How Secure is your Food Supply?  Part 2

In Part One of this article, I outlined the vulnerability of our national food security, leaving us with the challenge of how should those of us who claim to understand the times and the seasons begin to respond.

I admit that this was not a subject high on my personal agenda until, in February 2005, I found myself walking along a lonely clifftop on Lundy Island, when I clearly heard the Holy Spirit say to me “You’re in a Joseph season”. In Genesis 41:1-7  we read:

“Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing by the Nile, when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank. And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.
“He fell asleep again and had a second dream: Seven heads of grain, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk. After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted—thin and scorched by the east wind. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up; it had been a dream.”

Scriptural message for today

I immediately understood what I was being told: our nation was, at that time, still in a relatively prosperous season – but lean years were coming. This would not be something that only affected the British Isles, but the whole world. It would not be one single event but a whole series of seemingly natural and political catastrophic events and outcomes that would increase in intensity and frequency over a period of years until every aspect of modern society had been severely shaken. The result would be the gradual but systematic removal of the many and various ‘pillars’ or ‘props’ society has relied on rather than on God for a number of generations, including our food security.

At some point, the ways in which we have relied on imported goods since the end of World War II would, very likely, be interrupted or even closed off to us. 

That God had directly linked this word to the story of Joseph meant He needed me to understand the key lesson: at some point, the ways in which we have relied on imported goods since the end of World War II would, very likely, be interrupted, or even closed off to us. The subsequent war in Ukraine certainly closed off our grain ‘pipeline’ from the former ‘breadbasket of Europe.’

Scarcity to come

The story of Joseph is one particularly linked with grain, possibly because, although we cannot live on bread alone (Matt 4:4), it is certainly a staple food, and, according to Revelation 6:5-6, may well become scarce, leading to famine as these end times continue.

“When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, ‘Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!’”

Grain is a collective term which can mean anything from wheat, barley or corn, to dried peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas. Ezekiel 4:9 shows us that all of the above can be put into a storehouse and used at some point in time to make a form of bread:

“Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself.”

Joseph’s strategy

God gave Joseph the strategy to raise strategic grain storehouses all across the land of Egypt, which, because they had been prepared and filled beforehand, meant that when the famine reached a crisis point, they could be opened.

“When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt. And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.” (Gen 41: 56-57).

Over the remainder of my time on Lundy, the Lord repeatedly hammered home to me the same point: that we no longer have any national strategic grain stores; that we had become complacent about our food supply; that the Government had no answers; the Church was largely asleep and ignorant of these things; and we had lost touch with our natural home-grown national food supply – preferring cheaper imports – and had constructed large housing estates over much of our agricultural land.

We had become complacent about our food supply.

I am convinced the financial collapse of September 2008 was a defining event on God’s prophetic calendar, following which the worldwide financial system and economy has been increasingly shaken to the point that we are now in a position of real vulnerability, especially for our ongoing food security.

Sharing the message to prepare

On my return from Lundy, still three-and-a-half years before the crash of 2008, I travelled widely sharing this message with whosoever in the Body of Christ would receive me. I felt a bit like Noah because I was outlining a very challenging scenario that required a practical response, yet it was a strange message to carry when the world economy seemed rosy and stable enough at the time.

Prepare your hearts, prepare your home and prepare the people of God.

God spoke a very clear word to my husband and myself: “Prepare your hearts, prepare your home and prepare the people of God.” So, despite the looks of unbelief from those around us, my husband and I, along with Nick Szkiler and others associated with us across the North of England, began to implement the preparations we felt we needed to set in place in order to model something and demonstrate our personal faith in the message we had heard from God.

I will share more details about these very practical preparations in the next instalment.