Understanding the Times in Which We Live

1 Chronicles 12:32 “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do;”

We are living in a time unlike any other that has ever existed. Today, ancient prophecies are unfolding, people are looking for answers to some of life’s most puzzling concerns and most of the Church is still asleep. I hear people saying that some of “the Church is so Heavenly-minded that they are no earthly good.” This is unfortunate and I hate to agree with this statement, but it does carry some validity. Many of the people they are referencing are good hearted, born-again Christians; yet they have no circle of influence, no appeal, no practical and/or real-life application of the Word of God in their personal lives, and no drive to be more than status-quo believers waiting for the sweet bye and bye (Heaven). They have a form of Godliness, but deny the power thereof (2 Timothy 3:5). We all know people like this, reminiscent of an Aunt Esther from Sanford and Son, known for nothing but going to church, doing good deeds and being religious. Now ask yourself, who would want to be like Aunt Esther? Answer: no one should. It’s sad that God has given His people all things pertaining to life and Godliness (2 Peter 1:3), yet the Church is a laughingstock in the earth. God has made us the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-14). We have been made the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15), but many times we are the most uninformed on many of today’s most important topics, such as: politics, current events and financial matters. The secular world doesn’t come to the Church for answers; unfortunately, many in the Church go to the secular world for answers. That’s backwards! As I write this article, I recently saw an advertisement for the new Simpson’s movie. In the trailer, Springfield (the Simpson’s town) was going to be destroyed by some sort of apocalyptic crisis. The father (Homer) was reading the Bible and was getting worried and said that there were no answers in it. Although it was a cartoon, it is a testament to the attitude that the secular world has about Christians and the Bible. It’s a pitiful witness, and that’s why we must understand the times and the world in which we live (as Christians, individuals, business owners, parents, teachers, community leaders), in order to be effective in decision making and providing direction for the ones we influence.

In the earlier years of this country, being a Christian was a societal litmus test for honor, respect and integrity; but today, it is shunned and despised among many. The true preachers were the conscious of the nation. They spoke out against injustices and the Governmental leaders acted accordingly to the outcry of the pulpit. The Old Testament (OT) prophets and early New Testament (NT) Church leaders were counsel to Government leaders; God’s people were the elders of the gate (the seat of authority in the community). A once respected people are now a disrespected, uninformed group of followers rather than leaders. God has made us the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13); we should be on the offensive, being leaders, pioneers and trailblazers; but now, the Church is seemingly on the defensive, waiting for God to change things and rescue us. What the Church doesn’t realize is that we (the Church) have let things get to this point in this country where God and His way of doing things is the exception, and not the standard. I believe that God is a deliverer and can use us to change things, Jesus’ name means Jehovah is salvation (deliverance). But we must walk in the authority that God has given us, stop compromising, stop being ignorant of the natural world in which we live, and move forward. We have to use what God has given us (naturally), God will do his part (supernaturally), and fill in the areas that we CANNOT supply. A lot of Christians make the mistake of just taking care of their spiritual obligations, such as: praying, fasting, believing, confessing, etc. This is good, but it’s not good enough. If you worked at the right job, you could make all of the money you needed without praying, giving, etc. (i.e., entertainers are multi-millionaires and many of them don’t claim Jesus). Remember this, God works through the natural realm. For example, when the Red Sea was parted, Moses stretched his hand out and then God caused a strong east wind to come and part the waters (Exodus 14:21). God uses natural things in the earth to bless us. God doesn’t drop money out of the sky. He blesses us through people and opportunities. Where are the opportunities around you? There is no pie in the sky. Understand how life and the world’s systems work. It is a cop out to say believe God, be a giver, and have faith in God. Yes we should do these things, but we must not neglect out natural obligations either. Do what you can in the natural, give God something to bless. Understanding the times in which we live is part and parcel to living a successful life on this earth.

Financial

We must understand how money works. We all have it and need it, so we should understand the mechanics of how business and economics works to some degree. Now this isn’t to say that you need to get a college education in finance, but a few solid books and some God-given common sense will give you the information that you need to understand what’s going on around you. Too often, unfortunately, the majority of the financial advice we hear from Christians and the pulpits is: tithe, be a giver and trust God. I think that is such a cop out. Do you know why I say that? Because there are many secular people who don’t care anything about Jesus and they have more money then they can spend. Money is a reward for your labor, creativity and expertise. Remember that! You don’t have to be a Christian to be prosperous; you just have to understand how to play the money game. If you understand the game and follow the rules, then you win. If you don’t understand the game and you don’t follow the rules, then you’ll just walk around defeated, always believing that God will deliver you from the natural world, that you can do yourself with a little education and application. In Luke 16:8 Jesus said “for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” [Author’s note: Just because you become a Christian doesn’t mean that you are to give up your common sense. God gave us brains with which to think. You don’t have to fast and pray about everything. For example, if you are tired, go to bed. There’s no need in pretending to be super-spiritual and praying all hours of the night when your body is naturally tired. Stop being religious! If God truly needs for you to stay up all night, He will anoint you for the task and it won’t be grievous (1 John 5:3). There’s a difference between being “religious” and having a genuine and personal relationship with God. Remember that!]

Here are a few examples of understanding the world’s financial system: the Stock Market and the banking industry. Many people don’t realize that the rich (corporate owners) offer employees and regular wage earners the opportunity to purchase shares of company stock, 401K’s, pension funds, etc. In exchange for this investment, the corporations take the worker’s cash contributions and reinvest this money in more aggressive and profitable investment opportunities. [Author’s note: Did you realize that banks and many wealthy people take advantage of the overnight interest rate? When you hear about the Federal Reserve raising or lowering the interest rates, they are actually talking about the overnight interest rate (an investment opportunity to which most people are not privy). If you were able to open one of these overnight/overseas/offshore accounts with $100,000.00 for a month, after 30 days you would have your principal returned to you, plus the +/- 5% daily compounding interest that goes with it. (Put $100,000.00 in your calculator and multiply it times 1.05 or 5% and hit the equal sign 30 times, meaning 30 days or a month. It totals over $425,000.00) If you ask your local banker about this, he/she will look at you like you have five heads. They will tell you all the reasons in the world not to be bothered with this type of investment (because they don’t know about it). “They’ll also say that if it was that easy, then everybody would be doing it;” “it’s too good to be true;” “the banks would never be able to get away with that.” Yet they are getting away with it everyday, at your expense. Banks and investment vehicles are only concerned with getting your money locked up for as long as they can, so that they can get the interest and credit for the highest account balance possible. That’s why they penalize you if you withdrawal your money before the term, because they anticipated on flipping your money around a few more times. So they make the difference of what they are losing by not using your money with a penalty. Another question: if you want to cash out your sizeable 401K, how long does it take for you to receive the check? Weeks or months? Theoretically, they can cut the check the same day. They call it processing time, but I call it getting that last little bit of interest off of your hard-earned money. It’s just like 3 to 5 business days for a check to clear. It’s a scam, folks! I know too many so-called “professionals” in real estate, banking, etc. who know less about their field than me. I teach some people about their own field. It’s sad! They are the professionals telling me their scripted answer about an issue, and then I end up correcting them and explaining “the game” to them. OK, I apologize for digressing, but you folks know how much of a passion this stuff is for me.]

What do you think that the insurance companies do with our monthly premiums for car, health and homeowners insurance? They take our money and invest it and reinvest it in the stock and currency market, that’s were it ultimately ends up. They use our money, and make a lot more. Then they reward the people’s portfolios with a 10%-25% per annum return. Sounds great, huh? They make more than that in one day with our money. Through Government compulsion (laws) we must maintain uninterrupted insurance on our cars/homes. But if there is no accident during the claim period, do you get a refund? No! Some companies throw you a bone, but ask them how much money they made off of our premiums for the year; and no claim was made against it. Do you understand that? It’s all a scam, big business and Governments work together, and it’s never for the benefit of the working class people. Remember that! If you don’t understand what I mean, you’ll see in the next example.

Homeowners get sizeable tax returns if they itemize and claim their mortgage interest when they file their taxes. Question: what does a private bank mortgage loan have to do with the Federal government giving you several thousands of dollars back at tax time? Think about it: the Federal Government and a private bank. It’s all a scam. These banks work with the Government to loan money. The banks create zeroes and ones as computer entries, and that’s your loan. It’s a loan created out of thin air. If you or I did that, we’d be busted for fraud. They then created a formula called amortization with is another scam that ends up being roughly 2-3 times the initial loan amount at maturity (360 months or 30 years). Now, here is the scam. If the bank created your loan as number computer entries, and not actual dollars transferring from bank to bank, then how much is this loan costing the bank and how much is it costing you? Let me say it another way. If you ask me to loan you ten dollars, I reach into my pocket and physically give you $10. Then you eventually repay me $10. But if I loaned you money as the banks do it, I’d go to my computer open up an account for you in my system and approve a $10 credit for you. No physical money moved from one place to another, it just appeared on my computer screen because I put it there. You get scammed because not only do you have to pay this fraudulent loan off 2 or 3 times via amortization, but you have to battle with adjustable interest rates, an unlikely possibility of the bank calling your loan in, and being under a task master working off a 30 year mortgage (derived from a French word which means a death pledge). It’s a great scam for the banks and the Government because the banks lend more money, which means that they can expect monthly income from the homeowners paying on those mortgage notes. Banks then pass these liabilities onto the equities markets, which in turn are packaged as derivatives (combination of many high risk investments). The homeowner is generally happy in all of this because at tax time they can expect several thousands of dollars to be returned to him/her. It’s a nice cushion for him/her to use throughout the year, and the scam continues year after year. Question: If you get a $10,000.00 from the Federal Government, how much do you think that they made off of you in order to give you $10,000.00? They can’t give you what they don’t have and they aren’t going to give you what you gave them. Understand? How many thousands of percent are the banks making off of your bank loans if the money is created on a computer screen (just like credit cards)? Answer: they are making the amount of money you are paying them in percents. In other words, if I have nothing and you give me $100.00, that’s not a 100% increase. If I had $100.00 and made another $100.00 from my initial $100.00, that’s a 100% return (double your investment). But the banks put up $0 and they are accumulating large sums of money at the maturity of the note. How do you quantify $300,000.00 from $0 in terms of percentage earned? It’s astronomical! Do you understand that? Folks, I’m not saying that it’s bad to own a home, but I’m just letting you that we must be cognizant of the system and the rules associated with the system of which we are apart. Like I said earlier, if you understand the game and follow the rules, then you win. If you don’t understand the game and don’t follow the rules, then you’ll just walk around defeated, always believing that God will deliver you from the natural world, that you can do yourself with a little education and application. Knowing the game and the rules will allow you to navigate into other areas and possibly allow you to take advantage of uncommon situations. Pay attention to the rules, it’s not hard to understand, but you must fashion your mind to think another way sometimes.

Government, the Prophetic and Technology

I’ll continue this article at another time and address these issues. This article became longer than I thought. There’s so much more to write. There’s so much and I can’t expound upon everything like I desire, because of space constraints. But these articles will be made into chapters and sections in my upcoming book. I’m really excited about it, and I hope that you are enjoying the information. As far as this section concerning Government, the Prophetic and Technology goes, don’t worry and don’t be afraid, the big bad anti-Christ isn’t going to come and put a bar-coded microchip on your hand or forehead. Don’t let the “Left Behind” movies scare you. There is some strange technology that the government and others will be using in the future, but it’s only detrimental to you if you are uninformed. This entire system that they are concocting of control grid, surveillance, and big brother of 1984 (the book and movie) proportions is going to ultimately fail. Lack of sound information always breeds ignorance. Always go back to the Source. The Word of God is the Source. So anchor yourself in it and find out what it says before you run off on either side of the road. Let the Word of God balance you and keep you in focus. Remember that! Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy (Revelation 1:3). See, you’re blessed by the words of the prophetic, not doomed. [Author’s note: I want to stress the main focus of this website: to cause you to think about pertinent issues that affect your daily life. That is why I don’t address irrelevant stories about Paris Hilton’s jail term, Dan Rather’s comments about Katie Couric being an agent to dumb-down the CBS viewers, the recent memorial celebration for Princess Diana or Barry Bond’s being elected as the oldest starter in an MLB All-Star game. These stories won’t help your life, these are filler stories to keep you occupied and distracted from real news. Look at real issues and ask questions. You have the capacity to analyze and think critically. You will also be surprised at how much more intelligent you are in comparison to some of the people we admire on television. Most of them aren’t the brightest bulbs in the box.] Live well!