12) Preparing For The Days Ahead

We revisit Enoch’s sweeping ten‑week prophecy to uncover a throughline that runs from Sinai to the Sermon on the Mount: covenants shape a people who can stand when everything else shakes. I share how the higher law transforms preparation from fear‑driven stockpiling to formation—becoming the kind of disciples who hold communities together under pressure.

We dig into the practical heart of Isaiah 61 and translate it into a crisis playbook: bring good news to the teachable, bind up the brokenhearted, announce freedom to those trapped by addiction, and comfort the grieving with a living hope. Along the way, I challenge the habits that quietly sabotage charity—online contempt, reflexive anger, and clever half‑truths—and offer daily practices that actually cultivate the Spirit: prayer with real intent, reconciliation before worship, and a posture that seeks to serve rather than win. Hope isn’t naive here; it’s anchored in the millennial horizon where Zion culture rewires society and Christ’s presence reorders our desires.

Yes, we also talk temporal prudence. I outline why fixed‑rate debt beats variable in an inflationary cycle, the value of eliminating high‑interest balances, and how a measured exposure to hard assets can hedge a weakening currency. But the point isn’t speculation—it’s resilience that keeps your home, your table, and your generosity intact. We confront bunker fantasies and Rambo daydreams with a higher calling: feed the Lord’s sheep. Share the food you saved. Show up with calm. Trust that charity multiplies resources in ways fear never can.

If this conversation steadied you or sparked a plan, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs courage, and leave a quick review so others can find it. What one step—spiritual or practical—will you start this week?

Transcript

Welcome And Episode Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to the Black Swan Rising Podcast, an L10 production. For transcriptions, show notes, and extras, please visit us at the Black Swan Rising Podcast.com. Now, broadcasting across the world from the heart of the American Bible Belt, here is your host, Michael B. Rush.

Enoch’s Ten-Week Prophecy Recap

Covenants As The Central Throughline

Higher Law Versus Law Of Moses

Charity As Non‑Negotiable Preparation

Binding Up The Brokenhearted

Millennial Hope And Zion Vision

Spiritual Over Temporal Priorities

Practical Temporal Prep And Debt

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Black Swan Rising Podcast. I'm your host, Michael B. Rush. Today we are going to be talking about how we can prepare for what is coming down the pipeline. You will recall in the last episode, we reviewed Enoch's 10-week prophecy, wherein each week reviewed a period of time of the Earth's history in sequential order, beginning with his day and going until the end of the world. And each one of these 10 periods brought out something that from Enoch's perspective would be very valuable for us who would be called to live during these days of trial. So let's just review what those takeaways from those ten periods were so that we can jump into a discussion about how we can prepare for those. So you'll recall that the first period of time covered from 4000 to 3000 BC, and in this period of time, Enoch and his people were lifted up and taken into the cosmos, where according to the LDS tradition, specifically speaking of Moses chapter 7, verses 21, 27, and 31, Enoch and his people have had interactions with all of the creations that the Father has made. So not only were they lifted up into the cosmos, but they are interacting with worlds without number. And that is pretty amazing. And I think that we need to keep that in context for the coming days. The second week in his prophecy covered the period 3000 BC to 2300 BC. And in here, this is when the earth experienced an extinction-level event for the wicked. And only Noah and his family, which consisted of eight people, including himself, survived. And this is a key point for us to understand, because the world is about to have another extinction level event for the wicked. Remember, Christ said that, as in the days of Noah, so it shall be the coming of the Son of Man. And in the days of Noah, all of the wicked were removed from the earth. And so when the Son of Man returns again, all of the wicked will be removed from the earth. Then the third week, which covered the period of time from 2300 BC to 1600 BC, Enoch prophesied that Abraham and the plant of righteousness would be established, referring to the house of Israel. And I think that is very interesting that Enoch referred to the house of Israel as the plant of righteousness, because throughout the ancient scriptures, the house of Israel is described as having transplantings and cuttings and graftings going on. So the fact that Enoch is referring to the House of Israel as the plant of righteousness is right along that same vein of thinking. Then we go to the fourth week, wherein he which covers the period of time from 1600 BC to 900 BC. And Enoch prophesied that during this period of time that the law would be given and an enclosure for the law would be made. Now he's referring to the law of Moses, and this is going to be important for our discussion today. And then the enclosure for the law was the Temple of Solomon that was built at the close of this week. So that is this was very important for Enoch to communicate. So so far we have had the righteous being delivered from the earth, and then the wicked being removed from the earth, and then you have Noah, who was a covenant man. The rainbow is a standing reminder of God's covenant to Noah. Then you have Abraham, who was also a covenant man, and you have his posterity, all of whom are under the same covenant. Then you have the law that was given, which if you read in Exodus Exodus 19 and 20, you will understand that this law was a covenant. And that we would have a land of inheritance. And you know, our you know part of this law was the Ten Commandments, and we'll get into that a little bit more. But then you have the temple that was built, which is obviously the place where we go for covenants. So you can see that covenants are very important to what Enoch has been talking about. And that same theme continues in his fifth week, which is from 900 to 200 BC, wherein he said that the house of dominion and glory would be built forever. Now, this is following the construction of Solomon's temple, which housed the Ark of the Covenant. So Enoch is not referring to that temple because that temple was destroyed. This temple that he's referring to has to have been built by someone other than the Jews, because all of the temples that the Jews built were destroyed. So I believe that when Enoch is talking about this house of glory and dominion, he's actually talking about a structure that was built by the lost tribes of Israel and that will return when they return, and it will be incredible. And I reviewed another prophecy of Enoch wherein he saw the existing structure on the Temple Mount being lifted up and taken to the southern part of Israel and this glorious house descending upon the Temple Mount prior to Christ coming again. So I think that this is this is what Enoch is talking about in the week five in week five. So again, this is about covenants. Now we go to week six, which encompasses the period of time from 200 BC to 500 AD. And Enoch said that this would be a period of great blindness, and that during this period a man would ascend, and that the Jews' temple would be destroyed and that they would be scattered. So the man who ascends is actually Jesus Christ, who is the God of Israel. And the blindness that occurred was the covenant people being blind to the fact that Jesus Christ was who he said he was. And as a result, they once again broke their covenants and were scattered to the four winds. Then you have the seventh week, which corresponds with the period of time from 500 AD to 1200 AD. And Enoch says that this is a period of great apostasy, where all who are living during this period of time are apostates and all of their deeds are apostate. Except, he says, that at the close of this period, that the elect from the eternal plant of righteousness are called and chosen and given sevenfold instruction concerning all of God's creations. Now, this is astounding because it sounds like to me that Enoch is seeing the calling and election of the 144,000 of the house of 12,000 from every tribe of Israel. And I reviewed in the last episode how in the writings of John he referred to these 144,000 as being young virgins coming from the prior periods throughout the world's history, and that they were the first fruits unto God, meaning that these were called and resurrected. So that these are people that have already lived. And that's why Enoch saw that this would take place around 1200 AD, which corresponds with the sixth seal in the book of Revelation. And curiously, these 144,000 are given sevenfold instruction regarding all of the populated worlds throughout the cosmos. So here in the first section or the first period of time, Enoch and his people are taken up into the cosmos, where they interact with all of the father's creations. And then here in the seventh period, you have these 144,000 that are instructed regarding everything that there is to know about all of the father's creations again. And Enoch wanted us to understand this. So clearly, the reason for him wanting to understand us to understand this is because this will be relevant to what we will be experiencing in our day. So this is a reoccurring theme, and covenants are a reoccurring theme. All right, now let's move on to number eight, week number eight. This corresponds with the period of time from 1200 AD to 1900 AD. And Enoch said that during this period of time the righteousness will overcome wickedness, and that the righteous would begin to receive houses of righteousness. What does this refer to? Well, I believe that this refers to the period of time when the world began to emerge from the dark ages, and you had the beginning of the Reformation, where you had many reformers look at the Catholic Church and say, Whoa, we have gone way off base. This stuff that we're doing, it's not in the Bible, it's wicked, we need to you know change. And that, of course, spawned all kinds of religious turmoil, and ultimately you had hordes of people fleeing Europe to America to found a new country based in religious freedom. Where in during the 19th century, you have the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints occur. And then which results in the re-establishment of temples once more upon the earth. And why do we have temples? We have temples so that we can make covenants with God. Okay, then we move into the ninth period, which encompasses the period of time from 1900 AD to 2600 AD. And we are told that during this period of time there will be this extinction-level event wherein the wicked are completely eradicated from the earth, just like happened in the second week in this prophecy of Enoch. So that is very important because that happens at the beginning of this week. And friends, it's going to happen in our day. We're going to see this take place. And then in week 10, which encompasses the period of time from 2600 AD to 3300 A.D., the millennial reign of Christ finishes. You have the wicked again purged, and the work of the Father is completed. So a very epic episode that we had last week, very epic vision of Enoch's. And when I look back at this, and I hope that you, when you are contemplating these things, you highlight the importance of covenants in what Enoch was highlighting. As we think about all of these things, and we think about what is coming down the pipeline here, based off of all of the episodes in this ser this season so far, there's a lot of heavy-duty stuff coming, a lot of hair-raising stuff. So how do you prepare for this? Well, I think by looking back on these highlights that Enoch gave us, we've got a pretty good answer. We will be best prepared if we can make and keep sacred covenants. So let's talk about covenants here. Adam made covenants with God. His son Seth made covenants with God. Cain, he was the first major black sheep in the family, he made a covenant with Satan, and that didn't go over so well. Then you have Enoch, who made a covenant with God, then you have Noah who made a covenant with God, then you have Abraham, who also made a covenant with God, and we are the children of Abraham, and anyone who is not a literal descendant of Abraham is adopted into the covenant if they want to be. So let's get into some of the details of this first covenant, because it's important for us to understand. So I mentioned and Enoch mentioned in this third week here, when, no, sorry, the fourth week, when the law was given and an enclosure was was made for it. If you go and you look at Exodus 19, 20, 21, you read in these chapters that God wanted to make a covenant with his people, and he wanted to do it face to face. And so he tells Moses, Sanctify the people, and in three days I'm coming. Gather them all at the base of Mount Sinai, which is also known as Mount Horeb. And so Moses did that. And that cleansing process involved them washing their bodies physically, washing their clothing, and you know, trying to become ritually pure. Then you have the big day, and when they're waiting for God to come and give them the law, you this big black cloud forms at the top of the mountain, and the mountain itself begins to shake, and rocks are starting to slide down, and smoke and steam start coming out of all the crevices of this mountain. And with the ground trembling, the Israelites are looking at each other, going, Whoa, what's going on? And then you hear these blasts of trumpets coming from these rolling dark clouds up above the peak of the mountain, and then it starts descending down on the mountain, and the children of Israel become terrified. And they tell Moses, listen, we can't do this. If we stay here and talk to the Lord, we are not sure that we will survive. So we're out of here. We're going to the other side of this valley, and you hang with the Lord and you tell us what he says, but we're gone. And Moses didn't want that, the Lord didn't want that, but Moses ascends up into the mountain where he receives the higher law. And ultimately, he spends 40 days with the Lord receiving this law. And then the Lord tells Moses, Listen, you got to get down. The children of Israel, they they have gone off the deep end. You've got to get down quickly. So Moses gets down, he he's brought the higher law with him, and he sees that in his absence, the children of Israel have created a golden calf, which is likely a depiction of Hathor, the queen of heaven, as depicted in Egyptian lore. And they're worshiping her. And Moses is furious at this. And he takes the higher law and smashes it. And you know, ultimately he grinds it into power, powder, and he makes the children of Israel eat it. And then they get a lower law. They get a carnal law. What started out as Ten Commandments morphs into 613 separate laws of Moses. All of these laws were meant to point the children of Israel to Jesus Christ. It was meant to be a schoolmaster. But the point is that they received this lower law because they would not, they were not willing to abide a higher law at that time. But the God of Israel, who you know, Jesus Christ was. Was the one who was talking with Moses on that mountain. So he wanted to give them a higher law, but they were not willing to abide by that higher law. And it wouldn't be until Christ came in the meridian of time that he told the children of Israel that were still remaining on the earth at that point, that the law of Moses was now fulfilled in him. And then he went on to expound what that higher law was. And he would begin to recite some of the original Ten Commandments, such as he said, you know, it has been written in old time, thou shalt not kill. And then he went on to say, but listen, guys, you should not only kill, not kill, but you should pray for your enemies and for those that despitefully use and persecute you. And you should not even allow anger to enter into your heart. And if you are angry with somebody, first go and reconcile yourself with them and then come to me. This is the higher law. And then he said, you know, it's been it was written in old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. He said, But the higher law is you should avoid lustful thoughts altogether. You need to be pure in your minds as well. This is the higher law. Then he said, It has been written in old times that thou shalt not bear false witness. But then he went on to say, You your speech should be yay yay and nay nay, meaning you shouldn't try to weave a tapestry of words to abscond the truth, like the proverbial fig leaves to hide your nakedness. You should be straightforward and just say things as they are. Don't try to cover your sins with words. Be completely and totally honest. Now, Christ went over and talked about lots of different things. And the Jews were still kind of used to the six hundred and thirteen laws of Moses, and they didn't quite know what to make of it when Christ said, Listen, this has been fulfilled in me. Now we are living a higher law. And so he was asked on numerous occasions to kind of expound upon that. And his answer is incredible. He said that all of the law and the prophets, meaning every commandment that has ever been given, and all of the prophetic utterances that have ever been given, can be summarized in two things. Love God and love your fellow man. So in reality, we can summarize this in one thing, and that is pure love of Christ. We're not talking about the love of the world, which is typically referred to as lust, which Christ explicitly forbade us to engage in. He's talking about the pure love of Christ. This is what Paul referred to as charity. And if you don't have charity, you are as a tinkling symbol or as a sounding brass. You are nothing before the throne of God without this love. You can have all of these prophecies and you can do all of these incredible works and you can do all of this stuff. But if you do not have, if you are not filled with the love of God, then what the flip have you been doing? Love is the point. It's what the law of Moses, all of these things are pointing you towards. Jesus Christ's perfect life was the perfect example of this. He lived his life not for himself, but to fulfill his father's will. Why? Because Jesus Christ loved the Father. And then Jesus Christ went about serving and loving his fellow men. He did not condemn them, he freely forgave them. And he told us that we are to do the same. This is what the higher law means. If you would inherit the kingdom of heaven, it's not about proclaiming Jesus Christ with your lips. It is about striving to emulate his example. And friends, as we contemplate what is coming down the pipeline, the number one preparation that you can make, the thing that will be of most benefit to you will be to strive to fill yourself with this Christ-like love. There is nothing that will be more important to you than this. This is the whole law and the prophets personified love. Strive to obtain this love in your hearts. And one of my favorite all-time scriptures on this comes from the Book of Mormon in Moroni chapter seven, starting in verse 45 through 48, and I'm going to read it. And it says this. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing. For charity never faileth. Wherefore cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail. But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth for ever, and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of thy heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son Jesus Christ, that ye may become the sons of God, that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, that we may have this hope, that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen. So in this verse, this is actually Mormon who is writing, and well, it's a it's a discourse that Mormon, who was Moroni's father, gave, and Moroni included it into his writings because it was so awesome. But here Mormon clearly says, Listen, if you don't have charity, you're nothing. But if you do have charity, it will be well with you. Then he says, pray unto the Father with all the energy of your soul that he will give you this charity, because he gives this charity to all those that are true disciples of his son. So, friends, that is very important for us to discuss and to ponder upon. If we do not have charity, which is a characteristic of all true disciples of Jesus Christ, then are we true disciples of Jesus Christ? If we are perfectly fine just roasting our fellow man and leaving online comments that are scathing and you know hate-filled, and you know, we participate in the tearing down and destroying of people's character. Are we Christ-like? No, that is not how it works. Now I know that there are many, many different religious traditions out there. And I have complete faith that the day will come when Jesus Christ will get us all on the same page. And if there are those of us that are mistaken in certain religious traditions and beliefs, he'll get us on the same page. But we control how we act and how we treat one another. And regardless of the religious tradition, there is no instance where you can go to the higher law and see examples of when Christ encouraged his disciples to go and persecute people. In fact, the opposite is true. Christ told his disciples, hey, listen, in the last days, people are going to persecute you, and they're going to think that if they kill you, they will be doing God a favor. That is not how God operates. The wicked destroy the wicked. We are meant to turn the other cheek. We are meant to strive to emulate the example of Jesus Christ. In all things that we do, online, in our interactions with our neighbors, when we're driving on the road, you know, it's amazing to me how short our tempers can become as soon as we sit behind the wheel. Is that Christ-like behavior? I mean, these are all things that we should be thinking about and considering. Because there's all kinds of things that you can do to strive to prepare for what is coming down the road. And friends, there are some very, very scary things that are coming down the road. But the most important preparation that you can do, I believe, is strive to be filled with this love of Christ, this pure love of Christ in your heart towards all mankind, not just those that believe in the same way that you believe. Christ said, Listen, you know, the wicked treat their friends with kindness. You know, everyone does that. That's normal. Christ said, My disciples, when they're struck on their face with by an enemy, they turn the other cheek. When a Roman soldier asks my disciples to carry his pack for one mile, they carry it for two miles. This is the kind of behavior that we should strive to emulate. I know that this is very easy to say and very hard to do, but this is the charge that Christ has given those who would be his disciples. Now, what else can we do to prepare? Well, I think that another thing that is very important, and this one is again going to be a spiritual way that we can prepare. If you open up the Bible to Isaiah chapter 61, this is a very famous chapter. It's the way that Christ actually, when he announced himself as the Messiah publicly for the first time, he did it in a synagogue and he they asked him to read from the scrolls, and he opened up the scroll of Isaiah and read this passage. And I'm going to read it and then we're going to talk about it. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Okay, why am I reading these passages as ways that we can prepare? Well, Christ read these, and this is essentially a summary of Christ's life. And Christ was the perfect example. And whereas all of these things are messianic things, we, if we are to be disciples of Jesus Christ, should seek to do these things ourselves. So let's go through them. The first thing was the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Christ was full of the Spirit of God. Often throughout the scriptures, Christ went out by himself to be alone, away from the crowds, to spend time with his father. He wasn't doing this to avoid the public, he was doing this to connect with God. We need to do the same thing. We need to be filled with the Spirit of God. And we need to seek for that. We need to make time in our lives to be able to be filled with God. This is going to be incredibly important as things, the fur starts flying. We need to take time to fill our spiritual tanks. Okay. Then the next thing the Lord anointed him to preach good tidings unto the meek. Note God did not call Christ to preach the gospel unto the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Those guys, they desperately needed the gospel, but they didn't want it. Christ went to preach the gospel to the meek, those that were seeking the truth. Today there is no end of people that have all of the answers. Their glasses are already completely full. We're not called to teach to those people. Those people are not humble. They don't have any space to learn anything more. Do they need the gospel? Absolutely. But you will, you know, go blue in the face trying to convince them of things that they don't want to hear. So don't spend your time trying to convince people that don't want to be convinced. Spend your time preaching good tidings unto the meek, those that are seeking for truth. Okay? We can do that too. And that is going to be very important. Trust me, friends, when the fur starts to fly and people are looking up into the skies and they're seeing things that make no sense, they're going to be seeking. And we are going to need to be prepared in advance to be able to help them make sense of what is going on. That preparation needs to happen now. Okay, now let's look at the next thing. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to instill hope in the hopeless. There is nothing that anyone can do that can permanently separate them from the presence of God if they will choose to apply the atonement of Jesus Christ in their lives, humble themselves, repent, and seek to change. That is the good news. There is no heart that is broken now that cannot be completely healed through the power of Jesus Christ. And we can be emissaries of that message. The next thing is we can proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Now, what is this talking about? You know, obviously we have a literal component where you have men and women that are incarcerated because of things that they have done. And prison can be a pretty hopeless place. And I think it is very interesting that prisons are filled with the dregs of society, and yet the Lord has not forgotten those people. He is saying that he sent his son to proclaim liberty to those prisoners. Now, this means that even those that are considered to be the dregs of human Existence can have glorious cause for hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ because we do not have to be bound by our poor decisions in mortality. I once went to a prison and spoke to a room full of men that were basically going to die in that prison. And the things that some of these men had done to get them in prison were shocking to me. The kinds of just horrific atrocities. And yet, over the course of decades in prison, some of these men had completely transformed. And I did not see monsters before me. I saw humble, soft, broken, deeply flawed individuals that were incredibly repentant and remorseful for the lives that they had lived, but had hope because of Jesus Christ. And even though they were going to spend the remainder of their lives in prison, they it was incredible to see light in their countenances and to experience joy in talking with them and seeing feeling the hope in those conversations. Now, there are people that are bound even if they are not in prison. And when I when I am talking about being bound, I'm talking about the bonds of addiction, which are pervasive throughout our society today. Now, when I'm talking about addictions, you know, obviously there's drugs, alcohol, smoking, things like that that are highly addictive. And people can become prisoners to those habits. And many people's lives have been completely destroyed by that kind of behavior. But there are also less obvious but equally binding addictions. When I say less obvious, what I mean to say is there are addictions that are more socially acceptable, but equally damning. And by this I am talking about things like pornography, which is pervasive throughout our societies today. People can be bound by pornography and addicted to it. And this is something that if you are struggling with, you need to try to break free of those bonds now. And the way to do that is through Jesus Christ. And you can the same 10-step program that applies to overcoming alcohol addiction can be applied to every form of addiction, whether that's pornography or whether that's overeating or whether that's you know social media. There are so many various ways that we can become enslaved by the adversary today that we need to be aware and we need to understand that the atonement of Jesus Christ is the tool that we can use to break free of these kinds of chains. And we do not want to go into these last days bound like slaves. We're going to want to be the kind of people that can help to break the chains that are binding our brothers and sisters. Then the next thing here to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. What is that talking about? We need to understand the signs and wonders and the doctrines that are inherent with the great and dreadful day of the Lord, which is the period of time that precedes the Lord's second coming. Because this knowledge, the very next thing is to comfort all that mourn. When we are going through the great and terrible day of the Lord, there are going to be many people that are mourning, mourning the loss of so many things. Loved ones, just society in general will you know be collapsing all around us. We're going to need to be able to. This is why we have scriptures that say, I hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him. During the millennium, we are going to be experiencing a society that is so far beyond anything that we have yet contemplated, that it will make everything that we have experienced worth it. This will be the beauty for ashes. Now, I'm not talking about heaven, guys. I'm talking about mortality during the millennium, when we are living in a society where Christ is present amongst us, and we are raising our children in a Zion-like society. And you know, there are scriptures in the LDS canon that just suggest that this is going to be so incredibly awesome as to you know be beyond comprehension. Let me just share one of these scriptures with you. So I'm starting in Moses chapter seven. This is Enoch has been talking with the Lord, and he is asking the Lord to tell him about the day when the earth will be able to rest from all of the wickedness that has been taking place upon it. And this is how the Lord responds to Enoch. Righteousness will I send down out of heaven, and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine only begotten, his resurrection from the dead, yea, also the resurrection of all men, and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect from the four corners of the earth, unto a place which I shall prepare, an holy city, that my people may gird up their loins and be looking forth for the time of my coming, for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall be called Zion, a new Jerusalem. So the Lord is telling Enoch that in the last days a new Jerusalem will be established, and it will be called Zion, and it's going to be awesome. And he's going to the Lord is going to explain how awesome it's going to be right now. And the Lord said unto Enoch, then shall thou and all thy city meet them there. Meaning Enoch and all of his city are somewhere else in the cosmos, and they are going to be returning to Earth. Now they are going to be incredibly advanced beyond our ability to understand. And when they come back, they are going to be integrating with us. And so we are going to be developing as a society in at breakneck speed during the millennium. And that alone is going to be astoundingly awesome. But the Lord continues, and he says, And then shall thou and all thy city meet them there, and we will receive them into our bosoms, and they shall see us, and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other, and their shall be mine abode, and it shall be called Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made, and for the space of a thousand years the earth shall rest. So the Lord tells Enoch that the earth during the millennium reign of Jesus Christ will not only be reintegrated with Enoch's Zion, but that the righteous from the entire multiverse will flow unto this planet and interact with us during the millennium. And for a thousand years, Earth is going to go through a phase of its mortal existence that will boggle the mind for its awesomeness. This is the kind of understanding that can help people to make it through this coming day that will be terrible, horrible, and yet something wonderful beyond belief lays just on the other side of it. These are the kinds of things that we need to spend our time understanding and studying and preparing for so that when the fur starts to fly, we can be like the salt of the earth that gives people something to hang on to and helps them retain their faith in the face of all these incredible antichrists and beasts and other bizarre weird things that are going on that don't make any sense in any other context, but that can be reconciled and beautifully so with the gospel of Jesus Christ, if you have just put in the time to understand these things in advance. So I've led with this because these are the spiritual preparations that you know we can, you know, all, regardless of what your financial circumstances are like, we can all prepare in this manner. And frankly, friends, preparations of a spiritual nature are far more important than those of a temporal nature. Because I like to think of it this way. The children of Israel, when they left Egypt, they did carry with them some supplies, they did have some temporal preparations, but they were going into the wilderness of Sinai. Okay, there was no water to be had there, there was no food to be had there. So, yes, they could bring with them some canteens and maybe even some big water jugs with them. But the fact of the matter is, when you had over 600,000 men, much less their families, how much water can you really take with you? How much food could they really take with them? So they were going out into a wilderness and they absolutely needed divine aid in order to survive. Friends, if half of the things that I am talking about on this series up to this point are true, each and every one of us is going to be every bit as dependent upon the arm of the Lord as the house of Israel was in the wilderness of Sinai. We simply are not going to be able to carry enough provisions with us. We are going to need to have faith to be able to smack the rock and have water gush out, and to have quail come down from heaven, and to have manna appear on the ground. We will need divine intervention. So that's why I'm saying that things of a spiritual nature, those kinds of preparations are more important than temporal ones. That being said, what do I think that you might be able to do to prepare temporally for what is about to happen? Well, let's start with some practical things. If you have a variable rate mortgage on your house, I think that you might want to do everything in your power to turn that into a fixed rate mortgage, lock in your interest rate. If you have lots of credit card debt, try to eliminate that. Try to get it down to a fixed rate. I think that in the future, what we are probably going to be seeing is you look at the debt levels that exist across the world, not just the United States. The debt that the United States has is mind-boggling. It is beyond our ability to pay this back in ordinary course. Okay, so what's going to happen? The only way that the government will be able to service its debts is by creating more money. And when you create more money, you are going to create inflation. And the only tool that we have to bring inflation into check is raising interest rates. Now, right now I realize we are cutting interest rates, but we are cutting interest rates when you look at, I know I'm when I use economic terms, some people's eyes glaze over and they feel they can't understand anything. But when we're talking about the money supply, this is just the quantity of dollars that exist out there. You should just go to Google and search for a graph of the M2 money supply. And you will be shocked at how much money has been created out of thin air over the past 10 years. That money is out there, and it's one of the reasons that gold is now going for well over$4,000 an ounce. It's not that gold has become more valuable, it's that we have created so many dollars, and the dollar has lost its comparative value because we have created so many of them that it takes so many more dollars to buy one ounce of gold. So if you can, one of the ways that you can hedge against this kind of inflationary environment, which is most certainly coming our way, is to control your interest rates now by trying to get them fixed so that when we try to get, you know, what I mean, when you have fiat currencies that start to collapse, you have inflation go through the roof. Just look at every time that this has happened. Inflation goes sky high. Interest rates will go sky high as well. You need to lock in those interest rates so that you don't get blindsided and lose everything that you have. You know, the house that you are in now becomes unaffordable because you can't afford the interest. If you can lock that in to a long-term rate, you'll be much better off. Again, try to eliminate high interest debt. If you can afford purchasing some real assets, like gold and silver, for instance, those things, under ordinary circumstances, gold and silver are terrible investments. But the this isn't a time to be looking for great investments. This is a time to be looking for ways to be able to survive. And if you can own hard assets, things that retain their value and you know will keep up and you know even stay ahead of inflation in their price appreciation, then you can protect yourself in that way. I mean, in this, over the course of this podcast and several different occasions, I have mentioned silver, and I've talked about silver and you know the role that I see silver playing. And yeah, silver continues to astound me on a daily basis. It went over up over$2 an ounce today. I mean, it broke$64 an ounce. Now, if you want to go and buy one ounce, a one-ounce coin of silver, you're gonna pay$68 for one ounce of silver. But if this continues to go up, you know, silver could be worth you know a hundred ounces in in short order. Like, I mean, just two weeks ago, silver was worth$11 less. So, yeah, I mean, some things like this may be some practical strategies for you to retain your ability to purchase things in the future. It's I think it's always good to have a supply of food on hand. And if you do have. Some food saved up. I think that the best thing that you could do with that food is if there is an emergency kind of situation, is to share that food with your friends and neighbors. Don't hoard it for yourself. Think of the the widow of Zarepeth. The Lord magnified her little cruise of oil and her little container of meal and made them so that they they did not run out because she shared what she had with Elijah. And if we are willing to share our resources with others instead of hoard them, I think that the Lord can do miracles in our lives as well. So, I mean, these are these are some practical things that we can do to prepare. I do not think, and I do not encourage people to you know go look for caves out in the boonies where they can go and hide and wait for all of this to blow over. Because if you are a true disciple of Jesus Christ, and we really are on the threshold of judgment, and Christ, remember back to the conversation where Christ asked Peter if he loved him more than some fishes. And Peter said, Yes, Lord, I love you more than those fishes. And three times Christ asked Peter that question, and three times Peter said yes. And each time Christ told Peter, then feed my sheep. So if we are to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we shouldn't be hiding out in the w in the woods while all of this stuff is going on. We should be in the thick of it trying to feed the Lord's sheep and helping people to retain the faith that they have in Jesus Christ. Again, I don't care what your religious tradition or background is. All I care about is that when the fur starts to fly, you retain your faith in Jesus Christ. We are going to need to rely upon each other more than ever. The doctrinal differences that we have will fade into the background. Well, once again, the Lord is going to absolutely get us all on the same page. I am not worried about that at all. He can do his own work. What I am worried about is trying to get as many of our brothers and sisters across the millennial finish line as possible so that the Lord can then get us all on the same page. But we need to survive. That is what victory looks like. It looks like survival. If we can survive all of these coming temptations and deceptions with our faith in Jesus Christ intact, without having sacrificed our values, that is what victory looks like. Now, one other thing that I'll say before I wrap this up I know that there are a lot of people that are stockpiling guns and ammo for the zombie apocalypse. Well, friends, if the number one thing that you can have is the love of Christ in your heart, you're not going to want to be blasting your way to freedom like Rambo. Okay. John the Revelator, when he was talking about all of these things, and particularly about the rise of the Antichrist and the mark of the beast and all of that jazz, he said, This is the patience of the saints. Those that live by the sword will die by it. And I think that that will hold true for these last days. We need to rely on the Lord for deliverance, not for the arm of flesh, not for our guns and ammo. I'm not saying that those things don't have a place. I'm just saying, you know, that we the number one priority should be trying to align ourselves with Jesus Christ and emulating his example, not you know, trying to survive by any means necessary. Because friends, we believe in a God that rose from the dead, he can raise others from the dead, and the resurrection is right around the corner. And if you have to give up your life in exchange for your values, do it. Because the alternative is terrifying to consider. So, friend, I I know that I've given you a lot to think about in this episode. I hope that you will think about it. And you're gonna have some time to contemplate on it between now and the next episode because this is going to be the last episode that I do this year. I've got my kids coming in town, and I'm gonna be partying with them, and I'm not gonna have a lot of time to do any more episodes until 2026. So probably look for season two of the Black Swan Rising podcast to kick up around mid-January. Until then, friends, I hope that you will engage in your own spiritual education, that you will seek to be filled with the Spirit of God, to be taught by God, because they that seek shall find. Until next time, God bless.

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You have just finished an episode of the Black Swan Rising Podcast, an L10 production, hosted by Michael B. Rush. For show notes, transcriptions, and extras, please visit www.theblackswanrisingpodcast.com. If you enjoyed this episode, click the share button icon and send it to your friends and family. This will help to ensure the continued publication of future content. Michael thanks you in advance for sharing and looks forward to seeing you next time. Until then, keep seeking, for they that seek shall find.