Our currency says, “In God We Trust,” but do we really trust God as the Master Economist of the universe? Discover God’s strategy for your personal finances and the economy of the Nation. Understanding God’s economic cycles and seasons will prepare to you prosper in the midst of the world’s uncertainty.

How do you respond when you hear about or are confronted with difficult economic cycles? Some Christians personalize the situation. This is particularly true if difficult times affect us directly. When we face difficult circumstances of any kind, we may begin to wonder if God is trying to tell us something. We may even begin to make long-term decisions from emotional places.

Having been a pastor, I have too often heard people make statements that amount to, “God must be trying to take my business away from me,” or “God wants me to lose my home and job.” While we know this is not the case, it is a sure sign that our minds are working on loss avoidance. From this place, we are in danger of missing the opportunity to discover creative ways to add to our lives and vocations.

Let us begin by looking at this in a macro sense. God is an Economist. He operates His universe with cycles and seasons. We need only look at ecology and how He has created cycles for nature as an example. These cycles are designed to allow for growth through short-term and long-term adjustments. We only need to examine the growth bands in a tree to see how God has provided different seasons of drought, excessive water and strong growth years. These various seasons naturally manage the forests – ultimately for our good.

Some would say these adjustments are a result of the curse and that may well be. But there will be cycles. We so often sabotage ourselves if we do not allow these adjustments and focus on the present rather than the longer term affects. I have watched these economic cycles for many years and they are predictable.

Benefiting from economic cycles
Another example is the size and number of forest fires in the United States. When we created the United States Fire Department, the organization believed its primary purpose was to avoid forest fires altogether. But by eliminating or minimizing the forest fires we did not allow nature to take its natural course of action. Then, as the ground cover became deeper and drier it allowed for larger and hotter fires that could not be stopped. This has led to very large and destructive fire damage.

Think of economic cycles the same way. These economic cycles are for God’s purposes, and we need to learn to benefit from them. We have tried to administer and manipulate the economic cycles rather than taking a Joseph approach and utilize them for Kingdom purposes. We must do the latter to benefit from these cycles.

God uses His economic cycles for two reasons: to bring nations to an awareness of Him and His purposes and to adjust their attitudes. The truth is, the resources He releases through His creation control the prosperity of nations. These resources may be natural or material resources, information resources, or human resources.

Economic cycles also allow God to bridle our greed and selfishness so we become aware of the spirit of mammon. Mammon is a very destructive spirit of the enemy. Remember, the reason God brought the children of Israel through the wilderness was to humble them, prove them and to know what was in their heart. He had to prepare them for the land of milk and honey. He had to teach them economics.

Nearly all of our greatest times of discovery, inventions and advancement came out of times of lack, hardness and brokenness – if we are able to allow our survival thinking to become our creative thinking.

Economics of an election year
Being an election year, 2008 will see God use the economy to direct the agenda – and ultimately use His person to lead our country for His purpose. We will notice some shifts in the next several months and even witness an unexpected upturn kick toward the end of the year. This will direct our focus to… Read the Full Article