Dear Friend, As we begin the year 2015, it is worthy to note what happened at the beginning of another year three
months earlier – Could it be a foreshadow of something even bigger yet to come?
THE ENTRANCE OF THE SHEMITAH
Word for the Month & for Thursday, Jan. 1
Scripture: Nahum 1:7
See Message: The Mystery of the Cataclysms
In this past spring, as I more deeply pondered the Shemitah, I was amazed at how stunning and all-encompassing the mystery was. It is a phenomenon that’s been been affecting our lives since the day we were born. There isn’t space here to reveal the foundation of the mystery. But if you haven’t read the book, it will suffice here to say that this ancient mystery lies behind the rise and fall of our economy, of Wall Street, of the collapse of the stock market, of economic booms and crashes, recessions, depressions, our bank accounts, and our economic and financial well-being – not to mention global cataclysms and the rise and fall of nations. Concerning the future, two cautions: God doesn’t have to do anything as He has in the past, or according to our expectations. No one Shemitah year or cycle has to manifest the mystery or dynamic. But the other caution is it could, and He could, and we should be aware and ready. If the dynamic is to be manifested, the general pattern is this: The Shemitah’s dynamic becomes most dramatic as it approaches its end. At the beginning of the Shemitah, its effect is, more often than not, subtle. In the year 2000, the Shemitah began at the end of September. Though it was hardly noticeable at the time, there was a change. In October, the level of production began to decline. Within a few months this decrease had coalesced with other developments to constitute a full-blown recession.
During that Shemitah, the stock market also collapsed. After reaching its depths, it began ascending – over a course of years. Then came the next Shemitah, beginning September 13, 2007. Within one month of its commencement, the years-long ascending of the stock market came to an end. The market reversed its momentum and began to descend – gradual at first, and then, by the Shemitah’s end, calamitous. At the same time, on the very first day of that Shemitah, Northern Rock, one of Britain’s largest banking institutions, collapsed. The collapse was a foreshadow, a firstfruit, on the Shemitah’s first day, of what would overtake most of the world at the Shemitah’s climax.
Since the depths of that global financial collapse and the Great Recession, the stock market had been on an ascent for years. In September, 2014, the stock market was suddenly thrust into a new phase, a phase of instability, volatility, and violent swings. The market began to descend. Fear took over Wall Street and much of the world’s markets. When did this change take place? It happened the week of September 22 to September 26. Was that significant? That week was the first week of the Shemitah. The greatest collapse of that week took place September 25. September 25 was the Shemitah’s first day. In the last few Shemitahs, the pattern has been this: What happens at the beginning of the Shemitah is either the beginning of a continuous process or what appears to be an isolated phenomenon that foreshadows what will happen at the end. Though, with the caution that God isn’t bound to do anything - this was the most dramatic opening of the Shemitah in recent memory. If this is just the opening – what will happen as we approach the end? Regardless of when it happens, I believe a great shaking is coming to America and the world, a shaking that will involve the collapse of the financial realm, the economic realm, and more than that. Are we ready? Take steps this month to be all the less dependent on the world and all the more plugged into God – in prayer, in the Word, an in all out consecration. And may God greatly bless you as you do!
Your brother and co-laborer
in His love and service,
Jonathan
