Every time I turn on the news, I see things I wrote in Visions of the Coming Days now unfolding. As for what is yet to come in the presidential election and beyond, I believe God has given me a sense of it, but although many prophetic people with much larger audiences than my own are making bold predictions, I am limited in what I am allowed to speak prophetically. Up to this point, much of what has been prophesied by leading voices has been contradictory, leaving believers confused – or taking sides.
The clearest word I am currently receiving from the Lord concerning the election and its outcome is, “Watch and pray.” I believe that in this season we must calm down, seek the Lord, observe what is happening around us and dedicate ourselves to prayer. I will state with certainty, however, that very difficult times have become inevitable. We will see growing turmoil worldwide, both economically and politically. Great Britain’s exit from the European Union is only the beginning. Expect ever increasing bloodshed, as well. While I will not openly predict the outcome of the election, the choice America will make in November will either buy us additional time or hasten the inevitable. Watch and pray!
Meanwhile a fresh clean wind is blowing in the body of Christ to prepare and enable us to shine in the growing darkness. I feel it in my own church as a shift in the atmosphere that is just beginning to affect churches across a broad base. God is preparing His people in many places, cleansing hearts and relationships and drawing people together in Him. A hunger for purity in devotion to the Lord and for sound and stable grounding in Him and His Word is growing.
While conferences, revival meetings and stadium gatherings demonstrate Christian unity, move heaven and inspire us, the local church is, and always has been, at the center of God’s plan for redemption, revival and even the changing of nations. Every letter written by Paul in the New Testament addressed the health and wellbeing of a local church. The local church, living stones bound in covenant with one another and their Lord (Ephesians 2:20-22 and I Peter 2:5) remains and ever will be Jesus’ beloved bride (Ephesians 5). In the local church, relationships develop, disciples are made and real help for the restoration and healing of lives and families finds its center. The hungry are fed. The naked are clothed.
God’s plan is, and always has been, for lighthouse churches to be strategically located, peppered through every community, moving in the Holy Spirit, steeped in the Father’s heart, cherishing the Presence, rooted in the Word and focused on intimacy with Jesus. Lighthouses can be seen from a distance. In the same way, these ministries will shine as beacons cutting through darkness and fog to draw hurting people home to Jesus in a time of trouble.
I know that many thousands in my city of Denver and in others around the world once were touched by a move of God, but felt betrayed or let down when leadership backed away from the free and full move of the Spirit or rejected it in some way. Many of these, wounded and disillusioned, have wandered from place to place, settled for less, or dropped out of church altogether. If that’s you, I want to invite you to come home to fellowships that still value the move of God, extended worship and radical mercy and love. Sweet things happen! God doesn’t change! Be part of a strategic move of God in these dangerous times!