According to Revelation 13:16 the last battle that man and the enemy are going to engage in will be fought out in the marketplace. I had never seen this before until I realized that in order to buy or sell anything you will have to bear the mark of the enemy. This tells me that the economic world is crucial for the devils end time agenda.
I have heard that drug dealers, in a bid to create a market for their product, will offer it for free to a person and once they are hooked on it and cannot do without it, they then withhold it from them unless they can pay for it. In their desperation, the drug addict will do anything to secure another hit. They will steal, kill and prostitute just to get the next hit. This is the devil's strategy for us as well where the economic world is concerned. He has created such a "need" for the things of this world that even the Church has been caught up in a materialistic frenzy of epic proportions. In many churches today, the minor things have become the major things, while the major things have become the minor things.
Anything that has your heart, if it is not God, is an idol to you. If wealth has your heart it is an idol to you. In many churches most of the sermons are about money. The manipulation has become ridiculous. It almost feels like if you do not give a certain amount God will not look at you twice. Yet our God is not like that. The spirit of materialism has so pervaded the church that it is now on the altar and has become an idol to be worshiped by the people. An abomination that causes desolation. The sermon's are watered down. The people are stuck in their sins with no help. The sick are still sick. We see no miracles, signs or wonders to confirm the word of the Lord. Why? What has changed?
We have majored on the minors. It is about souls. It is about God. Let him be on the altar. Let him be worshiped. I have been hearing God say to me this year, "go back to the basics." Love your neighbor. Honor your Father and Mother. Bring all your tithes and offerings to the house. Forgive those who trespass against you. Be holy for I am holy. Do not abuse Grace. Sit here and stay right with me. These are the things that matter to God. I hate to say this, but ambitious church programs will not get it done. Having a church full of people and not teaching them how to walk right will not help them. If all they can think about, pray about, wail about in their homes is "God give me more money so I too can live well, eat well, drive the best and go on holiday to some exotic location" there is a problem. If the measure of whether or not you are blessed is how much wealth you have, then there is a problem.
I am not against living well. I believe as children of the King we should live well. However, that is not our goal in life. Our testimonies cannot be just about how God increased our income or how we have a new car. We need to have testimonies about how many people we spoke to about Christ. How many people we have prayed for and seen the manifestation of God in tangible healing and deliverance. If these were the testimonies we heard in church, how many people would be saved?
My heart breaks when I read the last verses of the faith chapter, Hebrews 11:35-38
"...Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted,were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— 38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, indens and caves of the earth."
Those described in this passage endured hell and held on to the Lord. They never had a good house, they lived in caves and dens and holes in the ground. They were destitute for this gospel. They were afflicted and tormented, mocked and whipped to a bloody pulp. They were tempted being promised all the wonderful material things we crave if only they would recant. Yet for this gospel, the true gospel of Christ, they refused to give in. The world was not worthy of them.
In the final marketplace battle this same scenario will be repeated. How many of us will be willing to walk away from all that we have to live in a den or a cave because of the gospel. I dare say that the addiction strategy of the enemy is such that he has many Christians hooked to materialism. Many would accept the mark and sell their souls instead of giving up their material comforts.
Who or what has your heart? No, really, who or what has your heart? Meditate on that and let the honest answer come to you.
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