As the New Year approaches and we gear up to embrace another year of opportunity, with my 20/20 hindsight, I look back upon a year filled with small and even large miracles, the greatest being the renewing work of the Holy Spirit within me. If I just looked with my human eyes and reasoned with my human intellect I would have said, “As the New Year approaches, we gear up to withstand another year of “This Present Darkness”.
Don’t get me wrong, I fully expect that things will wax worse and worse in our world and that the storm clouds which once loomed dark upon the horizon will continue to engulf our country and attempt to extinguish the light. However…
Your life and mine should not be lived in this natural realm, nor even between our two ears. Our life is in Christ…in the Holy Spirit. Our life, the life of God, is within us and our citizenship is not in the United States of America, but in the Kingdom of God…in heaven. We are bought with a price; we are under new ownership, and we share a common life and a common hope. “Christ in you, the hope of glory. Realizing this, I see a year of unparalleled opportunity…not necessarily in the natural realm…but in the Spirit.
Only we have the answer for a society, country, a people, and a world made up of sovereign states and nations who live in darkness and whose future is growing darker by the minute. Only we have the answer for a bankrupt society and world that is running out of options, answers, and resources.
Like a doctor attempting to prescribe a prescription for a patient’s ailment, we have more often than not settled for prescribing some intellectual, political, social, and even spiritual pill for what ails mankind but, like modern medicine, we are only treating symptoms, not providing THE CURE! I am persuaded that not even radical surgery will cure what ails our world.
At the beginning of the Obama presidency and the ensuing ‘financial crisis,’ I saw a vivid picture in my mind. It appeared as a cartoon. What I saw was a hospital gurney (bed) surrounded by countless doctors, nurses, and medical specialists. There were also dozens of IV poles surrounding the gurney. Each IV bag had lines running to the patient and transfusing him or her with what I perceived to be antibiotics and various medicines. Each IV bag possessed a large label, and although I could not read in fine print from my vantage point, I could see that each label had a number of large $ (dollar signs) written on it. As I observed this scene, a nurse on my left, near the head of the bed, leaned over and whispered something into the ear of one of the “head” doctors (standing shoulder to shoulder at the head of the bed). Although she seemed to whisper, I clearly heard her ask:
“Doctor, how long until the patient recovers?”
As she spoke I suddenly zoomed in and got a close up of the patient’s face. It was like having telephoto vision. I gasped as I immediately recognized the patient. It was Uncle Sam! He was unconscious and wearing his tall stars and stripes stovepipe hat.
Then, I clearly heard the nurse whisper again; “Doctor. When will the patient recover?”
The doctor replied:
“There will be no recovery! Can’t you see, the patient is on life support?”
With that, the doctors at the head of the bed moved to the side – parting like the Red Sea. What was once hidden from sight was now visible to me, and I could see countless pieces of electronic medical equipment hooked up to the patient.
Once again in my mind I heard, “The patient is on life support,” and I thought, “It i only a matter of time!
The Coming New Year 2015
That was a sobering and frightening moment for me! I have wrestled with this knowledge as well as other revelations concerning the times in which we live as a result of what the Lord has shared with me over the past 30 years. No doubt, we all can read the signs of the times and I realize…’ Now is the accepted time.’ Time for me to go forth in confidence, boldness, and love to encourage us all to stand fast and to keep our eyes fixed upon Him who sits upon the throne. It is a time to return to our first love. It is a time for prayer, fasting, listening, repenting, obeying, and proclaiming that, “Our God Reigns”. It is time to realize the power of the gospel of Jesus the Christ. It is time to realize that we are neither left helpless nor hopeless! We all have NOT been Left Behind.
It is my time to speak the truth of what I know and encourage you to look up and rejoice for your redemption draws nigh. It is a time for me to remind and be reminded that only we who possess the life of God; only we who having been made partakers of His Spirit; only we have been born again from on high have what is required in these dark times. We are the light of the world as He is the light of the world, and in Him there is no darkness.
Neither reformation nor revival is the answer. We cannot reform the ‘systems’ of men. The answer is not to reform or revive religion in the ‘church’. We cannot reform, rejuvenate or save governments or kingdoms of men. We can only proclaim the Kingdom of God; the reign of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who sits upon the throne. . We don’t need new institutions or new solutions, even new revelations or a return to first century Christianity. What we need is a demonstration of the love and reign of God; “as in heaven so on earth.”
We don’t need an answer; we need THE answer, “Christ in You, the hope of glory.”
Let each of us fall down before Him, worship and adore Him who is not a baby born in a manger, but King upon a throne. To Him be the glory, honor, and power now and forever more!
Amen,
George Dunn, NC
ged0623@gmail.com
