The Passage

"For you have not passed this way before." Joshua 3:4

We are now more than three quarters of the way through this year. It has been a year like no other any of us have ever experienced. Most are longing for a return to some kind of normalcy. I don't think that we're going to see that. Others talk about adjusting to a "new normal," but I don't think there will be a new normal either. I believe that what we have seen in 2020 is going to be repeated in some form or another in each of the years to come until His return. I believe that we're going to see continuous shakings as God moves upon our nation and upon the world. I believe that in the midst of the shakings there will also be a move of the Holy Spirit. I believe that move is taking place even now. The massive prayer gathering in Washington D.C. this past Saturday for both the Franklin Graham prayer march and the Jonathan Kahn "The Return" assembly are mighty evidence of this. I believe that we are part of a generation that will see the might and power of God as we never have before. Maybe as none have ever seen before. We are not to be fearful. We are to be watching, praying, and following His leading. And we must heed the word of the Father in Joshua 3 as He leads us. In that passage, He was taking the Israelites into a new land, a land they had never been in before. Here, thousands of years later, He is leading us into a way, a "country," that we also have never passed through before. As we travel, we must be alert, in tune with His Holy Spirit, and obedient to His leading. He will take His people through, and He will take them through in victory. But the way will not be easy. Giants, mountains, obstacles, will abound. If we will trust as we travel, we will get to the place He leads us to.

I don't believe that half-hearted faith will be sufficient. Indeed, it never has been, but we have been so comfort oriented, and so casual about holiness, sin, and righteous life, that a great part of the professing church has been deceived into thinking that it is. Massive shakings have come. More will follow. In these times, the truth of Daniel 11:32 is more relevant than ever; "The people who know their God will display strength and do exploits." This is a knowledge born of intimacy. A casual approach to His Word, to prayer, to a lifestyle of worship will not yield such a life. That kind of life will fall in the midst of the shakings.

Shakings reveal what is actually in our hearts. All the impurities that we've so cleverly hidden before can not be hidden now. The shakings will bring us to our knees, and into the depths of His life, or they will cause us to step away, to step back from Him. In the shakings that have so far come, what has been our response? What has been your response? In which direction do we walk?

I write none of this with a desire to cast gloom and doom. I write because I sense that the glory of God is going to be revealed in ways we have never known, but it will be revealed through the shaking off of all that has kept us blinded to His glory. All the glitter of this world will be shaken so that we can see the wonder of His glory. We have not passed this way before, but He knows the way. Christ is the Way. Let us follow Him. Humbly, obediently, completely. He will get us home.

Blessings,

Pastor O