Do you know the Bible says there were sons of Issachar who were men who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do? I believe that we're in a very, very unique economic season right now, and we need to be those sons of Issachar who have understanding of the times to know what we ought to do. I find that many, many people I talk to really don't realize that we’re in a very unique economic season right now.
I want to share with you on the broadcast why I believe we're in a unique season right now and what you can do about it. Across the sands of time, God's people have walked His ancient paths. Join us as we explore divine identity and purpose, unearth God's word on wealth, discover the blessing passed between family generations, and find life filled with empowering relationships.
You will soar like never before! Well, welcome to Ancient Paths with Craig Hill. In the last broadcast, we talked about three unique qualities to look for in partners that you would want to invest your time and energy in.
We looked at these qualities in Luke chapter 19 and 2 Timothy 2:2, and we found that we are looking for people who have the attitude of a servant, people who are faithful, and people who can multiply. If you didn't have an opportunity to see that broadcast, I really encourage you to go to craighill. org, and you can have a look at that broadcast to find out how you would qualify those people.
How would you find people in your business, in your ministry, or even in your own life that you could partner with and multiply through? How do you find people who are faithful, who are servants, and who can multiply? That's what we talked about in the last broadcast.
If you didn't see it, I encourage you, please go to craighill. org and check out the last broadcast. Today, we're talking about a very unique economic season that I believe we're in.
I think most people have noticed that economically, we are not in a time when business is as usual. We're in a very different time than we were in the 2000s, a very different time than we were in the 1990s, but we're finding in this decade, there are many, many things that are quite different, and I believe there's a reason for that. As I was seeking God, "Lord, what's going on?
What's happening? " God led me just to reread Leviticus chapter 25, which is the passage that talks about the Jubilee. You know, there were some shocking things in this passage.
I had always heard about Jubilee, and you probably have too. For years and years, everybody knows a couple of things about Jubilee. Everybody knows that when Jubilee comes, all slaves go free, and all debts are canceled, and that's exciting.
People think, "Praise God! When Jubilee comes, all my debts are going to be canceled. " But there's something in it that I had never seen before.
So we're going to actually read a little part of it. Leviticus chapter 25, verses 8 through 17: "You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, 49 years. You shall then sound a ram's horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement, you shall sound a horn all through your land.
And you shall thus consecrate the 50th year and proclaim a release through the land of all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, each of you shall return to his family. You shall have the 50th year as a Jubilee; you shall not sow nor reap its aftergrowth nor gather from its undertrimmed vines, for it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you.
You shall eat its crops out of the field, and on this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property. If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend or buy from your friend's hands, you shall not wrong one another. Corresponding to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall buy from your friend, and he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops.
In proportion to the extent of the years, you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years, you shall diminish its price; for it is the number of crops that he is selling to you. So you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God. " Here's what's interesting that I saw: three things happen in Jubilee.
When Jubilee comes, all debts are canceled, all slaves go free, but the third thing is everybody returns back to his own property. So if you sell a farm, when Jubilee comes, you go back to your property. Now, many people were forced to sell because they couldn't pay; they didn't have the money, so they would sell to somebody else.
But it says you go back; the property goes back to the original owner at the time of Jubilee. Now, why did God say this? I believe it's for this reason: God was really, really smart, and God still is really smart.
Here's what God recognized: in any market economy, whenever you make credit available and people are allowed to borrow, there is a 100 percent chance that people will borrow more money than is possible to pay back. Do you think that could possibly be true? I mean, I believe that's true today.
Not only that, because many, many lenders are greedy, oftentimes lenders will lend to people that have no business borrowing—people that are completely uncreditworthy. The consequence of that is, in any economy, if people are allowed to take on debt and to borrow over a period of decades, do you know that people will borrow more money than it’s possible to pay back? How long does it take?
Probably about, say, 50 years or so. I believe the reason that God commanded Israel to have a jubilee is because about every 50 years an economy will take on an unsustainable amount of debt; it's not possible to pay it back. What is jubilee?
Jubilee is a national debt purge. Jubilee is a reset button. When the trumpet is blown, what happens?
It’s like somebody punches the button; the economy is reset. What does that mean? Through the growth phase of an economy, where money is lent and the economy is growing, inflation occurs.
What happens is the economy gets bigger and bigger and bigger, inflation goes up and up and up and up and up, and debt increases more and more and more and more. God said, at the time of jubilee, we’re going to punch a button; there’s a reset. All the prices go back down to where they started, all the debts are canceled, all the slaves go free, and all the property goes back to the original owner.
It’s an economic reset. You know, it’s interesting to note, unfortunately, Israel never practiced this. They were commanded by God to do it; they never actually did it.
Now, here's what I discovered: in any economy, it’s going to be the exact same thing. What I mean by that is, in any economy where debt is available, it’s a hundred percent certain that human nature dictates people will borrow more money than it’s possible to pay back. When that happens, inflation keeps going up, and what happens is you reach an unsustainable point where that economy has to roll back.
And God said, make it fair for everybody; do it voluntarily, at a point in time where there’s an economic reset. Tell everybody when it’s going to be, and what we just read is God said, adjust your prices accordingly. So, if you’re going to make a deal, you’re going to sell a property, but you know it’s going to come back in the Year of Jubilee, well, you’re going to sell it for one price.
If there are 43 years left until jubilee, a totally different price; if there are only five years till jubilee, and it’s fair—everybody knows when it is. But here’s the problem: in an economy where there is no preset jubilee, where there’s no debt relief mechanism, there’s no way to purge that economy of debt, do you know what happens? The economy eventually has what I call an unplanned jubilee.
What that means is, instead of being fair when everybody knows when it is, like God commanded Israel, it’s something unfair—only a very few or maybe almost nobody knows when it’s going to be. Now, I just looked at economic cycles, and I observed that in past history, here in the United States, and you can trace it back through Europe, about every 70 to 80 years, you have an economic debt purge; you have a cycle. I call it a jubilee cycle, and what you actually have is a deflationary depression.
What that means is prices roll back, you have deflation, debt is eliminated, although it’s eliminated many times in a not good way. I mean, if we look at these three things that happen in jubilee: all debts are eliminated, all slaves go free, and all property goes back to the original owner. Do you know that that is exactly what happens in a depression?
Except it happens in a negative way; it happens in a way that’s not good. Many people lose everything; it’s not what God intended. God intended for people to do this voluntarily, but if we have no voluntary mechanism to do it, it tends to happen involuntarily.
The reason I’m saying this is I think that that is exactly the season that we’re in right now. We’re in a jubilee season, and do you know, right here in the United States, over the last five years, many people have actually lost their homes; they lost them to foreclosure. Now, actually, that could be describing a part of what should have happened voluntarily—not that people would voluntarily lose their homes to foreclosure, but there should be a voluntary release of debt.
Here’s the mistake that I think people made: people thought and taught when jubilee comes, all my debt is forgiven. But here’s the problem: you don’t get to keep all the stuff. No, the principle is this: when your debt is forgiven, the stuff goes back to the original owner.
Yes, you don’t have to pay for the house anymore, but you don’t get to keep the house; the house goes back. Yes, you don’t have to pay for the car anymore, but you don’t get to keep the car; the car goes back. So, the principle is this: all debt is canceled, but all property reverts back to the original owner.
The modern-day word for that, when it happens involuntarily, is foreclosure. That’s not a good thing. So, we looked much, much earlier in this series about the fact that when a wealth transfer occurs—Proverbs 13:22—it goes from those who have borrowed and cannot repay to those who show mercy and give; it goes from the indebted to the meek.
When does a wealth transfer happen? Every jubilee season. Every time there’s a jubilee, there’s a huge amount of wealth that transfers.
Now, I find many Christians thought the way the wealth was going to. . .
Transfer was zeros would suddenly, somehow, supernaturally be added to their bank account, and that would be the wealth transfer. I don't believe that's the way it happens; it actually happens in a very natural way. What occurs is an economy takes on an unsustainable amount of debt, and what happens is, as that economy implodes, naturally, wealth is transferred from those who have borrowed and cannot repay to those who show mercy and give.
We talked about that. It happened last Jubilee season; it happened in the 1930s. There was another one in this country back in the 1850s.
You can trace it back many, many times in Europe— the same kind of thing. This is a very unique season, I think a five to seven-year season, that we're living in that is totally different than anything you've ever experienced before— totally different than what happened in the 2000s, the 90s, and the 80s, totally different than any time other than what happened in what we call the Great Depression back in the 1930s. I think that's what we're experiencing again now.
I'm not saying God spoke that to me; I'm saying I just see the pattern. I read about Jubilee. I believe that we need to be sons of Issachar and that we need to understand what is happening.
If we understand what's going on and are prepared, this could be one of the most prosperous seasons of your entire life. Because, imagine this: we heard again back in the 1930s that people who understood what was happening and had prepared—they had no debt, they had margins, they had a little bit of extra cash. Do you know what happened to those people?
They purchased houses, land, farms, businesses for five cents, ten cents on the dollar. And, as the cycle began to climb again, they owned property that increased and increased and increased in value. Now, other people that didn't realize that—many of them lost their property, many of them lost their farms, lost their businesses.
They simply didn't understand the season; they didn't understand we were in a Jubilee season, in a Jubilee time. And it's critical for us to be sons of Issachar, to understand where we are in the economy and to prepare. Now, I'm going to give you some general things, but I want you to pray and ask the Lord about specifics—about your own house, about your own business, about your own property, about what God would specifically tell you to do.
Because, as I've said earlier on these broadcasts in this series, I believe everything about finances has to do with learning from God, coming into relationship with God. We're going to take a break right now, and the announcer is going to tell you how you can take advantage of the offers that are available to get more understanding, more insight into what we're talking about on this broadcast. And right after that, we're going to be back.
I want to give you some more insight into this concept about Jubilee. Have you seen decline or even devastation instead of abundance in your finances? Do you want to walk down the path where your financial life works like never before?
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Again, the number to call is 303-797-1139. And now, back to Craig. You know, God gave me this insight into Jubilee, and I did write about it quite a bit in "Five Wealth Secrets 96 of Us Don't Understand.
" So, I really do hope that you get your copy of this book if you don't have it yet, so that you can really read about this and look at some of the charts that we put in the book. It's critical to understand; I believe there really is a strong correlation between the current economic cycle we're experiencing and what God spoke about as Jubilee. Again, if people don't do this voluntarily, then it sort of happens involuntarily, and then it's devastating.
Do you know God said, "Prepare for it; tell everybody when it's going to be so that it's not a surprise"? Do you know when we began this cycle back in 2008 and we had a pretty dramatic crash of our U. S.
stock market, I heard people all over say, "Who could have known? Who could have known? " Do you know who could have known?
Sons of Issachar—people who understood the times. So, if you weren't aware in 2008, please listen now. This is a very important thing to understand.
I believe that there are some economic hurricanes that we're going to experience. It's much like if you heard a hurricane was coming and you lived on the Gulf Coast. What would you do?
Well, you'd probably prepare. How would you prepare? Maybe get, if you own a boat, get the boat out of the water, board up your house, move inland.
What if it was completely wrong and a hurricane never came to your house or to your city? Well, there's not a lot lost in preparing; you just go back, get your boat out, and put it back in the water. Water unboard your house, that sort of thing.
On the other hand, what happens if you make no preparation and the hurricane hits dead on in your city? You could potentially lose everything. So my point is, would you please seek God?
Ask Him, "God, what do You want us to do to prepare during this particular season? What would be prudent to do? " Again, one of the things that I think was a huge, huge mistake is people thought the teaching on Jubilee was this: when Jubilee comes, my debts are eliminated, and I get to keep all the stuff.
Well, if that's really true, then the theory would be to run up as big a debt as you can and order as much on your credit cards as you possibly can because you're going to get to keep all that stuff and you won't have to pay for it. But no, I believe the truth is just the opposite: what happens is you lose all those things. Why?
They revert back to the original owner. So what happens when Jubilee comes? Slaves are set free.
I don't think we have literal slaves here in the United States. I mean, we did 150 years ago. We don't have so many literal slaves, and I understand there's human trafficking and some really evil things taking place.
I'm not talking about that. But I'm talking about here in the United States. The primary type of financial slaves we have are debt slaves—people who have given themselves over to multiple creditors, and now actually 100 percent or more of their monthly cash flow is obligated just in monthly payments to their credit cards, to their car finance company, their house mortgage, all the different things.
Those are debt slaves. Now, when Jubilee comes, what happens? Those people are set free, but they don't get to keep all the stuff.
The modern-day word for that is bankruptcy. So when you declare bankruptcy, you don't have to pay anymore. The debt slave is set free, but you don't get to keep all the stuff; all the stuff goes back to the bank.
Now, my father told me that in this last Jubilee season, in the 1930s, we called it the Great Depression here in the United States. There was a huge transfer of wealth, and that many, many people actually became very, very wealthy during the Depression. I asked him who were the people who became wealthy, and he told me this: it was the people who understood the times, realized that there was a huge deflation taking place, that prices were going ever lower, and that property was being repossessed or taken back by the bank and was available to be purchased for pennies on the dollar.
So who were the people that became very wealthy? The people that were meek—the people that inherited the land. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you might want to purchase this entire TV broadcast series.
It's a series of 14 broadcasts, and you can purchase that series at craighill. org or by calling the telephone number that will be on your screen. You can purchase this entire series to go back and listen to some of the teachings that were earlier in the series if you don't know what I'm talking about in terms of the meek inheriting the land.
But I believe that's exactly what's happening right now. These are incredible opportunities that we have. What that means is people who are out of debt, people who have margins, probably will have an opportunity of a lifetime.
I believe in the next two to three years there will be opportunities to purchase things for pennies on the dollar because many, many people are going to lose properties. They're going to lose houses, they're going to lose businesses, they're going to lose large buildings, and somebody who has a little bit of cash is going to be able to come along and purchase those things for pennies on the dollar. What I'm telling you is this could be the economic opportunity of a lifetime.
It has never been in your lifetime before unless you lived in the 1930s, and it will never be in your lifetime again unless you're going to be here 70 or 80 years from now, if the Lord doesn't return before then. This is a unique time in history, if you have eyes to see it, where God could be opening opportunities for you. Now, I'm not telling you what you should do.
I'm just asking you to pray about it. I'm asking you to prepare. Again, I want to mention that as I traveled through many, many churches around North America in the 2000s—2004, 2005, 2006, 2007—I would ask, "Has the Spirit of God spoken anything in this church?
Have there been any prophetic words? Has your pastor preached anything on finances? " Inevitably, people would say yes, and I'd say, "What is the word that has come forth?
" People would tell me the primary word we've heard is this: "Get out of debt. " Now why would the Spirit of God be telling people in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 to get out of debt? Could it be that the Spirit of God knew that this Jubilee season was coming?
And in reality, the worst situation to be in when Jubilee hits is to be in debt. Why? Because wealth transfers from those who have borrowed and cannot repay.
You're on the wrong side of the wealth equation, and people haven't realized that. Many people were just thinking, "Oh, wealth will transfer to me because I'm a Christian, because I'm righteous in Christ. " Again, if you're not sure what I'm talking about in terms of who are the wicked and who are the righteous, please go back.
And listen to some of the previous broadcasts where we explained that in detail. It's critical for you to understand that. So what can you do now?
Now is the time to get out of debt, and I would encourage you to pray. Ask God, "How do you want me to do that, God? What do you want me to do?
" I mean, one of the very obvious things is, if you have debt on things, consider selling those things that you carry a lot of debt on and purchasing that which you can afford—purchasing that which you actually have money to pay for. That would be a good start right there. Again, obviously put your money in jars; don't put all your money in one jar.
Don't take on enough debt that creates payments to spend a hundred percent of what you have every single month. You can begin to change that immediately because there are opportunities of a lifetime that will be available to you in the next few years. If you understand the times, if you prepare now, God will bring about supernatural multiplication.
And again, I want to encourage you: God has not designed us to live as natural beings. You might have made a lot of mistakes in the past; you might have done many things that, as we're progressing through this series, you're thinking, "Oh my goodness, I wish I would have known this 10 years ago! I wish I would have prepared for this!
I wish I wouldn't have done that. " Do you know what? It doesn't matter.
Start where you are today, and God can supernaturally turn things around. God can supernaturally change things for you. So, it's critical for us to understand what's happening.
Another thing that I noticed is this: There is a huge difference in how Greek thinkers perceive things and how Hebrew thinkers perceive things. You know, Greeks tend to focus on knowledge. Jesus said Greeks seek knowledge; Jews seek a sign.
Why did he say that? Because Hebrew people tend to be experiential. Greeks tend to be cognitive.
Greeks tend to think in straight lines; Hebrews tend to think in cycles. That's why, when you look in the Hebrew calendar, you see cycles that go round and round. You have various festivals that are celebrated every year, and it goes around in a cycle.
Greeks tend to think in straight lines. The reason I'm saying that is most of us in North America, in the English-speaking countries that would probably be hearing this, are Greek thinkers. We tend to be highly influenced by a Greco-Roman type of thinking, which is linear.
What that means is, do you know that people think the economy is just going to continue on in a straight line, exactly the same way it's been? I've had many people tell me, "Well, I went to my financial advisor, and he told me the market always goes up. He told me I can show you 50 years of history of the market just going up and up and up and up and up.
" Do you know what the 50 years he will show you doesn't include? A jubilee cycle! He'll probably show you 1950 to 2000.
Well, 1950 to 2000, there's no jubilee cycle in it. That's just an inflation cycle where things go up. Ask him to show you 1900 to 1950.
Do you know that's an entirely different story? Because it has a jubilee cycle in the middle, where there was a debt purge, where there was an economic reset. Do you know that the economy—the stock market here in the United States—did not recover, did not reach its 1929 high until, I believe, 1953?
I'm not sure of the exact date, but it was the early '50s—53 or 54. How long is that? That's almost 25 years until it reached the same level.
So, what we need to understand is if this really is that type of season again, where we can have that kind of decline, it's critical for us to understand that. It's critical for us to be prepared, critical for us to realize this is a time like never before to press in, to seek God, to hear from the Spirit of God. Say, "God, what do you want me to do with my investments?
What do you want me to do with my retirement account? What do you want me to do with things that I have debt on? God, how can I be preparing right now?
" Seek the Lord, because I'm telling you this is a unique time that's different than any time in past history, unless you lived in the 1930s. Now, Hebraic people tend to understand cycles that we're going to repeat at some point— the same thing that we experienced in the 30s. Greek thinkers tend to think, "Oh no, the economy is just going to go right on the way it always has, in a straight line.
" It’s critical for us to understand what those things are, what is happening. I believe it really is a cycle, and it's important for us to understand cycles. Now, in the next broadcast, I want to share with you just a couple of things that I have done myself to prepare for this cycle—a couple of things that are critical to do to prepare to survive as the future unfolds.
If there is a hurricane—like I'm talking about an economic hurricane—and maybe one other thing that you can do to take advantage of the situation and not take advantage of other people, because we need to prepare to help lots and lots of people. We'll have the greatest opportunity to share the gospel with people that’s ever been in our lives. But I want to share with you a couple of key things that.
. . You must do right now to prepare for the next season and consider the things that you could do to prosper in the upcoming season beyond anything you've ever thought of before.
In our next broadcast, which is online only—it won't be on television—it's at www. craghill. org.
I want to share those things God showed me to do to prepare for this next season, as Craig mentioned. Further expanding on today's essential teaching, this special program can be viewed at any time on our website, craighill. org.
We'll see you there! Also, for all of our faithful Ancient Paths TV viewers, Craig would like to bless you with this very special free offer. Simply go to craighill.
org right now for your free download of Craig's ebook, *Living on the Third River*. If you desire to be a faithful steward over a greater flow of God's resources in life, then don't fail to take advantage of this free offer. And be sure to tune in again next week, right here at this same time on this same television network, for our next TV broadcast of Ancient Paths with Craig Hill.
