Last week I tried to make the case for why we need to seek the Holy Spirit first, especially when we seek to present our message. It is better not to have anything else but the Holy Spirit than to have everything else without Him. Even so, we do not have to make that choice. The greatest advances of the gospel have come when the state-of-the-art technological advances of the times were used for it.

    One good example of this is the printing press. The first thing printed on it was the Gutenberg Bible, which began to shatter the darkness of the Dark Ages and took the message of the Reformation forth with more impact than had ever been accomplished before. I recently visited Calvin’s Chapel in Geneva and saw the little printing press that seemed so primitive and cumbersome, but by printing their tracks on it they used it to change the world more than any conqueror had ever done. If they could do so much with so little, what should we be accomplishing with all of the tools and vehicles we now have for getting our message out?

    In history, we have the example of John the Baptist, but we also have the example of the Holy Spirit using technology to maximum effect. We should always be ready to embrace both. I am thankful for those like Arthur Blessitt who walked throughout the earth carrying a cross, preaching to anyone who would listen. I am also thankful for those who have seen and given themselves to using the latest technology and platforms for the gospel. I think the greatest churches are those where you have both of these types in the same congregation, sitting next to each other, and loving and appreciating each other. I’m also glad for everyone in between, who will make up most of every congregation. 

    Now back to the economy, because it relates to this. The economy of a nation is the barometer of the character of the nation. This does not mean that the wealthiest nations have the best character—in fact that can be the opposite. The real barometer is how we get the wealth, and then what we do with it. The greatest economy is the one that is doing the most good with it.

    Overall, America has been the most generous nation in history, but according to the last study I saw, America was only giving four-tenths of one percent of its wealth to missions, charities, or other forms of aid. A number of very small countries greatly exceed the U.S. in per capita giving. In a disaster area, there will be far more boxes with U.S. stamped on them than from New Zealand or Norway, but those little countries are often giving far more of what they have than we are. These two countries also send out more missionaries per capita than the U.S., even though neither claim to be “Christian nations.”

    America has been blessed economically and in many other ways because we have been devoted to certain things which the Lord said He would bless. In the Old Testament, it was taught that the wealthy sharing their wealth with the poor was “justice,” and that wealth was given to the generous for this reason. If we do not do what is right voluntarily, then it will be done involuntarily. Wealthy Americans are now being stripped of their wealth and their ability to make more. Why? Is this the judgment of God because we were not generous enough?

    In my nearly forty years as a Christian, I have watched countless people pray for the Lord to bless their businesses so that they could help support the kingdom, and then watched almost all of them get more stingy as they got more wealthy. They may have been giving more as they got wealthy, but as a percentage, it almost inevitably becomes far less.

    With the policies of the Obama Administration, it is not likely that the dollar can continue to be a viable currency for very long. Right now America is being bought cheaply by the Chinese who have been far wiser with their resources. Why is this happening to us? It does follow the pattern of God’s judgment against a nation as Isaiah explained (and we will cover in some detail later).

    Many believe from a position of good biblical reasoning that much of our blessing as a nation is because of our stand for Israel. The Lord promised to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. In the recent meeting between Obama and the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, one news organization called it the end of the American-Israeli alliance. What will this mean for our blessing? 

    It does seem that almost every reason why the Lord has said in Scripture that He would bless a nation, we have turned away from as a nation. Can this be reversed? It can, but only by turning back to the Lord.

    I have spent much of my life studying how to be a better leader and manager so that I could be a better steward. I am devoted to these because I see them so strongly linked to both righteousness and justice in the Scriptures. I also think that all of our economic problems, including the present crisis, are rooted in poor management, but it will take more than good management to get us out of the situation we’re now in. We are beyond human remedy—we must have Divine help. There is nothing that can save us but His favor, and He is clear about what attracts His favor. This is why we must not just teach good economic principles, but also kingdom economic principles.