| Reverend Michael Bresciani |
07/17/08
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The Bible certainly does not have a section specifically relating to
America’s economy. In the most general sense, every nation’s economy is
referred to in scripture. The promise is that any nation that seeks God
will see a better economy. That said where is America in this picture?
As I sat one morning pondering a prophetic message I received over thirty
years ago about the American economy I wondered if it would even be worth
it to write about it yet once again. I have explained it countless times
over the years and some of those years were during the Reaganomic boom
times in which no one including me could see how it had any significance
at all. I set aside the question and perused through the mountain of
emails I get daily and there found an impassioned request from a reader
for me to elucidate further on what God had related to me about America’s
economy. That email was the clincher.
After my conversion to Christianity almost 40 years ago I started to have
hundreds of dream visions. Each one had to do largely with my own life or
the lives of those around me. In between those dreams came larger more
disturbing pictures of events that would affect our nation and the entire
world. I have never doubted the more universal dreams mainly because the
personal dreams were never wrong. Not once in all these years has one
prophetic dream ever been wrong.
The very first prophetic dream I had came in three installments all in the
same night. It was God’s way of showing me that he both could and would
speak to me about the future. That night I awoke three times with three
separate dreams. The first and second were easy to understand because they
were clearly things that had previously happened and that were presently
happening respectively. The third dream was the unknown.
I puzzled over the third apparition and finally in desperation I decided
to give up and go back to sleep. First I said a little prayer in which I
asked God if he could help me understand what all this dreaming was about.
When my head hit the pillow it hit me, I saw the past then the present so
the third dream must be the future. I felt an immediate sense of peace but
that was only the beginning. Eight days later the dream happened in every
detail to the letter.
After that I only needed one dream to see the future not three. With some
rare exceptions I always saw events exactly as they happened; no
interpretation needed. Like a full color preview it is always a “what you
see is what you get” revelation and never a “what on earth does that mean”
kind of thing.
As the dreams increased I found myself un-nerved because I could find no
one in my church or elsewhere who had any experiences like mine. It drove
me to question God. I pleaded with him to show me somehow why I had this
acute ability to see the future as clearly as some men see the past. I
found no consolation until God pointed me to a specific scripture passage
that put the question to rest. In Number 12:6 the Bible says “And he said,
Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make
myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.”
So far it has been mostly dreams that show me the future with a few
exceptions. Those exceptions were the four or five times I heard God speak
in an audible language, in English and that too came with a first time
confirmation so I wouldn’t doubt.
After praying my self to sleep one night imploring God to hear me about my
need to find work I fell asleep almost assured that I would have a guiding
dream vision that would solve my problem. I was a hard worker and I hated
to be out of work even for a little while when I was young. But I awoke in
disappointment knowing I had not seen a thing in the night.
I sat up in bed and started to feel my heart sink a bit when I sensed a
presence in the room with me. Then I heard a voice speak three separate
times slowly, succinctly and deliberately. First were the words “Michael
you are beloved of God.” After a pause those words were followed by “All
your prayers have been heard.” Finally after another pause I heard a one
word message that I had no way of understanding. It was the single word,
“Weiss.”
The word Weiss had no meaning to me at all, I knew no one by that name and
if it meant something else I was not aware of it. I quietly dressed and
went to the city to search for work. Within an hour I found someone who
agreed to hire me and I was to start the following day. I cheerfully
exited my new employer’s place of business thanking God. Halfway down the
block I remembered that I didn’t even know my new employers name. I
returned stuck my head in the door and said “I’m sorry but I didn’t ask
you your name. His reply was “my name is Julius Weiss.”
After that just like the initial first three prophetic dreams I only
needed one voice or message not three. Until now I have heard such voices
less than a handful of times but I have learned not to doubt. I have
always been thankful that I don’t hear such messages more than I do
because it is hard enough trying to convey to others the messages or the
few revelations I did have. In this world people who hear voices are
usually thought to be serial killers, quacks and self appointed seers with
dubious motives.
The two most powerful compunctions that come with prophetic utterance are
first that you do not want to tell anyone what you have seen or heard. The
second is that you know you must tell everyone what you have seen and
heard!
In the mid seventies I heard a four part message that at the time seemed
impossible. It was prior to the economic boom of the eighties when home
values were skyrocketing and the stock market was reaching to the stars.
The message was in English and said “Michael you are a prophet” then came
the words “you will speak to the American people,” followed by “This is
the message you will speak, Ov, Ov Penury,” the final word was “not many
will come out.”
All of my ideas of becoming a humble teacher in the public schools went
south along with my secondary hope that I might want to became a gospel
missionary in some foreign land. The message made no sense to me not only
because America wasn’t experiencing shortages of almost anything but also
because I hadn’t a clue what “Ov” meant. The word penury wasn’t even in my
vocabulary and I had to look it up.
I finally found that Ov is an old English contraction for “overmuch” which
more commonly means “a lot of.” The word penury means, a state of extreme
poverty or scarcity. America, in a state of extreme poverty and scarcity!
Try telling that to the American dream crowd pounding away at the house in
suburbia with two cars, strong college funds for the 3.5 kids, good
pension plans and success in careers or business.
I took some consolation in the fact that the exact same message was given
to Pastor David Wilkerson of New York City’s “Times Square Church.” David
Wilkerson became a household name in the sixties when the story of his
life was portrayed in the movie “The Cross and the Switchblade.” Actor
and singer Pat Boone played the part of Wilkerson in the film. Not long
after the film was produced Wilkerson published a book called “The
Vision.” In The Vision Wilkerson detailed the amazing events that God
revealed to him after he fasted and went into a long prayer vigil.
From then to now every single element of the revelation given to Wilkerson
has already happened with the exception of one. That part of his vision
seems to have been delayed until now just like my own. He saw a stock
market dive and other economic disasters that would leave the country
reeling. Like Wilkerson I was early but at least I wasn’t alone!
So what does it all mean? Remember WYSIWYG that would be the short
version. The detailed version is this. The world’s greatest “super power”
is in for an awakening. It is apropos that judgments, chastisements and
corrections should come to America through economic hardships but why. Put
simply it is the only language we never misunderstand. The American dream
consists of everything we hold dear, the home, the cars, plenty of
everything and untouchable security. You can speak of the threat of
terrorists or the explosive situation brewing in the Middle East but our
own economic woes are as close to home as it gets.
My view of what God has told me has been colored, reinforced and given
more particulars by a careful comparison of our history, other biblical
prophecies and the general moral state of the nation over the past forty
years. My view is that we will undergo a deepening of the economic crisis
until the fluff is blown away. What fluff you say?
Almost everything that we take for granted will no longer be granted. Jobs
will dissolve by the tens of thousands; goods will be harder to find
including ordinary food supplies. Grain will not be used for fuel because
it will be too precious. Banks will close, fortunes will be lost and the
precious metals purchased for backup will be useless. The line from an old
Christian song says it best, “A piece of bread would buy a bag of gold.”
Pension funds will collapse or be diverted and securities and bonds will
diminish rapidly in value. Stocks will plummet from blue chips to tech
stocks. The word survival will once again take the place of success and
riches as keywords in our everyday conversations as they did during the
great depression.
The message was appendaged with the words “not many will come out.” I have
never doubted what that means. Clearly the modern apostate church and the
world at large will not haste to heed this warning. Human nature is
ancient but little has changed in it. As in the old world today folks will
cozy up to the voices that promise great things to come with no downside
attached. Ancient prophets always gave their messages to point people to
the leaving God not to gather adherents to their own doorstep. Today it
would be possible to preach the gospel of salvation of the divine pumpkin
pie if you have a good enough publicist and access to some major TV time.
For that “they will come out,” not God’s words but mine. But don’t worry
there will always be “Philadelphian” type churches throughout America
until the very end. (Rev. 3: 7f)
Some have asked where they should put their money. In keeping with the
biblically derived formula that money saved is usually money wasted, money
spent is money used and money given is money saved; I have only one
answer. Give it away, as much as you possibly can. (Mt. 6:19) Find some
organization that feeds and clothes children or drills wells in villages
without clean water or give it to orphanages or ministries that are
getting the gospel out. You will become rich in ways that have nothing to
do with personal gain.
The poverty or scarcity God speaks of has nothing to do with hurting or
harming the nation. It is a wake up call or what the bible calls
“chastisement” for the most obvious reasons, God loves us. In the famous
story of the prodigal son in the fifteenth chapter of Luke one element of
the story that is almost always overlooked is what caused the prodigal to
get so low that he had to feed pigs and to avoid starvation he was even
tempted to eat some of their food. The element not often mentioned is the
fact that he squandered the fortune that was given to him from his
inheritance. He wasted the blessings of his father without regard to the
future. He lived riotously and the party seemed like it would never end.
All parties end.
Why does God send prophets, messengers and preachers to us so steadily so
faithfully? I’ll let him answer that for himself from a passage found in
the illustrious version of the bible known as the “Message.”
“Think about this. Wrap your minds around it. This is a serious business,
rebels. Take it to heart. Remember your history, your long and rich
history. I am God, the only God you’ve had or ever will have –
incomparable, irreplaceable – From the very beginning telling you what the
ending will be, All along letting you in on what is going to happen,
Assuring you, I’m in this for the long haul. I’ll do exactly what I set
out to do.” Isaiah 46: 8-10
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