Two storms are coming. One is the whirlwind. The other is the wind of the Holy Spirit. Both will come with tornado strength and force.The whirlwind will dramatically change the nation and the world as we know it. Nations and cultures must reap what has been sown.
For believers, the wind of the Holy Spirit will dramatically change the heart and spirit of the church as we know it through an outpouring the nature of which will be unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes.
We live on the cusp of a change of seasons, a nexus in time. In a prayer meeting, following the presidential election, I received a vision of four sticks. Three stood straight and strong while the last one had begun to bend. The Lord said, “You have four years in which to shine. Tremble before Me. You have lost the art of the tremble. Shake as I have shaken you.” For all its flaws, the Trump administration provides us as the Lord’s people a three and a half year window in which to enjoy favor. In the fourth year, world events will begin to shake things and we must be prepared.
God’s word for Israel through Isaiah applies to disciples of Jesus during this season. “Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isaiah 60:1-3).
Lighthouse ministries – communities of refuge – are even now emerging in cities all across the world. Sin never works. As suffering therefore mounts in the midst of destroyed lives, cultural decay, war and economic collapse, people will be looking for places where the love, mercy, grace and healing power of our loving Father manifest. These ministries will stand out as bonfires of revival, strategically placed, so that people will know where to find home, hope and healing.
Romans 8:19 says, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.” “Sons of God” is Hebrew idiom for those who have come to resemble Father God in their nature and character. Over recent decades, inner healing, refining and wilderness experiences have been heavenly gifts to shape and purify. These things work to conform us to the image of the Son in order that we might reveal the Father’s heart. He longs to pour His love through us in a time when masses of people will be in desperate need of mercy and healing.
In the coming outpouring we must abandon the idolatrous, even self-centered, quest to be supernatural and seek, instead, to find intimacy and childlike simplicity with our Father. Do this, and we will end up being supernatural in all the right ways.
In love, we must cry out, not against sin, but for Jesus and be the only people in this culture able to offer real and redemptive love. In doing this we must trust that the Holy Spirit will convict, and that light truly does reveal darkness and spark repentance.
In the coming move of God, Christians who understand the Father’s heart and true servanthood will rise to positions of influence among the ungodly – kings, rulers and authorities – where they will demonstrate who the God of heaven truly is, just as Joseph did with Pharaoh and Daniel did with Nebuchadnezzar.
It is a strategic hour. We who live in this season were born for such a time as this.
Loren Sanford