From the earthquakes in Morocco and Afghanistan to the flooding in Libya, and the state of war that Israel is in, we are clearly observing that something beyond us is happening! My spirit can’t help but sense a deep tremor from within and I’m certain that you too feel the same.
What is happening in our world? Many feel discouraged with all the darkness and a spirit of fear seems to wear down the saints but I believe more than ever we are on the brink of something so powerful and a shifting for the body of Christ.
Isaiah 60:1–2 (NKJV) says, “Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.” We in the body of Christ have holy light to bring forth to the corners of the world where darkness spreads more each year, and seems to spread even faster every month.
As things begin to unfold, some view the bleakness of the natural and respond with feelings of hopelessness. Some perceive that the brightness of God’s glory is but a distant glimmer fading into the dismal future, but nothing can be further from reality.
Will we fold into fear and the cares of this life?
Or will we be beacons of shining light, cities on a hill?
Will we see the world around us and yield to the responses of our flesh?
Or will we rise up in spirit and respond with truth?
Will Jesus find faith on the earth when He returns?
Or will we become a spiritual casualty struck with the blows of complacency and lukewarmness in the war for souls?
As we approach these shakings, we are commanded by Jesus to look up because our redemption is drawing nearer than we first believed (Luke 21:28).
“Look up!” our Lord implores us. But what does He mean when He says that? We are commanded to lift our eyes above what we see to the unseen. What are you looking at? Do you see crises or Christ? We must look beyond our understanding and what is around us and look to Him! In doing so we become transformed to that which we behold.
This glorious reality coveys to us that as we look to behold God’s glory in the face of Christ through the mirror of His Word and the power of His Spirit, we become changed into His very nature and image. It’s His oneness in us. Christ in you is the hope of glory.
In this hour, more than ever before, we are to rise up to be what God has called His body to be.
Romans 8:18–21 (NKJV) says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
The earth is in full expectation and the creation is in deep travail for the revelation of Christ and His children.
You and I are part of that revealing but many in the body of Christ do not see themselves as Christ sees them.
Therein lies the problem. The earth is flooded with fear, torment and pain. Where is the church who will stand and be the hands and feet of Christ, to extend His healing and delivering virtue to those who desperately cry out in agony?
The Scriptures tell us in Hebrews 12:28, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” I believe these contractions we are seeing erupting all over the earth are but the earliest of rumblings which reveal a shaking that is coming soon. There will be a worldwide shift inside the body of Christ leading the church forward into a greater state of glory, purity and dependency for her long-awaited Bridegroom.
A season is underway, sifting wheat from chaff, shifting believers out of their doldrums and into their callings. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken until what remains is His unshakeable kingdom in us.
Chris Garcia is the founder of Father’s Glory International, and is Senior Pastor at Victory Church in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Garcia and his wife, Zuly, currently reside in Fort Smith with their three children.
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