those steps involved actions way out of bounds – monster spending that hugely increases debt and places the country more and more as a debtor in the hands of such as the People’s Republic of China.

While watching the government take bold and even unconstitutional steps that eventually lead to takeover of major banks and invade and destroy major businesses – by the way the US government does not inherently have these rights – Americans have acquiesced and sat quietly. Other than our brave young soldiers, that’s generally how Americans behave today – sitting quietly, watching TV or whatever.

While the attention was on the economy, numerous steps were taken – some completed, some begun – to move to a socialist state, to turn away from God, to turn away from the country’s history and principals.

Well, didn’t a recent report by George Barna point out how few people who say they are Christians truly believe major points of Christianity? Yes, that’s true. So no wonder the people can’t recognize what is happening.

Consider:

• Steps were taken to allow US funds to be used to fund abortions in foreign lands. Your money.

• Steps have been taken to move in the direction of stem cell research on embryos.

• The volunteer core has been greatly expanded, and in the process there actually was discussion and even language drafted that those responsible would be able to consider making this volunteer core mandatory. That would be forcibly putting young people in a volunteer core for a few years – maybe senior citizens too. What nation in the last century does this sound like?

• Pressure is being indicated and brought on doctors who will not perform abortions.

• The elected leader in the White House has said that the USA is no longer a Christian nation.

• A hate crimes bill is rapidly making its way through Congress, a bill which would put gags in the mouths of those who would speak out about some horrible evils. Are you aware of that? True preachers of the Word would no longer be able to point out, for example, that the Bible and thus God speak loudly and clearly against homosexuality. In fact, a list of deviant behaviors currently is protected by the draft of this bill making its way along, behavior such as pedophilia.

• The current White House occupant has taken trips abroad where he has apologized for the US everywhere he has gone and where he has gladly shaken hands and smiled at tyrants and evil leaders. He either does not know the history of the US or does not believe it. The fact is that the US has, among the world’s nations, been the greatest force for good on earth in our lifetimes. What other nation actually goes to war to help other people?

• The government also continues its pressure on Israel to split, to give up land to the Palestinians. But remember – “I will bless those who bless you and will curse those who curse you.” The actions regarding Israel clearly place the US on the side of those lining up for receiving cursing – not the position Harry Truman had in mind when he boldly recognized the new nation of Israel in 1949.

It is difficult for me to write these things because I want to spend my time on Jesus – who he is and that he is coming soon. But I do have to point out what is happening, because what is happening is in keeping with the truth that Jesus is coming soon, very soon.

A last sign before the antichrist is revealed and then the Day of the Lord comes is a falling away from, or rebellion against, God (II Thessalonians, 2:3). I would say we are living in the midst of that. The original Greek for this falling away is apostasia, from which we get our word for apostasy. That is where we are, in the midst of apostasy.

Jesus in three chapters talking about the last days (Mark 13, Matthew 24, Luke 21) warned strongly about deception. Americans and all in the world are living in the midst of that.

If you do not truly know Jesus, now is the time to correct that. Ask him into your life. Ask for his mercy, his forgiveness of your sins. Recognize him for who he is – Lord – and make him your Lord.

You see, soon, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow – the knees of those who know him and the knees of those who don’t. You do want to be in the first group.

The Bible notes that the evil one has blinded the eyes of non-believers. That is true. But you say, well I see many Christians who are happy with the government. I reply, scripture says the devil has blinded the eyes of non-believers. As we approach the end of this age, we all will learn there is a big difference between all those who call themselves Christians and those who truly are believers in Jesus Christ.

So what do you do? Pray. Pray. Pray. For the veils to be removed. For people to wake up. For people to turn to God. And for a wave of outrage and then wise Godly action to follow in response to all the deception and evil now being foisted on the American people.

May God have mercy on us all.

Signs of the Times:

JESUS IS COMING: EVENTS GOT YOUR ATTENTION NOW?

In the three chapters of the Bible known as the Olivet discourse, Jesus gave prophecies of events to happen before his return to earth (Luke 21, Mark 13, Matthew 24). In each of these chapters one of the prophecies dealt with great earthquakes in divers places.

We are seeing that fulfilled at an increasing frequency. In our February newsletter a short report dealt with the January Haiti earthquake and some amazing statistics. A key point made there is that of the top twenty deadliest earthquakes in recorded history ( a long time – the deadliest occurred in 1556 AD!) more than half have occurred in just the last approximately one hundred years – and twenty percent just since December 26, 2004! That is way out of what would be expected through normal statistical distribution. These statistics do not include the Chile earthquake of February 27! Where that will end up ranking is not yet known, but we certainly see it was an extremely powerful earthquake.

Jesus called events such as these earthquakes birth pains. You all know how birth pains work. They get closer and closer together until the baby is born. In this case, closer and closer together until – the Lord is here!

If we are alert, we can see the signs. Jesus said that. And the signs are amazingly clear. I’ve talked about that at length in person and on television and in several CD recordings. It is one of the primary subjects God has called me to cover. Like all things with the Lord, some people get it and the rest just go on oblivious to what is happening.

For all of you who get it, realize the time is very, very short. I’m even thinking about the need to issue an update of our Prophecies Fulfilled CD every few months.

For those who did not see the article, repeated below are the recent newsletter comments about the Haiti earthquake and Jesus’ return.

THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE AND JESUS’ RETURN
The recent earthquake in Haiti is a giant human disaster, a tragedy for all who are in or connected to Haiti. But here I want to note something else. The scale of this earthquake puts it into the list of the 20 most deadly earthquakes in recorded history – really, into the top 10 of that list. You’ve heard me on this subject before. Great earthquakes in divers places is one of the prophecies of Jesus himself regarding events to happen leading up to his return. Without going into detail, I now here remind you of these three facts that are either encouraging to those awaiting Jesus’ return or shocking to those who haven’t yet waked up to what is happening in our time:
• Of the 20 most deadly earthquakes in recorded history – and that is hundreds and hundreds of years, 11 have occurred in the last approximately 100 years! That’s 55 %. If I had just asked you how many you think have occurred in the last hundred years, you would likely have said 1 or 2, and mathematically that would have been a reasonable answer. But 11? More than half? Surely you recognize this is out of a normal distribution over time.
• Of the 10 deadliest hurricanes (or typhoons) in recorded history, 4 or forty percent, have occurred in the last 40 years. The same point as above – this is way more than would have normally been expected (Jesus also warned of people being frightened by the roaring and tossing of the sea.).
• Now, for the real shocker, 4 of the deadliest earthquakes of recorded history and 1 of the deadliest hurricanes of recorded history have all happened since December 26, 2004. And 3 of these have occurred since May 2008!

Yes, partners and friends, we are living in the days of Jesus’ return. As detective Friday in the old show Dragnet would have said, “just the facts.” Yes, just look at the facts.





Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!