Homesteading has been a way of living for centuries. In fact, it didn’t even have a name back in the day—it was simply the way society lived. In 2016, something shifted. Not just physically, but spiritually, something caused the term “homesteading” to begin to become main stream. This is when I started Homesteaders of America, and planned our first homesteading conference in 2017.
When I first began Homesteaders of America (HOA), I had no idea there was actually a call on my life to help steward such a large movement. I say “help steward” because I am not the only one. There are other generals in this movement, such as Joel Salatin, and Shawn and Beth Dougherty. I cannot claim responsibility for something people have been teaching and doing for so much longer than I have. But as I sit back and think about when HOA began, I am in awe of what God did, and continues to do.
Homesteading is not just a trend or a movement, it is a calling. Just as Joseph prepared ahead of a famine. Just as Noah built the ark. Just as Agabus prophesied a coming famine in Acts (which came to pass). The kingdom of God and the homesteading movement move hand in hand. God moves on the heart of man to accomplish His will within the earth—and for what the future holds, there is always an “out” for those who follow Jesus.
If you have followed me for any amount of time, you know that I have had my own prophetic experiences with God. I know that war is on the horizon. I understand the times that we are seeing unfold. And more than anything, I know that God wants us to prepare ahead of them. I believe the homesteading movement is exactly that—the out. It doesn’t take a prophet to see these things—the times are right before us laid out like a map on a table. It’s simply obvious now.
Let’s talk for a moment about America. America was created to be the land of the free and home of the brave. It was not created to be a nation that stifles the freedom of its citizens. Yet here we are, hundreds of years after its conception, paying the highest taxes we’ve ever paid in the history of America, and having homegrown food outlawed. We have government corruption like never before. Even here in my state of Virginia for our upcoming governor race, the governor is supposedly Christian, but the lieutenant governor candidate running with her is an openly homosexual man. Where are the christian values in that? The world will do what it wants to do, I do not condemn the world. But you cannot run on “christian values” with mixture in your camp.
During republican candidate Nick Freitas’s run for congress, he was winning by a land slide. Suddenly, a thumb drive appeared at the last minute with 15,000+ votes that threw his democratic opponent into instant victory. We could talk about stories like this all day every day, but the general consensus is this—there is no more truth or integrity in upper levels of our American government any longer. I don’t care who it is or what they “say”, we have reached the point on our timeline of life where we have officially entered into the era of the New World Order. A beast system that will one day rule the world and its inhabitants. Even the elect will be deceived.
I don’t want to vote for the “lesser of two evils” any longer. So what is the answer?—Create the system you want to have. One of truth, integrity, and Jesus. One of community and sustainable practices. One of wealth, not riches. Change the culture, and you’ll change the world.
“And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” ACTS 4:33-35 NIV
The kingdom of God was never created to be a quiet, lay low kingdom. It was created to take territory by force through wisdom, knowledge, mass amounts of salvations, a confirming of the word through miracles, signs, and wonders, and a spirit of generosity. Quite literally, the kingdom of God advancing in the book of Acts looks exactly like the homesteading movement.
How brilliant of God to create a back to the land movement that He knew would be malleable in His hands in order to advance His will and kingdom within the earth. It’s not just believers, it’s non-believers as well.
The entire book of Acts talks about generosity and a kingdom economy. Believers gave generously to the community and kingdom of God. Consider there must have been a storehouse, or even multiple homes used as a storehouse, in order to manage and distribute such vast products and goods such as food, clothing, and medical supplies. If not a single person was in need, and there were literally thousands upon thousands as a part of this community, then this was not some small simple system. This was an entire economy of its own outside of the Roman empire.
I laugh when people say that this culture was simplistic and not as knowledge as we are now. I beg to differ. I believe they were more smart in every way.
Does it sound radical? In today’s societies, yes. Does it sound illegal? Well, remember, even Joel Salatin says “everything I want to do is illegal”. Joel is more prophetic than he realizes.
Friend, please realize that the reason the governments of the earth want to take away your food and farming rights isn’t because they are simply “controlling”. It is because they know that if Christians and morally sound people catch wind that they can create a system much like the system in the book of Acts, and they endure victoriously, then it pushes back the beastly system even more. It creates a community that is solid and firm for when the famine and times of trouble come. It creates an entirely new system that is run by bold and fearless leaders.
It is no coincidence that the homesteading movement is seeing so many retired and ex military men and women coming into the community. The enemy (spiritually speaking) works much like our military, but when faced with a force that is militant in belief and physicality, it will bow its knee. We need them. Be wise, but embrace them. Not everyone should be in your camp, but discernment and the Spirit of wisdom will guide you if you only ask Him to.
The board is set before us. The players are being placed in front of us. The question is, are we bold and courageous enough to do what we know we should do? Or an even better question—do we have enough faith to believe this is what we can accomplish through the grace God has given us?
I say yes. Over the last ten years I have witnessed the kingdom economy rising up more and more. I have witnessed communities thriving because they know how to tend to one another. I have witnessed families coming together like never before to steward the earth and life a sustainable life.
It’s time to take territory and advance. It’s time for the system of goodness and mercy, of wealth and production (not consumption) to take root. Riches are temporary, wealth is legacy. It’s time to build storehouses of food and medical sources, security resources, orphanages, and more in our local communities and regions. Church, this is your calling. It always has been.
As we watch the earthly economies shift and decline, I hear the sound of a rumbling within the earth as it cries out for the sons and daughters of God to step into their rightful place and heal the land. We are those sons and daughters. You were not created of those who shrink back, but of those who advance, who are bold, and who are courageous.
Homesteading is not a trend. Homesteading is a calling. It’s time to step into that calling, friend, and create the systems in your region that He has called us to since the beginning of time. Welcome to the New Testament church….the time is now.
“For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” ROMANS 8:19-21 NIV
