Continuing from my last post, I want to share two more things I’m learning during this pandemic.
These lessons can help you get ready for the decade we have just entered and be better prepared to stand before the Lord when we meet Him face to face.
5. God is doing a deep work of stripping and sifting in His global church.
In the midst of the death and disease, the global quarantine, and the restrictions we now face, God is doing a deep work in the global church.
I have spoken with several of my friends around the world. What is taking place in America is happening in Europe, Australia, and even throughout Africa.
While the enemy is working and the globalist elites are taking advantage of this plague to advance their antichrist agenda, God is also at work. He is stripping and sifting His church.
A few days ago, my wife received a text message from a lady who is part of our local fellowship. It contained an excerpt from an article she read on a major news website about church services banned from meeting on Easter Sunday.
Summarizing the article, she wrote, “No services during the Easter season will cause many churches to lose a great deal of their annual income because many people who attend these services don’t attend regularly. Many churches need the people who attend only on holidays to help keep their doors open.”
She said, “This just seems more business oriented than God’s heart for His church; it seems like the moneychangers are being confronted.”
This is one example of what happens when God shakes, strips, and sifts His church. He doesn’t do this because He’s mean. His purpose is to wean us from our dependence and lust for the external things of God. His ultimate goal is to bring us back to the person of Christ.
Suddenly, all the external things that the church has made the centerpiece of ministry for decades have been removed. As the church is forced to leave her beloved buildings, things that have characterized the church for years have been taken away.
God is sovereignly restricting events, conferences, meetings, music, gifts, signs, and wonders. Many of the distinctive features that have made the church what we love have been removed.
God’s purpose in this disruption is to awaken us and to turn our attention back to the pursuit of the person of Jesus Christ. Don’t resist this. Return wholeheartedly back to Him in this season.
6. God is shaking everything that can be shaken.
Undoubtedly, there is a major shaking taking place throughout the earth. People are restricted from doing so many essential things. Businesses are hurting. People are losing their jobs.
As difficult as this time is, it is only a foretaste of what is coming. As I wrote recently, this decade is likely to be very turbulent.
God is shaking everything that can be shaken. He is not doing this to hurt us but to prepare us. He is working toward fulfilling His eternal purpose. Specifically, that His people would be filled unto fullness with the indwelling life of Christ.
Both now and in the years ahead, everything other than Christ Himself within us will be shaken. Only Christ and what is built on the person of Christ will remain.
Much of the church has built their lives on the many things of God. They have built their lives on truths—truths such as healing, provision, miracles, blessings, church services, and events. The many truths of God are shakable. Only the person of Christ within us is unshakable.
Jesus did not say I give you truths. Rather, He said I am the Truth.
In this decade, we must build our lives on the truth, which is Christ in us in fullness. This is our only hope of glory.
Only those who have built their lives on the rock of Christ will endure the winds and rains that are coming during the next ten years.
Don’t let the many truths of God eclipse the Truth, Jesus Christ. Let this current shaking lead you back to Him.
My next article will look at the last two things that I’m learning.
If you want to be equipped for what is coming in this decade, I highly recommend our Forerunner School.
