Jesus exhorted us to watch and pray over events in our times. The polarising dynamics of the great outpouring of the Spirit and increased darkness over nations are happening right now and will continue until His return.
As intense darkness accelerates, so will the light of God’s glory. Isaiah 60:2 tells us, ‘For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.’
We stand at a critical juncture in world history. Some trends have always existed but, in our time, will take place globally with such distinct headline-grabbing intensity.
Jesus compared the time nearing His return to Noah and Lot’s. Noah’s days were marked by great violence and Lot’s by great immorality. Moreover, Jesus prophesied that believers will be hated in all nations of the earth.
Matthew 24:9 forewarns the faithful: ‘Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.’
Also, the Holy Spirit visits His people as darkness lengthens. ‘And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.’ (Joel 2:28-29).
We’ll see a rise in the prophetic, miracles, signs, and wonders.
The light brightens as darkness deepens and escalates. God’s Spirit is preparing the Church for the greatest revival in the history of mankind.
We hear prophetic promises of the greatest ingathering of souls that the world has ever seen. The Lord will build His Church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. The Spirit of God is raising a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle, walking in purity, power, authority, wisdom, love, and truth.
The Body of Christ will return to her first love and our identity as the Bride of Christ will be formed in us. We’ll do as we see Him doing and speak what we hear Him saying, as we’re fully joined to Him in love.
We’re seeing the Body of Christ becoming one, just as Jesus prayed in John 17, so that we’ll corporately prevail over the powers of darkness and be a global witness of the Good News.
Malachi prophesied that during these times we’ll see a great turning of the hearts of fathers to their children, and children to the fathers.
The Lord has called us to thrive amid the darkness. While the dark can seem overwhelming, it’s the very thing that provides the greatest opportunities and teaches the greatest lessons.
Darkness exposes the light within us and lets the Spirit of God shine. St. Francis of Assisi said, “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” It’s better to light a single fire than rail at the darkness. It’s literally by being amid darkness that the light of who we truly are can be seen and made manifest.
It’s amid confusing, fearful times that we really get to know the Prince of Peace and learn to release His peace to our milieu.
He’s called us to be the light, to love the lost, bring life, deliverance, and hope to the dead, bound, and hopeless.
These qualities can best be forged in contrasting manner and conditions. We’d best learn how to manifest the knowledge of God when the world is trying its utmost to erase His existence.
In the early 16th Century, when the Church lost sight of the Gospel’s fundamentals for hundreds of years, God used a humble monk named Martin Luther to bring about one of the greatest revivals in Church history.
When Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517, he became the catalyst of the Reformation. The Latin phrase ‘post tenebras lux’ was the rallying crying of that great move of the Spirit.
Translated as ‘after darkness, light’, the Reformers’ cry referred to shining the light of truth in a time of spiritual darkness. As darkness comes like a flood, we who are the light must recognise the opportunity to shine.
And shine, we must!
