Daily Devotional for Thursday November 13, 2008

The Economy Continues to Decline as Christians Better Prepare for Real Persecution

(Haggai 1:5,6)

"Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.' " Haggai 1:5,6

The economy continues to decline as Christians better prepare for real persecution. It is sad that you won't hear the truth about the economy on Christian TV and radio. I understand they don't want to talk about it, since they are afraid it will scare people into not giving them money. So they simply ignore the most important event happening in our nation today that is affecting most everyone's life. I have also yet to see anyone in the Christian media with the foresight to warn the people about the coming persecution of Christians. This is not something that may happen, this is something that IS going to happen, and very soon!

Let me give you the bottom line on the economy and some counsel. I shared with you in the Spring, that God could very easily use the economy as a form of His judgment on this nation for our sins and wickedness. In mid-September we saw that demonstrated as the stock market has dropped 40% from its highs just one year ago, with over 8 trillion dollars of net worth wiped out affecting tens of millions of people. I remember distinctly telling you that the reason all of the economists, business executives, politicians, and pundits had no answer since they were looking for an economic answer to fix a spiritual problem.

Here we are after the last 8 weeks and over $1 trillion dollars of money we didn't have to begin with, and the economy is in even worse shape. Once again, there are no real answers on the horizon other than to keep giving away money we don't have to different sectors. DHL, the worldwide freight carrier is closing out all of its United Stats operations in the next few months. Circuit City, the box store electronics giant has filed for bankruptcy protection. The United States Post Office, for the first time in its history is laying off 40,000 workers. The gold standard of the US economy, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, are bleeding billions each month and on the verge of completely shutting down if the government doesn't step in and give them tens of billions in loans. On top of that, many state and local governments are running huge deficits, and will have to cut programs and basic services to simply stay afloat.

Over the course of the last 2 months, the United States Government now has an equity stake in the major banks, the auto industry, with an even bigger stake soon to come, the largest insurance company in the world, as well as the real estate market which is the sector of the economy that started this economic disaster. Even though the government claims that these are only short term positions to help these various industries during this downturn, as I told you in an earlier Devotional, they are going to be in these equity positions for a long time because there are no signs of any turn around for quite a while in any of these sectors. Overnight we have become a quasi socialistic nation and under the new Obama regime, that is only going to continue as the government takes over the health care industry and looks to enact massive new socialist programs that amounts to little more than wealth redistribution.

Coming at the same time as the economic crisis, is going to be the first real taste of persecution Christians in this nation have ever tasted. President-elect Obama ran his Presidential campaign with typical Chicago political thuggary. He sought to intimidate and silence anyone who opposed him. With the power of the Presidency, you will see a very scary form of intimidation like never before. It is no accident he has named Rahm Emanuel, a long time political pit bull who grew up in the rough world of Chicago politics, as his Chief of Staff. He is already talking about creating a Civilian National Security Force. He has refused to define what this group will do, but it sounds eerily like some sort of private army, like Hitler's SS.

If you think I am stretching things, look no further than his "Internet Army" of 3.1 million. These people are already being mobilized to patrol the Net and go after anyone who has the audacity to question Obama and target those who oppose him. This was a chief function of his online army during his bid for the White House, and it will no doubt be an important group he will use once in the White House to intimidate, and destroy if need be, those who oppose him. Trust me, Christians who speak out against his support of killing babies, the radical homosexual agenda, and his favor towards Palestine, will become targets of his internet army.

As I told you right after he was elected, be prepared for Obama to hit the White House on January 20th and start issuing Executive Orders, which allows him to enact policy without having to go through the Congress. He is immediately going to wipe out all of President Bush's Executive Orders curbing funding for any new embryonic stem cell research, and overturn a Bush policy that prevents forcing taxpayers to fund groups that perform or promote abortions in other countries. President-elect Obama is determined not only to insure babies in this nation are legally slaughtered through his support of the Freedom of Choice Act that he will insure passes soon after he takes office, but babies in foreign countries as well, ON THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS DIME!!!

Also, be prepared early in his term for Obama to work with Congress to pass legislation that makes speaking out against the sin of homosexuality, even from the Bible, considered "hate speech." He owes a big debt to the homosexual community and has been a constant champion of the radical homosexual agenda his entire political career. After several failed attempts over the years to pass the same type of laws that are in effect in many European countries and in Canada, there will be no stopping it this time. The sad reality is this won't affect most pastors, since they have already acquiesced to political correctness and never speak out against this sin since they are more afraid of offending men with than declaring the Truth of God's Word.

My friend, the Godless, the secular humanists, those who have rejected Christ and the Bible, see this as their big opportunity to silence once and for all those who still hold to faith in Jesus Christ and believe the Bible is the Word of God and our only Truth. As aggressive as they have been in the past, they will be even more aggressive in the coming months and years. Add to their efforts activist judges who legislate from the bench, and you have a climate ripe for real persecution of those who take their faith into the public square.

Please understand, most churches won't be affected because they don't speak up now, and if they do, it is behind closed doors. Those who will be the targets of this persecution are those who will dare to go into the public square and declare the Truth of the Bible. They will become easy targets as they will be labeled as hate mongers, purveyors of hate speech, intolerant, radicals, extremists, and find little sympathy from the Christ-less masses for whatever they have to endure.

I love you and care about you so much. Listen to me! As for the economy, there are incredible flaws in the business models of many of these companies being bailed out. All the money in the world can't make a bad business work. It only allows that business to stay afloat. That is why government intervening in the free markets is foolish, unless it plans to nationalize those businesses like the communist countries do. I don't see anything positive happening in the economy for a very long time, if ever, if indeed this is one of the ways God is going to punish this nation.

For those who love the Lord, He will watch over you. You may lose your job, but God will give you a new job. You may lose money in the markets, God will insure your needs are met. You may be struggling right now, but don't worry, God has not forsaken you and will provide. Many of you God will give great favor to and despite the economic downturn, you will flourish and prosper! You have a good job and are earning a good wage so that God can use you in a big way to help keep His work funded and moving forward.

My counsel is to be prepared for a LONG economic downturn. I suggest keeping a certain amount of cash in a safe place at home. Having some gold coins is also a good idea since they will always be a form of currency in any economy. I would advise stocking up on non-perishable food. This not a time to panic, but to plan. This is not a time to be paranoid, but prepared. Seek the Lord in prayer and seek His guidance in ALL of your economic decisions. The Lord will give you wisdom and favor with men as you seek Him.

As for the coming persecution. I refuse to change or compromise, even though I realize that I am going to have a huge bulls-eye on my back. I have already been targeted by the IRS for speaking out. I did NOTHING to even remotely violate our exemption, and they are in a quandary since I spoke out on the spiritual issues of a white Republican as hard as I did a black Democrat. So I don't know how they are going to say I influenced the outcome of a political campaign. Not to mention, there have been hundreds, thousands who blatantly violated their exemption by endorsing and actively working to elect a certain candidate, something I have never done.

The fact is, I refuse to be intimidated or bullied and will keep pushing forward to reach even more people with God's Truth no matter what the obstacles may be. Now more than ever our work here is critical to insure God's Truth is heard in the marketplace by the lost and hurting masses. Every day I hear of churches closing their doors, ministries having to shut down for a lack of funding. We have been down over 20% in our donations from a year ago. However, God is our source and I continue to walk in faith each day, knowing that the Lord can raise up new people to support our work financially, and give favor to those in the Liveprayer family who faithfully support His work here.

Obama has his Internet army of 3.1 million. That is why it is critical to keep populating the Jonah Project with sold out Believers who will take their stand for Christ. If you are not already on board with the Jonah Project, please go to the Liveprayer.com website and click on the Jonah Project icon at the top that takes you to the Jonah Project homepage. Watch the short vision video and get signed up. We also still need leaders who will help us as we build this army of Christian soldiers. If God is leading you to take a leadership role in the Jonah Project, please email me at: bkeller@liveprayer.com

I know the economy is a huge issue and is gong to continue to be a huge issue. I pray today as God keeps you employed, keeps funds flowing through your home, and even in this downturn, gives you great favor and blessings in your finances. May He entrust in your hands resources, so that you can help employ those resources to further His work here on earth. The enemy is well financed in their quest to lead souls to hell. We need to be well financed as we fight satan for those same souls, helping to lead them to everlasting life with their Creator in Heaven!!!

In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ, Bill Keller