All Scripture References are NAS unless indicated

In Revelation 13:11-18, we see a beast coming upon the earth that performs great signs and deceives those who live on the earth. He then makes everyone take a mark on their foreheads and right hands so that they can buy, sell and trade. In 14:9- 10, we see that the wrath of God will come upon all who worship the beast and take his mark.

In Revelation 7:1-3, we are shown that four angels are sent to hold back the four winds of the earth until the bondslaves of God have been marked on their foreheads. Believers have spent considerable time trying to figure out how this mark of the beast will come, so that they will not be fooled by it, but there has been almost no attention given to how we take the mark of God. The only way that we will not take the mark of the beast, regardless of whether we know what it is or not, is to take the mark of God.

The mark of God is not just given to "believers," but to "bondservants." The key to understanding this seal of God is to understand "the bondservant," just as the key to understanding the mark of the beast is to understand "the beast." Even though we must understand both the mark of God and the mark of the beast, we are still going to have to choose between them. We may think that this will be easy if we just understand what the choice is, but we will not choose right, even if we do understand them both, unless our hearts are right.

There can be no obedience from the heart unless there is the freedom to disobey. The reason He put the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden was to give man the freedom to choose whom he would serve. This was not to cause man to fall, but rather so that man could prove his devotion. If all the Lord had wanted was obedience, He would have done better to have just created computers and programmed them all to worship Him. Would this kind of worship be acceptable to anyone, much less our glorious Creator? Freedom is required for true worship from the heart. Likewise, those in the service of the Lord must be those who choose to be.

Not all believers are bondservants. Many have come to believe in the Lord who still go on living for themselves. In Scripture, a Hebrew bondservant was able to go free after six years of service, but if he loved his master so much that he chose to be his slave for the rest of his life, he was permanently marked (see Exodus 21:5-6). We, too, are free to choose whether or not we will be a bondservant or not.

The commitment to be a bondservant is not just an intellectual agreement with certain biblical principles; it is the commitment to a radical lifestyle of obedience. A bondservant no longer lives for himself, but for the Lord. A bondservant does not have any money of his own, and he therefore cannot freely spend what he has been entrusted with, because it is not his. His time, and even his family, belong to his master. To voluntarily become a slave is the ultimate commitment that can be made in this world, and only a fool would do it without carefully considering what it implies.

The Yoke Of The Beast

Probably the number one reason why Christians are not free today to respond to the call of God in their lives is financial debt. When there is a call to do anything, from entering full-time ministry, to going on a mission trip, our first consideration is usually whether we can afford it or not. This is a clear indication that our financial condition rules us more than the will of God. It is a revelation of just how much we have built our lives upon the foundations of this present age, rather than hearing and obeying the word of the Lord.

This must change, and change quickly, for all of us. Regardless of how disobedient, or how foolish you have been in the past, or how bad your situation is now, if you are truly repentant, the Lord will help you. The Lord is going to provide a way of escape for those who will be obedient. When He helps, it means that there is no limit to what can be done.

However, true repentance will be required before the Lord is going to intervene for us. Repentance does not just mean that we are sorry, but that we also turn away from our wicked ways. As C. S. Lewis once pointed out, once we miss a turn and start down the wrong road, it will never become the right road. The only way that we can get back on the right road is to go back to where we missed the turn. The Lord does not want to deliver us just to have us slip right back into bondage because we did not change our ways.

The Goal

There is a clear biblical procedure for getting out of debt, for staying out of debt, and for becoming financially independent. The biblical definition for financial independence is not necessarily being wealthy, but being in the place where you never have to make a decision based on financial considerations, but simply on the will of God. This is the condition in which every Christian should live. This should be the financial goal for every one of us.

Regardless of how bad your present financial condition is, there is a very simple way of escape --obedience. If you will obey the clear and simple biblical wisdom for financial management, you will escape your present situation, and begin to live a life of freedom that is greater than you have probably ever dreamed. This is your heritage as a son or daughter of the King.

We usually think that the way out of our situation is to make more money. However, that is almost never the answer, and can even make matters worse. God's plan does not require you to make any more money than you do now, and that is not because He is going to give you a revelation so that you can win the lottery. You may not think that there is another way, but there is. If God can multiply the bread and the fish, He can make whatever you are now making go just as far as He wants it to. All you have to do is obey Him, doing what the Scriptures tell us to do with what we have been entrusted.

The Healing Must Come First

The first principle to getting out of our present financial situation is not to get, but to give. If you cringed at that statement, it is the evidence that you have a wound that must be healed. The church has been raped. She has been financially raped by hype, manipulation, and at times by the spirit of control. When one has been so brutalized it is understandable if they recoil at even a touch. Even so, the Lord is going to do a miracle. He is going to take the church, that has been raped repeatedly, and at other times has played the harlot with the spirit of the world, and make her into a pure, chaste virgin again, who is free to love with His love.

The Lord is going to raise up a last day ministry that will never again rape His bride. They will be spiritual eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom. A eunuch cannot even have a desire for the bride. His whole purpose is to prepare the bride for the king, and his satisfaction comes from seeing the king's satisfaction. That will be the nature of the ministry that is coming.

The church is now like a girl who has been repeatedly sexually abused, and at other times has fallen to promiscuity. Using the most modern psychological methods it would take a lifetime to heal such a girl. The Lord can do it in a day. "with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (II Peter 3:8). He can do in us in one day what we think would take a thousand years. Today you can be free of all of your spiritual wounds, and never look back on them.

The way to our healing is to die. It is to go to the cross, which is the power of God. The way that the cross releases the power of God is through the power of the resurrection. To be resurrected we must first die. If we have gone to the cross we are supposed to be dead to this world. It is impossible for a dead man to be preoccupied with his wounds, the abuse he has suffered, the rejection, or even what other people think of him. A dead man is truly free. If we want to know the daily power of God in our lives, we only have to take up our crosses daily. We must die daily, but if we die daily we will also experience a daily resurrection. The truly crucified life is probably best demonstrated by forgiveness.

Two of the most powerful beings in the universe are trying to kill you--Satan and God. One of them is going to do it. Who do you want it to be? You can hang on to all of the wounds and injustices committed against you, and let Satan kill you. Or you can go to the cross, forgive and be forgiven, and let God kill you. There are positives and negatives to letting either one kill you. If you let Satan do it, the death will be much slower. You can also keep your bitterness and resentment. You might also have the satisfaction of getting even with those who abused you, and that sometimes feels really good.

If you let the Lord kill you there are some down sides. He will do it very fast, and because it is so fast, there can be some very intense pain. The cross hurts! You will also have to give up your plans to retaliate against your abusers. You will even have to give up the desire to see God judge them. You will have to completely forgive, and actually pray for those who persecute you. You will even have to love your enemies! He will not let you off the cross until you do. One of the greatest down sides is that your forgiveness and love may even cause some of your enemies to come to the Lord, and you will have to live with them forever!

There are some other benefits to letting the Lord kill you. If He does it you will have a peace that no person or circumstance can ever steal from you. And love really does feel much better than resentment. But best of all--if you let the Lord kill you He will raise you up to live with Him forever.

We all want to go to heaven, but before we do the Lord wants us to bring some heaven to earth. He has called us to be ambassadors of His kingdom. That means that we are to be walking demonstrations of the kingdom of God. Are we?

The Last Battle

The Lord said that "the harvest is the end of the age" (Matthew 3:39). The harvest is the reaping of everything that has been sown, both the good and the evil. We also see that the tares are reaped first (verse 30). There will be a reaping of evil before a reaping of the good.

I Peter 4:17 states, "For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God." The Lord starts the judgment with His own house because He can not judge the world if His own people are living in the same evil ways. There will be a distinction between His people and the world when the judgments come, but it will be because His people are different.

One reason why the mark of the beast is an economic mark is because money does reveal some of the ultimate issues of the human heart. Even if we do not love money, it is often where we put our trust. The love of money, or the trust in money, releases some of the ultimate evils in the human heart. At the end of the age, we will either be delivered from this or become totally enslaved by it.

Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "Today if you hear His voice,

do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness,

where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, and saw My works for forty years.

"Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, `They always go astray in their heart; and they did not know My ways';

As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest" (Hebrews 3:7-11).

Today you may actually be making the ultimate decisions about who you will serve, the Lord or the god of this world. If we do not give ourselves to knowing His ways, and living by them, we will never know rest, and we will serve the evil one by living according to his ways.

The issues here are much greater than whether you get out from under your financial problems. This is not just about financial independence. It is about destroying our idols and becoming true worshipers of God, and worship Him in Spirit and truth.

Living In The King's House

The only house that is going to stand against the storms that are coming is the house of the Lord. This is not about building our own estates, but His. If we are doing this just for ourselves we have already stumbled, and we will fall back into the clutches of the world even if we do make things better for ourselves for a time.

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [riches].

Do not be anxious then, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "With what shall we clothe ourselves?"

For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:24, 31-34).

You may think that no one can live like this in the present age, and you are right. To do this you are going to have to be delivered from the present evil age, and start living by the power of the One who will rule the age to come. If we are going to be true ambassadors of the kingdom, we must live as citizens of that kingdom now. We cannot go on living according to the ways of this evil age and claim to serve God. As the apostles John and James both warned:

Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever (I John 2:1517).

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4).

We simply cannot live by the standards, desires, lusts and ways of this present evil age and the kingdom of God at the same time. This does not mean that we cannot have a house, or a car, or even a television set. Neither does it mean that we cannot pursue a corporate career, or own a business. It does mean that we can only have that which we have permission to have. And it also means that we "do all things for the sake of the gospel" (I Corinthians 9:23), because we have been bought with a price and we do not live for ourselves, but for Him.

A True Prosperity

The way out of the clutches of the world's yoke is to enter the kingdom. We do this by first submitting to the King in everything, and by living according to His word. Our first consideration in making any major decision must be to determine our Master's will. We must also do what is clearly written in His word. Two of the most important biblical texts for the church today are Haggai chapter l and Malachi chapter 2. The following are important excerpts from these chapters:

"Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?"

Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways!

You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes."

Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways!

Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified," says the LORD.

"You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?" declares the LORD of hosts, "Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house" (Haggai 1:4-9).

 "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, `How have we robbed Thee?' In tithes and offerings.

You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it may not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes," says the LORD of hosts.

"And all the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land," says the LORD of hosts (Malachi 3:8-12).

Are you now being so blessed that you do not have room enough to hold it all? Then try this--bring the "whole tithe" into the storehouse. That means the before-taxes tithe (tithing is giving the first 10 percent of our income to the Lord). If we really believe the word of God, why would we not want to bring the whole tithe? He

promises a blessing that is so great that we cannot even contain it!

Many think that they cannot afford to tithe, but we cannot afford not to. Most of us do not need to increase our income as much as we need to have the devourer rebuked. We can earn more, but the holes in our purses just get bigger, too. But the Lord promises to not only rebuke the devourer, but to open the windows of heaven. This is the only place in the Scripture where He actually tells us to test Him. Try Him in this. I have never known anyone who started tithing faithfully who has not experienced the Lord's faithfulness to His word.

To be obedient to the Lord we must be fully obedient. I have seen some continue to sink financially because they said that they were going to set aside their tithes until the Lord directed them where to give them. This sounds noble, but if the money is still in our account, then we have not given it. It is wise to sometimes set aside money in special accounts to wait for the time and place to give it, but not from the tithes, but from the offerings, which are over and above the tithe.

The word is clear about where to put the tithe--in His storehouse, which is the church. If we cannot trust our leaders to handle money, we are certainly foolish to trust them with our souls (see Hebrews 13:17).

I have heard others say that they do not tithe because everything they have is the Lord's. That is another tragic delusion. If everything they had was the Lord's, they would obey His word to tithe. He is not fooled by that kind of flawed reasoning. We must understand, God does not need our money. The whole world is His. This is for us, not Him. Our excuses are only hurting us.

What Is Good For The Goose

The same truths apply to our churches and ministries. Since a church is the storehouse of God, does that mean that our churches should also tithe? Yes. Giving is fundamental Christianity. Again, He calls us to do this for our sake, not His. He is looking for faithful people whom He can trust to be His conduits of supply. He wants the whole world to look at His church and see that they are both blessed and a blessing. We are not seeking prosperity for ourselves, but so that we will be the faithful servants in the parable of the talents, who invested what they were entrusted with well, then trusted with even more.

When we started our congregation we carelessly forgot to begin tithing from its income. We suffered significant losses until we started to tithe, and immediately our finances turned around. We could count this as coincidence, but we would have to be spiritually brain-dead to do that.

When we tithe, according to the biblical tithe, which is to take the "first fruits" and give it to Him, we are making a statement that we trust Him as our Source, and not ourselves, our jobs, or any other source. This is important for individuals, churches and ministries.

Where Do We Invest

In the early church, when it was prophesied that a famine was going to come upon the whole earth, the churches did not begin to hoard, they took up an offering--they gave (see Acts 11:28-30). When we give, we are putting our treasures in heaven and our trust in God.

The Bible clearly warns us that the end times will be some of the greatest times of trouble that the world has ever known. Even if we believe that we will be raptured out before the tribulation, what the Lord called "the beginning of birth pangs," is more terrible than anything the world has ever experienced. Even so, regardless of the troubles, we can have the peace of God, which is not affected by any circumstances. Regardless of the economic difficulties, we can live in greater prosperity than we have ever known before. As we abide in the Lord, Who is the Prince of Peace, we can walk through the most difficult mine fields that life can lay before us, and enjoy it!

Count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:2-4 NKJV).

Here we see that trials produce the patience which lead to our perfection so that we will not lack anything. That is true, biblical prosperity. Our Father owns more than the cattle on a thousand hills--He owns the hills to. In fact, He owns all of the hills because, "The earth is the LORD's, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it" (Psalm 24:1). The Lord is not the least bit worried about the economy, and neither should we be. If we truly know Him as our Source, it does not matter what happens in the world. What we have is better than owning a vein of gold that could supply all of our needs for all time. We know the One who can supply all of the world's needs for all time, and will as soon as the world returns to Him.

The Law Of Physics And Wealth

A law of physics states that energy is never destroyed, but it simply changes forms. The same is true of wealth; it is never destroyed, but often changes hands. Even during the Great Depression, no wealth was actually lost; it was just transferred to those who were in a position to take advantage of the times. Those who were in this position were those who were not in debt, and had cash readily available. Businesses were bought for as little as 10 percent of their value. Land was bought for as little as a dollar an acre, from those who had overextended themselves with debt.

We are heading toward an even greater economic upheaval than the Great Depression. Those who are not prepared for it will be devastated. Those who are prepared for it will take advantage of the times. The Lord wants His people prepared for these times, not just so that they can endure them, but so that they can take advantage of them. This is not just so that we can become wealthy, but for the sake of the gospel. As the Scriptures promise, the wealth of the nations will be brought to the people who serve the Lord.

The Lord is right now preparing His people for what is about to come. He has been warning His church for over 25 years to get out of debt. He has given us plenty of time to do it. However, because the expected catastrophic economic problems have taken so long to come, many have disregarded these warnings. There is still time to repent and get our houses in order, but there is no more time to delay.

We were bought with a price, the blood of the Lamb. Because "the borrower becomes the lender's slave" (Proverbs 22:7), when we go into debt we sell ourselves to become the slave of another. If we belong to Christ, we are not our own to sell this way. This is a serious departure from His grace that will bring tragic consequences if we do not repent.

Because "the love of money is the root of all evil" (I Timothy 6:10 KJV), money tests some of the ultimate issues of the human heart, like whom we are going to worship. Money is presently the biggest idol that separates people from the true worship of God. This is true even with Christians, because many believers actually put more trust in their jobs or bank accounts than they do the Lord.

It is for this reason that the ultimate test that challenges the people living in the last days revolves around the "mark of the beast," which is an economic mark that determines whether we can buy, sell or trade under his system.

Truth Or Consequences

Our Father loves us so much that He sent His own Son to die for our sins. However, the Bible is also clear that to go on transgressing willfully after we have come to the knowledge of the truth is one of the most presumptuous and dangerous things we can do (see Hebrews 6:4-8).

Many presume that because we are now in the Age of Grace that we can go on willfully sinning and God will overlook it. This is a tragic deception. We are in the Age of Grace and Truth (see John 1:17). Our God loves us and has provided an unfathomable grace through the sacrifice of His own Son. However, our salvation depends on the fact that He keeps His word. His grace would not be trustworthy if He did not also keep His word of truth. His word demands that His people, who are called to be like Him, are also a people who keep His word.

If we are to be like Him, we must also be a people who keep our own word. Our "yes" is supposed to mean "yes," and our "no" is supposed to mean "no," without compromise. To break our word to man is bad enough, but to break it with God could be the greatest human folly. Ananias and Sapphira bore the consequences of lying to the Holy Spirit. They wanted to be identified with the people who were giving everything, while they "kept back some of the price" (Acts 5:2). YOU will be much better off to never commit yourself to being a bondservant of Christ, than to have made such a commitment and hold back part of the price.

We must now address these serious issues because we are coming to the most serious of times. If you are frightened by reading this, it is because you should be. But it is a good fear--it is the fear of God. The lack of this pure and holy fear of God is one of the reasons that the church has been trapped in such folly and deception

for so long.

The God who loved you so much that He gave His only Son is not so harsh as to condemn you for petty mistakes. He knows the difficulties and pressures that we are subject to in this world. He knows that we will all stumble at times, but the Scriptures are clear that presuming upon His grace, and holding back when we have committed to give all, will only result in tragedy. Now is the time to obey His voice. As David understood: "Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not reach him" (Psalm 32:6). To wait until the floods come to get our houses in order will be a most terrible mistake. But as the Lord also promised:

Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine (Psalm 33:18-19 KJV).

This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing (Psalm 34:6-10 KJV).

The greatest promises in the Scriptures are to those who fear the Lord. Those who fear the Lord do not have to fear anything else on this earth. Those who knew Him, but did not properly fear Him, have fallen to some of the greatest human tragedies. John was intimate with the Lord. Judas was familiar with Him. There can be a great difference. The familiarity with God that breeds presumption is possibly the most terrible deception.

To make a commitment to be a bondservant of Christ, and then to go on living for ourselves would be a terrible folly. To know the truth, and to commit ourselves to living by it, and not to do it, is the very definition of a hypocrite, for which the Lord reserved His most vehement condemnation.

Even though you were bought with a price by the blood of the Lamb, He will not force you to serve Him. Obedience is required, but you must choose to obey. He will never force you to choose the path of life, but the consequences of walking in such folly are terrible. Even if you go years without suffering any consequences, they will surely come. As stated in Ecclesiastes 8:11: "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (KJV). The Lord usually waits for as long as He can before bringing judgment, with the hope that men will repent. However, those who know to do right, but choose not to, will always be hardened in their sin by time.

We may think that if the Lord would just execute His judgments quicker, we would not be prone to be so evil. That is true, but that would also inhibit the freedom that

He gives to man so that we can prove our devotion to Him. Who would ever disobey if they knew that swift judgment was coming? The same freedom that He gives us to disobey is the same freedom that He must give us to prove our devotion. Those who love the truth will live by the truth even when it is not expedient.

Taking the mark of the beast is not the sin that brings the judgment, but rather worshiping the beast. The mark is simply evidence that one has been worshiping him. Do you think that we will escape judgment if we refuse to take a mark, but live our lives according to the ways of the beast?

The mark of the beast is probably far more subtle than many have been led to believe, just as the mark of God is not something literal, but spiritual. Even if it is a literal mark, the only way that we will not take it is to have the mark of God's bondservants. This is the reason why the events of these times have been restrained by the four angels who are holding back the winds. However, they will not be held back forever--now is the time for us to get our houses in order.

There is one who scatters, yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, but it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered (Proverbs 11:24-25).

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; as it is written, "He scattered abroad, he gave to the poor, his righteousness abides forever." Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness (II Corinthians 9:6-10).