I have been thinking about the things that are shifting the course of history during our present day.

As I was driving to work this morning, I passed a large open field and saw a burst of wind roll across it. The tall grass revealed the evidence of which direction the wind was moving. The invisible wind became visible. Whenever I see the wind moving through the trees, I usually refer back to the scripture that talks about how those who are born again are like the wind.

“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8 | NIV84

When COVID-19 first hit the shores of the US, I didn’t pay much attention. The news media began hyping it up and I just waved my hand at it and dismissed their seemingly overrated reaction. I had grown desensitized to the news media overreacting to just about everything. However, when my email & text messages started exploding, I took a second look. Perhaps, there was more to this world-wide pandemic and perhaps, it wasn’t just another over exaggerated story. First, I received emails from the local government talking about the schools, then I started listening to the state government create mandates and then I turned to the National government’s response. I then started getting emails from CEO’s and how they were talking about their closing stores and such. Then, what felt like overnight, everything shut down. I was shocked at how fast this pandemic moved, and how quickly it affected pretty much everyone in the whole world.

Here was this virus wreaking havoc all across the entire globe. This wasn’t an American thing, this was a global thing and I’ve been thinking about it for months on end.

Now emerging out of the financial ruins of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a movement popping up calling for a stronger presence of equality and the removal of law enforcement. This too has not only swept across the nation, but is sweeping across the world. The local governments first responded, the state governments are responding and now the national government is responding. My email is beginning to explode again from CEOs talking about injustice and how they are going to balance things out. Here I am again, watching yet another thing sweep across the world much like how the wind swept smoothly and seamlessly across the open field of grass. Each individual piece of grass bent at the wind’s beckoning as if it were operating in complete unison, like an orchestra. Every orchestra has a conductor.

This year has been a little crazy. In fact, I have never experienced any such things in my entire lifetime, and I believe that it is God who is stirring the wind, and those who are willing to do evil are quickly rising to the occasion. I believe God is speaking, but not in the way that one would expect. I believe these events that are happening are a direct result of God’s stirring of the wind. It is kind of like when you make homemade chicken noodle soup. You need to stir the pot of broth to bring it to a boil. Chicken noodle soup must be boiled to bring the excess fat to the surface. Stirring the liquid helps to move it around to make it more evenly hot. God is trying to awaken His people from slumber, to turn them from being lukewarm to boiling hot. He desires to bring the impurities out from within to the surface so that He may skim off the excess fat. He is calling His people all across the world to repentance and to a life of holiness. He is allowing things to become uncomfortable, uncontrollable and unlike anything we have seen. He’s calling to the souls of men & women and I wonder if anyone is listening to His still quiet voice or if they are too distracted by the loud meaningless noises screaming for attention.

The Bible is there to provide wisdom for daily living. Within the Holy Scriptures, we learn about Israel’s wandering around in the desert for 40 years, or when Israel finally entered into the Promised Land that only after a short while, she fell away from God once again. We can read through the book of Judges and we can follow all the way through to the time of the Babylonian Captivity and see what happened every single time Israel walked away from God. We have those examples to learn from. Israel only had the books Moses wrote during those times, but not us. We have access to the whole story, the entire Bible, or better yet, we are so blessed to know how the story ends. God has never changed from the time Genesis was written all the way through the last letter of Revelation. These are things that we must pay close attention to. We have the lives of those within Scripture to reflect upon, but more importantly, to learn from.

We are in the midst of these turbulent times for a reason, but do not become distracted by them. Reflect on God and tune your ear to the Voice of the LORD God. It’s been said that when a person is intently listening to something, that they will tilt their ear in the direction of the sound. Tilt your ear heavenward and listen intently for the still quiet Voice Who is always speaking, but He is not speaking as one from the world would speak. His words are holy and righteous. They are sweet and melodious, life-giving and loving. In order to hear God’s Voice, one must humble himself, bow down and allow the Holy Spirit to remove the veil from their heart. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, repentance is quick to follow and then joy floods the soul. God draws near to those who will humble themselves and pulls away from those who loudly make demands.

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among My people, if My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 | NIV84

I want you to notice the “I”, “command” & “send” in the Scriptures above. Who is speaking in these verses? Who is the “I”?  It is God. (God is speaking to Israel during the time of the dedication of Solomon’s Temple). It is God who is allowing no rain to fall, insects to destroy the land and a plague to attack their bodies. It’s God, not satan. Why? For the sake of Salvation of the people so that He may not lose anyone to eternal death. He desires that no one be lost, but He cannot tolerate evil nor those who abuse His children. God is love. God is holy. God is wonderful. God is just. God is perfect in every single way. God is not like a man, He is more than the mind or heart can conceive. There are no words in any known language that can fully describe the majesty of Him whose existence has no end nor any beginning. He is.

I write this letter in hope that you, my friend, will read and think about these things. I want to bring understanding to the bigger picture since it is so easy these days to lose focus of what is really going on. As I have for many years, I ask that you seek God and God alone. Seek Him while He still may be found. Turn a listening ear to what He is saying and close yourself off to everything else. He is quiet and gentle when He speaks to His people, and if you are not careful, you may mistake His voice for another’s.  Know the voice of the Lover of your soul and run to His bosom.

PRAY. REPENT. BE HOLY.

“Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” 1 Peter 1:13-16 | NIV84

You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit. Job 10:12 | NIV84  

Oxford Living Dictionaries provided two definitions for the word Providence.

• “The protective care of God or of nature as a spiritual power.”
• “Timely preparation for future eventualities.”

Today I want to focus more on the second bullet point, “Timely preparation for future eventualities.”  This tiny explanation says a whole lot. We, as humans, have very little insight into the happenings of tomorrow. We can, at best, guess this or that may happen based on what we interpret by what is going on today, but we cannot know indefinitely what tomorrow may bring. Unless the Lord reveals exactly what’s coming tomorrow or the next day, or even within the next few years, we simply do not know. We can go about our lives planning on marriage, planning for children, planning to buy a house, planning a vacation or even plan for retirement. We can sort of project what finances are required to do such things and sometimes they work out, but most often it never goes quite as we had planned or even hoped. Sometimes it’s better and other times it’s not. People experience failed marriages, lost children and job layoffs.  

For Job to acknowledge God’s providence over his soul demonstrates his deeper understanding that what was currently transpiring was very much something God knew would somehow benefit Job in the long run. And keep in mind, Job was experiencing a huge amount of suffering. Job recognized that God had allowed these things to happen to him and he knew it was somehow for the good.  

I think sometimes we lose our focus and go right into problem-solving mode instead of stepping back, and taking a moment to really ponder what’s happening. With the giant things we are faced with, we may very well be more prone to lean on God more diligently; to have our ears more in tune with hearing God’s voice and sensing His direction. Such things are good and should be so, but I am more or less speaking of the things that are not so catastrophic. Things that are troublesome, but things that we can handle without overwhelming struggles. I am of the perspective that everything happens for a reason, even the bad things we come face-to-face with. I believe that God is continually speaking, and if we are willing, continually teaching us.  

Sometimes, we have a hard time hearing God’s voice or quite honestly, we are not paying attention because we have become accustom to being self-reliant. We can laugh and joke about God trying to grab our attention by allowing certain things to happen to disrupt our busy lives, but I assure you when God is speaking, it is no laughing matter. It is inevitable that He is looking to prepare you for something that’s coming down the road that you are unaware of. It is “Timely preparation for future eventualities.”  

Sometimes, God speaks by closing doors to things in our lives we have worked so hard to obtain and it can be very frustrating. So frustrating that we will attempt to open a locked door thinking that the door closed accidentally or maybe even Satan closed the door. Ever try to open a locked door without the key? Depending on the type of door, you could try to knock it down or climb over it, but no matter which you choose, you will have to exert a large amount of effort and energy with the possibility of ending up getting nowhere. It could cost you time, money and even bodily damage. If we are not paying attention to the Holy Spirit, we may very well keep on trying to break into a locked door. Sometimes, if we are persistent enough, God will allow us to break the door down and this is never good. God may very well have made the door so tough that when you finally break it down, another one stands in its way. If we just keep on trying to push our way through places we are not meant to trod, or at least, not right now, it almost always ends up in disaster.  

Every door in our lives that is meant to be opened has a key and God is the owner of that key. How will you know which door to unlock if you cannot hear His voice?  

If you have never ice-skated before and you try out for the High School hockey team, it’s almost certain you will not get much, if any, playing time during the games. It is often said that practice makes perfect. If you take ice skating lessons, learn how to maneuver on the ice and how to handle the stick, and learn how to hit a puck into the goal, the odds of you being able to play in a game rises. At first, the coach may allow you to play for a few seconds during the last quarter towards the very end of the game, but he most likely will not let you play if the game is critical, if there’s a tie or if the other team’s aggressiveness is beyond your abilities. It’s because you are not ready to be placed into such a competitive situation and he could be preventing a serious injury. The more you set your mind to learning how to skate and play hockey, the better you become. If you were to rush out onto the ice trying to force your way into the game, barely knowing how to skate, you will fall down on your butt or get knocked over by another player. You will put yourself in harm’s way and you could even put others in harm’s way as well. To try to rush things that you are not ready for isn’t good. This is not only true with sports, but with anything in life, including hearing God’s voice. It takes practice and a lot of patience.

God is our Heavenly Father. For those of you who didn’t have a good earthly father, I want to assure you that God is nothing like your earthly father. When I use the term ‘father’, I am referring to the idea of what all of us desire deep inside our heart, that is, for someone to love and protect us unconditionally. We desire for Someone who we can lean upon for guidance and acceptance. When God created mankind, he allowed a hole to develop within our heart that only He can fill because He is the answer to all of life’s questions. God, like a parent, desires the best for us, but we must first learn how to listen and how to have faith that whatever it is He says, that it’s the right thing regardless of what you may feel or think. I know this isn’t easy to hear, but it is necessary for the building up of your soul, the real you.   If God keeps closing the door, stop trying to force it open. Have faith that God knows what is best for you in the present as well as in the future, and concerning the door that you cannot open right now, walk away from it for the time being. Instead, learn how to listen and how to follow God’s quiet and gentle leading. Trust in Him that He will lead you to what will edify your soul and build up your faith because once you have learned to securely lean upon Him, He will hand you the keys to the right doors.  

Blessings to you on your journey of spiritual wisdom.  

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 | NIV84