Stabilizing the Global Economy and Preparing for Increase
One - Begin with worship:
“O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.”
(Isaiah 25:1; NASB)“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has made desolations in the earth. Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
(Psalm 46:1-2,6-8, and 10; NKJV)
Father, we bring the economy of the United States of America, and the nations of the world, before You and we ask for Your mercy. Without Your merciful hand being extended, our nation, that You intended to be a city on a hill and a light in the darkness, will be overcome by the evil schemes of man and the plans of Satan. We look to You to lead us out of the darkness and into the light. You have set up walls and ramparts for our security and You are placing wise watchmen, guardians of our economic gates, in positions of authority to guide us out of these low places to higher, solid ground.
We receive Your favor and respond righteously. Your majesty will be revealed through just economics in our land. We declare that this difficult economic time has not taken You by surprise and that You are now working wonders with our economy; plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
We have entered into our rooms, closed our door behind us, and hidden for a time, and we have placed Your blood, Jesus, on our doorposts. You are our refuge and our strength, our ever-present help in trouble. Thank You that destruction has passed over us, and You are laying new cornerstones for firm foundations. Your justice and righteousness are leveling and measuring our new course.
Points for prayer and declaration:
Declare that the Lord alone is our God that we have been waiting for, and He is saving us. (Isaiah 25:2-4, 7, 9)
Declare that we are coming out from under the rule of other masters, and that He will increase our nation and extend our borders. We will seek Him in our distress. (Isaiah 26:13, 15, 19)
Thank Him for our country’s restoration and a new identity.
Worship Him and declare that He is the God who made the world and all things in it. He is the Lord of heaven and earth and He does not dwell in temples made with hands; He is the One who gives life and breath and all things, and we honor the Breath of Life into our future and into what He is newly creating to sustain us (Acts 17:24-25).
Thank Him for setting our appointed times and the boundaries of our habitation as we seek Him (Acts 17:26).
Say, “We resist the devil, his plans, his agenda, and he is fleeing. We declare that no strategy to change times and seasons will be able to co-exist in the presence of a worshiping Ekklesia. Our praise shall become Your throne! We release our fragrant offerings of our broken boxes into the global atmosphere, and know that You inhabit those praises. You establish Your rulership and bring Your crowned authority from Your realm to our realm and we release angels to bring Your Kingdom revelation from Your holy place to Your chosen leaders positioned to bring forth a new economy!”
Two - Repentance and realignment with God:
“Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, ‘In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.’ These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
(Jude 17-25; NIV)
Oh Lord, our God, we recognize You are using this unprecedented global event to get the attention of Your Ekklesia and the nations of the globe. God, we’ve never been here before. Our eyes are on You.
Let this pause and separation have Your desired effect. Have you created an economic draught of the labor of our hands? Have You blown away what increase there was as You did in Haggai’s day? Are you rebalancing Your ledger of the nations’ historical and current economies for the purpose of getting us to the place where the nations would walk by the Lamp of the Lamb and bring their wealth, glory, and honor to You based on Revelation 21:23-26?
Lord, we confess we have not always taken time to assess the true condition of our churches. We see the example in the seven churches in Revelation where You were brutally honest and gracious in your reports.
Strengthen us by Your Spirit to stand and receive what You have to say to us. We are asking You that we might learn from You. Speak, for we, Your people, are listening.
Father, show us the error of our ways. Convict us. Bring Your loving correction and discipline that we may grow to the full measure of Your Son as mature sons and daughters that we may steward the inheritance of Your glory—nations that Jesus was promised. Don’t let us be unchanged by this. We need Your help to not let us go back to business as usual. Please help us to utilize this moment in time that the enemy is meaning for harm. We trust You are using it for your purposes.
We admit to being tired of doing the same things and expecting different results. Please receive this humble repentance that we bring you, our High Priest. May we present to You a righteous offering of the full tithe into Your treasury. Use the wealth that You gave us the power to create to confirm our renewed covenant with You to build Your House and disciple the nations.
Guidelines for your personal reflection and intercession:
Wait on Him, to fully discern His intent and desired outcomes. We say as Moses said, “Don’t pass us by, we want You to go with us.”
Haggai says that the Lord created diminished returns because they were not building His House. Ask the Lord to show us where we are guilty of not building His House, but rather, building our own.
Repent for not bringing the best, and where we may have cheated Him by bringing offerings not from hearts full of love and gratitude towards Him.
Have the cries of the laborers whose wages have been withheld reached Your ears, God of angel armies, as James tells us? Is that money testifying against us? Intercede, “Oh God, we repent for every place we have withheld and misappropriated the resources, wealth, and influence You have given us. We ask You to teach us to see with new eyes the resources You have provided and how to increase them as our worship to You.”
Ask Him to forgive us where we have turned from His reproof and neglected His counsel. Say, “We choose to turn back to You, to that place where You promise to pour out Your spirit and make Your Words known to us.”
In 2 Chronicles 20:20 we are instructed to “Listen,…put your trust in the Lord your God and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed.” We declare, “We will listen and obey, trusting You alone, our Sovereign. We declare that when the prophets speak, we will trust what You say through them.”
We repent for not discipling the nations, for not developing definitions and training on what and how to be sheep nations versus goat nations. We repent where we have been intimidated and afraid, causing us to compromise in not delineating good versus sin and evil.
Three - Compassionate petitions for the suffering:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction,
so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.’
(1 Corinthians 1:3-4; ESV)“But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?”
(1 John 3:17; ESV)“For God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
(2 Timothy 1:7; NKJV)
Father, You are the God of all comfort. We are suddenly living in chaotic times that we did not know were coming. Many are fearful, even some that belong to You. Many things threaten to destroy our lives, especially financially. We, Your Church, turn our hearts totally to You. We will look to You from where our help comes. Make us those that are able to intercede for others, and meet needs where it is possible. Let us open our hearts, time, and resources to those who are suffering. Let us be the ones that give in the midst of the crisis, showing forth Jesus, in whom our faith is rooted and grounded.
You are the one in charge of this crisis. You are the One that empowers the church to save the lost, heal the sick, cast out demons, and disciple nations. We need that power now. We need Your wisdom, discernment, compassion, and direction. Holy Spirit, fill our hearts and fill our hands. Multiply what we have, just like You did for the Israelites and just like You did through the miracle of the loaves and fish.
We need a greater capacity to love, to serve, and to intercede. Even while asked to shelter in place, let us pull out all the stops and do all we can do to expand Your Kingdom in this era. Save us, Jesus, and we shall be saved. May we be very different when this is all over. May we come out richer and more prosperous with a wealth the world cannot comprehend.
Guidelines for your personal reflection and intercession:
Take authority over the spirit of fear blanketing this nation. Deal with it first in your own life, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. We will not hear God clearly, if we are afraid. When people are afraid, they will make wrong choices and decisions. This leads to hoarding, addictions, and other economic activities detrimental to themselves and society.
Intercede for families. Ask the Lord to grant them grace, peace, unity, and a renewed love for one another. The family is the core unit of all economics. Where families are strong, they work together to meet the basic physical and emotional needs of one another. Some are fragile and on the edge. Cry out for mercy over those households.
Intercede for the elderly, the disabled, the mentally ill, and those most vulnerable in our society. Pray they would not be forgotten. Pray against isolation and financial stress. Call forth those that will notice them and can watch over them. Intercede for their ability to be able to obtain the food and medications they need without interruption.
Ask God to provide for all those out of work. Ask Him to stir the Church to find out where needs are in their communities and deposit in us creative strategies to meet those needs. Pray for an outpouring of witty inventions and creative ideas ready to launch on the other side of this. The next major inventions may be being developed in garages and at kitchen tables right now.
Pray for the sick among us. Believe that they will be healed! Sickness like the COVID-19 virus can devastate a person financially. To the coronavirus, shout, “Basta! Stop!”
Pray for the churches, especially small churches. Some will not survive this season. Where there is reliance on tithes and offerings, there is risk. The reliance of the local church must now be on God alone. Congregants, don’t stop tithing! Give an extra offering right now, if you have the means to. May the Lord provide, if you can’t give right now.
Small businesses comprise 99% of all businesses in America. They are the literal lifeblood of our economy, especially our local economies. Some business models may disappear entirely, yet the new birth of American ingenuity will continue in what one economist termed the “creative destruction” of the free enterprise system. We need not forget this as we are praying for healing and repair of the U.S. economy. Old models die, new ones will be born. Pray for creative ingenuity to come to the forefront of small business owners and workers to reformat themselves.
Four - A Time for Issachar Eyes:
“From the tribe of Issachar, there were 200 leaders of the tribe with their relatives.
All these men understood the signs of the times
and knew the best course for Israel to take.”
(1 Chronicles 12:32; NLT)
Much of the fear in our nation today comes from our lack of information. Knowing certain things creates a certainty and a sense of control over our environment and our future.
Currently, we just don’t know how widespread this Covid-19 epidemic will be, how many people will it kill, what can be done to mitigate its effects or when the “curve will flatten”. And no one knows precisely when “shelter in place” lifts, when businesses will restart or “life returns to normal”.
We do know that “this too shall pass” and that our path out of times of crisis will have some predictability. This is the time for the Body of Christ, the ekklesia, to see the world with Issachar eyes and to exercise our authority via the Keys of the Kingdom to facilitate changes to the culture in the wake of the chaos.
The prophets have spoken of our being in a time of chaos and transition. We are in place, both personally and as the ekklesia, like a skier approaching a mogul – one of those bumps on a trail that beginners fear and veterans use for play. When one skies up a mogul, the skier knows that as the top is crested there is a brief opportunity for an effortless change of direction. We will shortly be in such a place where good choices can decisively change direction -- both personally and as the ekklesia.
Kingdom folk should be seeking Holy Spirit wisdom regarding strategic plans and timing during this season of opportunity. This time is connected to the “transfer of wealth”.
Guidelines for your personal reflection and intercession:
Thank the Lord for creative strategies for the church, which are bursting forth right now! The Church is being seen! Social distancing has halted church gatherings, yet more are logging onto livestreamed worship that have ever attended the local services. Tech that many church leaders had lightly tolerated has suddenly become a lifeline for fellowships across the nation. Online and telephone prayer has increased exponentially. Online worship is being accessed 24/7. Many are sensing that this is in preparation for a great harvest.
Thank the Lord for quick, innovative medical answers. The sudden need for vaccines, therapies, and cures has highlighted new and forgotten medical approaches. Serum therapy is being rediscovered from the days of the Great Influenza Epidemic. Existing research possibilities are being fast-tracked to clinical trials. Repurposed malaria treatments may offer a cheap, generic therapy. New clinical tools allow us to “see” the viruses and gene-splicing allows us to reengineer DNA.
Thank the Lord for Israel and their medical technology. Watch Israel! Research there has an approach that will treat multiple flu viruses with a simple pill, eliminating the need for less effective vaccinations.
Thank the Lord for those that are able to project forward and see how different sectors of society will recover. Our path out of the crisis will be different for each sector of society. Some, like personal care businesses, especially hairdressers, will bounce back quickly. Some will take longer. Sadly, there will also be businesses which could possibly fail. Pray for a minimization of losses and a swifter recovery process.
Thank the Lord for new educational possibilities being seen. Smaller Liberal Arts Colleges were already closing and merging at record rates. Now that the folks know that a student can live at home and still get the education, fewer will see the need to pay 50-80K per year for the traditional college experience.
Five - Stabilizing the Economy:
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'”
(Jeremiah 33:3; NIV)“Use accurate and honest weights and measures.
Then you will live for a long time in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”
(Deuteronomy 25:15; GWT)
In hopes of stabilizing the U.S. economy, the government just passed a $2 Trillion Rescue Package – this “stimulus” really should be described as a “rescue” package, instead. It is primarily designed to help assist laid off workers with cash outlays for their expenses, and enhanced unemployment assistance, plus attempting to aid small businesses in terms of “staying afloat” during the corona virus social distancing/work from home mandates. Very little actual stimulus is in the bill.
Programs include:
Direct checks - sent to consumers who qualify (ie. below $150,000 AGI for couple, $75,000 for individual) to help supplement incomes. While anything helps at this point, consumers are unlikely to “spend” this money on anything besides survival necessities until they feel “safe” both from the disease and their jobs. Since consumer spending makes up 70% of the U.S. economy, this helps, but is really more of a band aid than true stimulus.
Expanded Unemployment Benefits – The U.S. experienced a record jump in first time unemployment claims, over 3 million workers applied last week alone. The speed and magnitude of this spike is simply unprecedented. For the first time ever, unemployment checks are now designed to be “replacement checks”, replacing 100% of a worker’s pre-layoff salary or wages, whereas previous benefits often represented as much as a 50% income reduction.
Small Business Loans – The CARES ACT authorizes up to $350 billion in small business loans (up to $10 million dollar loans available at 4% to companies with under 500 employees), which should be available as early as this Friday, mostly administered through some 800 banks associated with the Small Business Administration of the U.S. government. Some facts:
There are an estimated 30.7 million small businesses in America, employing 59.9 million employees. This represents 47.3% of all U.S. employees, but more importantly, typically about 60% of all new jobs are created by small businesses.
Loan packages are designed to help keep small businesses stay afloat during the Corona shutdown, giving them access to capital equal to about 8 weeks of spending on items such as wages or payroll, rent or mortgage payments, salaries, health insurance benefits, sick leave etc. Companies which retain all of their employees will be eligible for loan forgiveness under certain conditions.
Especially vulnerable are the 109 million service workers, 17 million or so work in hotel and restaurant businesses, some of which are often amongst the lowest paid. Right now, both restaurants and hotels are essentially shut down. These businesses are at risk to never return to “normal” once the 8 weeks is up.
At the end of the day, our economy will be dependent on 2 things: How long will it take health officials to control the virus? Will the remaining businesses stay afloat in the meantime?
Guidelines for your personal reflection and intercession:
Pray for a supernatural multiplication of funds businesses receive to cover payroll/employment costs. Replacement-wage unemployment benefits only last up to 4 months currently. Lower wage industries are especially vulnerable here. Low wage employees tend to spend, not save, thus the greater the amount that can be reimbursed to these workers, the greater the positive impact on the economy, as lost, and thus not spent, income compounds the recession.
Ask the Lord to give governing leaders supernatural insight into if and when and how much to continue stimulating or rescuing the economy. Over-stimulus can cause its own set of issues. More true stimulus may be needed within a few weeks to keep the economic downspin from accelerating.
Intercede and pray for strengthening into the current known “Boom” areas, which include: anything in healthcare/medical, and technology for telecommuting, distance learning, anything allowing work or study or shopping from home, which will obviously accelerate greatly.
Six - Economic Reset:
“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner.
I am the Lord your God.”
(Leviticus 19:9-10; NIV)“The Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’”
(Genesis 11:5-7; NIV)
We are in a global economic reset, but it’s more than that. The world order is changing before our very eyes. A few years ago, European economists were quoted as saying that “What two World Wars failed to do - to change the world as we know it - the crisis in 2008 almost did.” Back then, Central Banks were able to avert this. Now however, the Corona crisis is doing exactly that. It is changing the world as we know it. Post Corona Crisis recession is a given in the minds of many. China is now flexing its muscles as the benevolent superpower that is ready to take over where the U.S. has left off with knowledge and finances in exchange for trade agreements.
First, let’s be clear that we are not seeking a return to the old normal. We’re seeking kingdom wisdom to help advance the needed “great reset” of the economy. We need Kingdom People to help the nation move towards a biblical worldview where the family is seen as the building block of the nation and its economy. We need a multi-generational economic model built on a biblical base and a belief that our people are key to our wealth.
We are entering a true Passover in the first year of this Pey decade, as we prepare to appropriate and apply the blood of Jesus to the doorposts of this house called America. As we are spending time together as families during this plague, we remember Him. We will acknowledge our dependence on Him, while remaining under the covering of His blood. We declare that joy will come in the morning, as He delivers us from destruction and bondage, leading us out of Egypt and away from its gods. He is our Source and Provider. He has given us authority, so we declare that our shoes and clothing will not wear out in the days ahead, that manna awaits us every morning, and that as we come out of this dark night, the gold and silver that are His will be released into our hands.
If anything is clear, it’s that we’re not going back to business as usual. This is a major global reset and not a pause.
Guidelines for your personal reflection and intercession:
Unravel Globalism in the spirit. It is not God’s idea. God is the Creator of nations (Gen. 11). He is the One who established ethnicities and geographical borders. It was never His idea for one nation to dominate others, as China is doing today, or that all nations become one.
·Intercede into nations rethinking their global supply chains. Too many essential things like medicines for those who need to be connected to breathing machines and the breathing machines themselves, etc., are being delivered too late because of monopolies held by pharmaceutical companies. This is due to the fact that manufacturing is spread out over different nations.
Ask God how to better prepare for the future, both individually and nationally. The crisis has shown us which sectors are important for national security—healthcare, education, agriculture (to guarantee food supply), and the biotech industry. Since the expectation is that this won’t be the last pandemic that many of us will experience in our lifetimes, more attention will be paid to these areas in the future.
Call forth God’s economic policies into the United States, Israel, and any other sheep nations. There is a growing dissatisfaction with Capitalism as it is practiced now. The Corona Crisis hasn’t caused this, but it has catalyzed it. The fact that many companies that have prospered during the last few years and have used their profits to buy back their own stocks, and maximize shareholder value instead of saving for a rainy day, and are now asking for government tax breaks and handouts, is not going down well at all.
Praise God that He has provided a solution! Economic research being done has proven that implementing the concepts of Jubilee (Lev. 25) and gleaning (Lev. 19:9-10; Lev. 23:22) produces companies that outperform those which are run using solely the principle of profit maximization for the shareholders.
Bless the wealth that is coming into our hands supernaturally, which will cause us to worship Him and will allow us to build a nation for Him to dwell in.
Call forth the Great Harvest of souls. It is time. People are realizing that we are not the masters of our own fate.
Seven - Creating the new:
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’ Then He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.’”
(Revelation 21:4-7; NASB)
Let’s complete this time of intercession by calling forth the new things. What is on God’s heart to do now? Let’s find it and speak it forth into the earth.
“We marry the prophetic revelation being released with Your Word and Your principles, Lord, to bring forth Your strategies. We inquire of You, Father, ‘How would You desire to heal our economy? What are the steps that You would have us take?’ We call forth the Kingdom task force that knows their God, knows what Your Word says, and implements a new structure from Your revelation.
“Bring into right perspective, by Your plumb line, every wall that has been built that is not true and accurate. If the wall has fallen, we declare righteous builders with Kingdom eyes and tools will be positioned to rebuild to an accurate standard what You have revealed in Your blueprint. We pray these things in Jesus’ sovereign name. Amen.”
Guidelines for your personal reflection and intercession:
We ask for an outbreak of innovation that leads to a transfer of wealth from the unrighteous to the righteous. During this crisis, God is highlighting industries that are crisis-proof.
Pray that God will cause His ekklsia to realize who they really are, and whose they really are, and that they will rise to the challenge of being solution-bringers, both now, and in the period after the crisis.
Ask the Lord to raise up a Holy generation, who will be launched into the spheres of influence. Declare, “We promise to disciple them in Your Word as the source book for economics, business, education, government, immigration, health care, math and sciences, the arts, and land policy.”
Declare that we will not align or conspire to execute plans with Pharoah or the gods of Egypt or any other country, leader, system, or demonic power. Say, “We bind, rebuke, and bring to no effect any plans not inspired of the Holy Spirit with regard to global economics.”
And, cry out passionately for souls! This is the best setting for a great harvest of new Believers. Declare, “It is time for the prodigals to return home! It is time!”
Contributions ByCindy Jacobs, Marc Nuttle, Kathleen Liska, Jerry Tuma, Arleen Westerhof, Timmerle Kelly, Barbara Holmes Brackett, Craig Bensen, Jody Wood, and Kingsley Walker