(Joel 1:15) Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty
(Joel 2:1)… For the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near
(Joel 2:11)… The day of the Lord is indeed a great and terrible
“The day of the Lord” is a great day for redeemed humanity and a terrible day for the powers of darkness, and I believe “The day of the Lord” has already come, and it came in the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are living in “The day of the Lord” now, and yet there are still finishing touches to be accomplished at the return of the Christ. If you study the book of Joel, you will discover what the day of the Lord looks like in chapter 2:18 – 32. Those verses describe God’s great redemption, favor, and blessing on His people. It also describes the justice of God being executed against the enemy. The last part of that chapter speaks of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that follows the victory of the Cross. This outpouring of the Spirit is realized in the day of Pentecost. At the cross, when Jesus said, “It is accomplished,” He was speaking about all the things that were completed in His finished work, and we now live in the glorious reality of that.
The Scripture says that He came to make all things new, and Colossians 2 tells us that in His crucifixion, the enemy was publicly disarmed. The finished work of Christ issued in the great and terrible day of the Lord in which we now live. It is the great day for all those who are new creations in Christ, who are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. It is the terrible day for Satan and the powers of darkness who were defeated at Calvary and who are experiencing every day the gates of hell being pushed back, as the Army of God enforces the victory of Christ, executing justice against the evil one. This was the great breakthrough that fallen humanity needed, and Jesus accomplished for us. This was the great revival that Israel spent thousands of years crying out for and prophetically looking for. When Joel says that the day of the Lord is near, it sounds exactly like what John the Baptist and Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is near,” because I believe the kingdom of heaven coming and the day of the Lord is the same thing. Let the simple truth in light of that fact sink down into your spirit.
When you wake up every morning, it is not the enemy’s day; it is not even your day; it is the day of the Lord. No matter what the enemy does, we cannot allow him or circumstances to dictate to us what reality is because the reality, regardless of what your circumstances are, or irrespective of how you feel, or what the enemy may be stirring up, is that we are living in The day of the Lord. He is the one in control, and he is the one who reigns. We live from that perspective, and we believe, as those seated in heavenly places with a heavenly perspective, that all authority is now the Lord’s because of the finished work of Christ. The enemy and circumstances don’t govern our lives, but because we are living in the day of the Lord, all things belong to him, and he has authority over all things. We can trust him because it is His day that we live in, and we can declare to any work of the enemy that Satan’s day is over as we proclaim and enforce The Day Of The Lord. There’s a Psalm that says, “When there are clouds and thick darkness, He reigns.”