A shift is taking place in the Church that will create increasing levels of hope as the financial condition of nations descends deeper into expressions of failure and resulting despair.

For the first time last week, I saw one quadrillion dollars in print, $1,000,000,000,000,000.00. It stunned me. One quadrillion is a number followed by 15 zeros. It represents 1,000 trillion.

Our current national debt is so immense that only a fool would believe it could ever be paid back. A financial think tank released a report saying the previous three administrations compiled more national debt than all previous administrations in our nation’s history combined. If the national debt continues to rise for the next 60 years at the same rate as the previous 30, the think tank said it will exceed $1.5 quadrillion.

The Lord spoke to me a few years ago and said “Study the money. It will lead you to prophetic insight and provide instruction for the Church.” I am beginning to see trends and connections that provide both insight and the kind of spiritual intelligence required to form specific prayers directed toward strategic and often hidden targets. It has radically changed how Jan and I view our personal finances and where we deposit our hope.

 Scripture tells us the love of money is at the root of all sorts of evil. One of its greatest evils is the bondage it creates. The love of money and the power it offers will always lead to a crisis when the Spirit is not directing its use, whether that use is personal or governmental. The opposite is also true. The redeemed use of money can be at the root of all sorts of good if its use is under the direction of the Lord. The Lord is preparing to deliver the wealth of the nations into the hands of believers who are willing to let Him lead its accumulation and dispersal.

Last week, the Lord gave me a word for a team that has been at work for several years creating a new digital and relational system for the advancement of God’s Kingdom. This is a global high-tech system that requires investments numbering in multiple millions of dollars that will allow them to hire the best programmers and creators of content. This is an example of a good use of money that honors the Lord and expands His Kingdom.

The word I gave this creative team was to look beyond the pool of typical Venture Capitalists to pray in and expect to see a new kind of investor appear – Adventure Capitalists. These Adventure Capitalist are motivated by very different investment strategies than the world. They are followers of Jesus who hold substantial financial assets but are not hamstrung by greed or fear and do not see personal profit as the primary goal of their investment strategy. An Adventure Capitalist follows the word and will of God, not a financial plan created to increase personal wealth as the only goal of their investments. 

Like my friends who are creating a global platform to reach the nations and the Adventure Capitalists who will fund that venture, parallel economies will emerge in the coming years that will advance God’s Kingdom in profound ways overshadowing and out-pacing the failed systems of the past that were empowered by greed and lust and led people into increasing levels of bondage. As the debt of nations increases and despair sets in, God always has another plan in the works. His plan will bring hope and freedom when it appears that no hope or freedom is possible.