This is a follow up word to the one I gave last week, almost a twin word. God spoke to me really clearly this morning (08/14/2017), especially in light of the tragic things that happened over the last few days in Virginia. Again, and again what we are seeing constantly manifested before us on the news are the extremities of our culture, whether it’s from the left or the right. The Lord was saying is that He is the stability of our times like in Isaiah 33:6. The Lord is allowing us to see the extremities so that we understand that our hope is in the Kingdom, that our identity is found as a common people in the church, that our common identity with others isn’t in the color of our skin or nationalities but that we are part of a unique holy nation. We are a set apart people so we find our commonality with those who are in the Kingdom.
The Lord is doing something, particularly in America, and He is using the extremes. He is exposing the demonic and is letting the enemy stir things up and the enemy is throwing everything he can, to discourage the people of God and keep them from understanding and seeing from heaven’s perspective that there is something remarkable going on in the spirit realm with His church, with the body of Christ in America and around the world. But this is a particular word for America and also, I believe this is happening in Brazil as well.
In Brazil there are a lot of things going on nationally, governmentally, financially, economically that have been very discouraging but there is something going on behind the scenes spiritually in Brazil, as well as America, that is the most important news story there is. They may not be reporting it on your local news and people in the street may not be talking about it as they get caught up with the extremities, the violence, the economic despair, and cultural wars, but there is a move of God, a revival, that still is in its early stages, that is on the ground, that is happening. It is actually easier to see in Brazil than it is in America.
You need to be encouraged, brothers and sisters, that the Lord is allowing the enemy to manifest all these extremes so that we won’t put our hope in secular culture, society, and government and that we would pray. It will force us, crowd us, to Christ so that we find our identity, our hope, our peace, our joy, and our future in Him.
He is also using it to show us, to help us to see if we will have eyes to see, to not get caught up in the extremities, that He is the One who is the stability of our times. He is doing something, behind the scenes, that is the biggest news story on the earth. There is a move of God, a promised move of God that believers have been crying out for for generations, where a manifest fullness of Christ being revealed on the earth through His people, through His church, is beginning to happen.
We will see the greatest harvest in history but the first thing God is harvesting is the heart of His own people, His church. He is harvesting our hearts to become love sick followers of Jesus, radical believers who will trust Him completely and fully, who’s hope is in Him, and who’s dreams are found in Him. We will be like those in Psalm 126, we will be like those who dream, because our dreams are no longer in our culture, our dreams are no longer in our society, but our dreams are in Him and His kingdom. If your dreams are in Him, your dreams will never be disappointed. He is our dream.
Sometimes God takes away your wildest earthly dreams to give you the true dreams and desire of your heart. As a believer, the true dream of our heart, the deepest thing, is Him, to know Him, to be like Him, to manifest Him, to serve Him, to love Him with all of our heart, mind, and strength. God is doing that on the earth. We will see great signs and wonders as this grand new story of what God is doing begins to manifest itself more and more, but the greatest sign and wonder is going to be a bride that looks like Jesus, a bride that carries the likeness of Jesus, a bride that manifests the character of Jesus and, yes, a bride that does the works of Jesus. That’s where the harvest is going to come from.
So the encouraging thing I want to say to you is, don’t get discouraged by the extreme things that are being show to us either from the right or the left, the anger, the bitterness, the violence, the bigotry, the racism, the pro-death culture that manifests itself in so many ways in our culture, there is something bigger going on. Stay focused on the biggest story as we confront fallen human behavior. There is a bigger story, that is, what God is doing. And He IS doing it.
May you stand in who you are in Christ, have eyes to see from heaven’s perspective, and rejoice because we live in the most important, significant and exciting days in human history, even as we grieve over the behavior, Man’s inhumanity to Man.