Isaiah 60:1-3 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
On January 1st 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which proclaimed freedom for all slaves in the ten states which were in rebellion. At the time, when U.S. Secretary of State Seward took the document to the President to sign, Lincoln took a pen, and held it for a moment. He then removed his hand and dropped his pen. Lincoln turned to Seward and said, “I have been shaking hands since nine o’clock this morning and my right arm is almost paralyzed. If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.” He hesitated, then took the pen, and without wavering, took the document and boldly signed it!
When you do something for history, you want to do it right and with your whole heart! As children of God, what we do on this earth will redound to our eternal existence. As Abraham Lincoln recognized his quintessential moment in history — we too must recognize our “moment in time”. The season we are in seems filled with portent, and many of us may be making critical decisions and choices now. Like Esther, we were born “for such a time as this”. We will need prayerful, scripturally based discernment, and then, resolute boldness to stand where the Lord has placed us, say what He wants us to say, and do what He wants us to do.
While untold millions have been waiting for the promised return of our Messiah for centuries– the one sign they lacked was the restoration of Israel. Through all those past generations it was only in our own that the Jewish people have returned to their homeland, the beginning of Ezekiel’s vision, well under way, and inexorably headed toward the spiritual revival of the dry bones [Ezekiel 37]. We do not know all the details, but we are watching and participating in this with great excitement.
We are living prophetic history….and are probably in the last act. As history advances and accelerates there will be times when we must be decisive, bold, and unwavering in spirit – fully realizing that our actions are being recorded now…and in the annals of eternity!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Throughout Scripture, the number eight carries profound prophetic significance. It speaks of new beginnings, fresh starts, and divine separation from what was, to embrace what is to come.
In the 1950s, a Harvard psychologist named Dr. Curt Richter conducted a now-famous experiment involving rats and buckets of water. At first glance, it was a grim study, but a profound truth about the human spirit was buried within it.
Prayer is more than a request — it’s an invitation. God, who respects the freedom He gave us, does not force His will upon us. But through prayer, we open the door for Him to move fully and freely in our lives.
As we ask in His name, and we see our prayers being answered, we realize how real and faithful our God is. But I want to focus on the life that is overflowing with JOY!
When the apostle Paul wrote this letter to his young student Timothy, he taught him some profound truths that I often apply in my life. I suppose when Timothy received these instructions, he was about my age – a young man still developing his skills at evangelism, teaching and instructing.
Yeshua (Jesus) knew the heart of every man and woman. As a totally pure and righteous human being, His experience of every other sin-filled person is really impossible for us to imagine. He knew that every repulsive thought, attitude and action of every person in the world would soon fall on Him, and that He would carry them…away. And so Yeshua did not come with a spirit of condemnation — but with a spirit of grace and truth.
As we are entering some of the most turbulent times in history, we’ve been receiving an unbelievable amount of email expressing concern about the future. But I want to tell you a little something – the future is VICTORY!