We want to address some very basic and practical kingdom financial management principles. First, we need to go over a couple of principles that can help keep us on the right path.

          Most prophetic revelation is on the impression level. It is the “still small voice” of God, and we may be tempted to think these are just thoughts coming from our own souls. Test them. A good way to do this is to ask a question of the person you’re getting something for in the beginning.

     I am taking one of my recent and controversial prophecies about the impending catastrophe on the U.S. West Coast as an example of interpreting and communicating prophetic experiences. Obviously, I have a dual purpose for this. The first is for sharing principles, but I also hope that these prophecies will be heard and that intercession and repentance will greatly reduce what is pending.

         Anyone who believes in the atonement of the cross of Jesus is redeemed and will have eternal life. However, there is far more to our calling than just securing salvation. The Great Commission is to make disciples, not just converts. When we study the Lord’s teachings about the characteristics of His disciples, we may wonder if we know any. Being a disciple of Christ is not an easy life, but it is the path to the most fulfilling life we can live. This is a life of “growing up in all things into Him” (see Ephesians 4:15).

The church is called to be a message to the earth of God's character and power, and His kingdom, which is His rule. As the church matures into its full purpose at the end of this age, it will become a part of heaven on the earth, being ruled more by the power and authority of heaven than by the earthly realm. The church is called to be the body of Christ, which is the very extension of His being on the earth that He seeks to do His works through.

As we covered some time ago, the first lesson Israel had to learn if they were going to make it across the wilderness to their Promised Land, was how to turn the bitter waters into sweet, as we read in Exodus 15:22-26:
 

As we have been covering the last few weeks, the church now stands on the brink of one of the most important advances in history. It is an advance that must take place. If the church continues to wander in the wilderness, it will only wither away. We are called to be sojourners, but not nomads. Sojourners travel to a destination, while nomads just wander. We are coming to the destination that the entire church age has been preparing us for and now we must cross over.

In the next verse of the Lord’s discourse concerning the end of the age, and after saying there will be “wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6) He speaks of the issue that will cause most of the wars and conflicts.

World War II remains the most devastating and costly conflict in human history. Including the war in China there were as many as one hundred million people who died in it. The physical damage is far beyond our ability to calculate. It was motivated by the some of the cruelest evil to ever manifest itself in mankind. Even so, as both the Lord Jesus and Paul explained, the things that will come upon the world at the end will be like birth pangs when a woman in labor. It is the nature of birth pangs or “contractions” to become both stronger and more frequent the closer to birth.

Our text for this week is Ephesians 5:4: