Last week we began to address the concept of “American Exceptionalism,” or what made America different from all other nations, at least until recently. In the last few decades, America has been turning from what made it an exception while other nations have begun to embrace what had made America exceptional. This understandably coincides with our decline and their advances.

This bulletin is a brief composite of coming world events that I have been shown prophetically over the last fourteen years, most of which have been published in books, articles, and the MorningStar Prophetic Bulletins. The phrase I believe best describes what I have seen is "These were the best of times, and these were the worst of times." Biblically it seems to be the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah 60:1-2:

          As we have been covering, “all authority in heaven and earth” has been given to Jesus, but He has not taken that authority over the earth yet. His kingdom is going to come, and His will is going to be done on earth as it is in heaven. All of heaven lives under the domain of the King. Only Satan and the angels who followed him have rebelled from the heavenly realm and were cast down to the earth when mankind rebelled against God.

          In Scripture, healing and prophetic ministries are often linked. As we’ve discussed, one way that the prophetically gifted can discern problems in others is to feel in their own body what those whom they are praying for feel. If your kidneys start hurting while you’re praying for someone, it is probably not your kidneys, but the person you are praying for. Usually, as soon as you get the message, the pain will go away.

Last week we studied how the mystery of God’s grace that was revealed through Christ was made plain through Paul’s ministry. The next verse, Ephesians 3:10, adds a significant and remarkable reason why this must be done:

We are studying the increasing need to know the Lord’s voice, and for authentic, trustworthy prophetic ministry in our times. This is reflected in
Acts 2:17-18, which is a quote from Joel 2:
 

A new breed of leadership will soon arise in the Body of Christ. The coming spiritual generation will not be content to wander in circles in the wilderness, and the coming leadership will be like Joshua and Caleb to lead them into the Promised Land.

As I have said before, an eagle needs both a right wing and a left wing to fly. I am personally a conservative, but I am just as concerned about right wing extremists as I am left wing extremists. Someone said in a recent summit of Christian leaders we hosted that as Christians our allegiance is not to the party of the donkey or the elephant, but to the Lamb. My first allegiance is to the holy nation, the kingdom of God, far more so than any other allegiance. However, I do have some allegiance to my country, the party I belong to, and other associations I have.

We can have the best army in the world, but it can still be defeated without good leadership. Likewise, even with competent leadership, it can still be defeated without a well-trained and disciplined army. We need both. However, we will first focus on the leadership because any great organization or force will only perform according to its potential if it is led well. This is why leadership should always be the highest priority when we begin an endeavor, and it was the highest priority with the Lord when He began to build His army on the earth, the church.

Two weeks ago we began discussing how the habitations of God in Scripture, the tabernacles and temples, were divided into three compartments, and how we had applied this to our Katrina relief efforts, breaking it down into three phases, which were:

Phase I: Rescue. The main goal in this phase is simply saving lives and getting people to safety.