A FULFILLED PROPHECY

A Fulfilled Prophecy
by R. Loren Sandford www.newsongfellowship.org

November 30, 2007 I posted the following "Prophetic Moments". In light of the crisis unfolding right now in our nation's financial system, I felt it appropriate to re-post at least key excerpts from it now today:

"RIDING THE ROLLER COASTER - For several years I've been warning believers that the kind of security and stability many of us have known in America during the last half of the twentieth century has ended....American believers have placed their faith in their prosperity (and thought it was God) to a degree most us have been blind to. This will be tested in days to come by the fires of instability and turmoil. The shaking that has come upon us will intensify and expose everything in us that has not been built upon a true foundation in Him....Having said this, I do not believe that America’s economy will collapse, but instability and uncertainty will get much worse. We will be like riders on a roller coaster, filled with fear because of the speed and violence of the changes of elevation and direction, when the truth is that for believers the ride is perfectly safe, fastened to the tracks in such a way as to ensure safety....The roller coaster of material instability is upon us and will remain, but for the believer the danger is only an illusion sent to produce fear. Fear shuts off the flow of the gospel and cripples the ministry of the body of Christ. Only true apprehension of the Father’s perfect love and a choice to have faith in His faithfulness form the antidote to the fear that threatens to overwhelm so many of us. In days to come we must learn to rely solely on our Lord for provision rather than the world’s lost stability."

To read the entire posting as I wrote it in November, 2007, click HERE. In "Purifying the Prophetic" I wrote that the true religion of America is not Christianity, but recycled Baalism. The cult of Baal in Bible times focused on material prosperity, the fulfillment of self. This focus, inspired by the same wicked principality, has dominated our American culture and has invaded the doctrines and practices of the church, drawing us away from the selfless message of the cross and installing prosperity as an article of faith. We are now experiencing the hand of God shaking this form of idolatry to its foundation. This is the fulfillment of what the Lord told me a year ago.

God has not given up on America. Not yet. This is why we are in no danger of imminent collapse, although some very difficult times lie before us. In 586 B.C. Israel's stubborn apostasy led God, in effect, to give them up to utter destruction, although a restoration came later when destruction produced its good fruit. We are not yet at that point - and America is not Israel. We might be more like Sodom and Gommorhah that would have been saved if even ten righteous could be found in them. Many more than ten righteous dwell in this nation and cry out in repentance for our sins. God still listens.

The shaking in coming months, however, will be violent. Never in my lifetime of 57 years have we seen such a stream of natural disasters impact this nation and the world. My sense is that we have seen only about a third of what is to come in terms of hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and so on. Some of these will impact regions previously considered safe. These disasters in nature are not the judgment of God, but rather the inevitable reaping of what we have sown in sin. Earth literally groans under the burden of it in the same way that when Cain murdered his brother Abel, his blood cried out to God from the ground. The financial meltdown we now see unfolding, however, is a different matter. I believe this is the hand of God directly shaking that in which we have placed our faith. Baal must be de-throned, beginning in the churches.

We must restore a faith like the apostle Paul's. I Corinthians 2:2, "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." He didn't die to make us prosperous. He died that we might die with Him, the old self laid to rest and a new self raised up in His image, reflecting His own nature and living it out in the world - and best of all, living in the Father's embrace. It's time for a radical adjustment of focus for our lives and spirituality.

Finally, as those in world around us become more fearful, they will need to know that a God in heaven loves them. They will be vulnerable to the gospel as never before. We must be ready to minister the kingdom of God to them. We cannot do that if we ourselves walk in the same level of fear as they do, or if we allow ourselves to be angry with God for material setbacks and financial difficulties. He has not let us down. We've let ourselves down. This is the time to press into intimacy with the Father who loves us and then to share our hope - our true hope - with those made ready to listen.