Amid the coronavirus shut-in orders, on May 22, 2020, President Trump declared churches as “essential places that provided essential services”. He had no idea just how “essential” they would be just three days later. Essential means “absolutely necessary, extremely important”.

We, as the church, have been declaring it is Isaiah 60:1 time…and it is! “Arise (stand up-Strong’s #6965); shine (be or become light-Strong’s #125) for the glory of the Lord has risen (to come forth-Strong’s #2224) upon you.” So we could say, “Stand up! Become light! For the glory of the Lord has come forth upon you!” This is a time of great darkness. It is the time for the glory of the Lord to be seen upon His church. Everything we do as His body must be for His glory and to reveal Jesus to the world, not to exalt ourselves…how much power we walk in; how many attend my church, what great prophecies I give, etc. Our walk is to be a walk of authority, but first must be a walk of love and humility.

The last book of the Bible is the “Book of Revelation”. It is the revealing of Jesus Christ. That is our mission as His body…to reveal Jesus to the world. We are seeing the manifestation of a world that does not know Him. Some have not truly even heard about Him. They may have heard about religion, but not the true nature of Jesus and His love for them. Some have heard about Him, but rejected Him. When we are left to ourselves without God, sin abounds and is abounding more and more as the day of His coming approaches. But we know the Word says where sin increased, grace increases so much more [Romans 5:20].

The world needs an encounter with Jesus! They need to experience His love for them. They need to know they are accepted and not rejected. They have the choice to be adopted into the family of His Kingdom and not rejected as they feel from the world. We, the church, have a lot that we can give to these lost, misguided, wounded and hurting people. Can you even imagine when they take the passion they are showing for justice and turn it to a passion for Christ? I believe they will be just as radical for Jesus as they are for evil right now. Remember how radical Paul was for religion until he had an encounter with the power of God. He became so radical for the Kingdom of God that he risked his life over and over to keep proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom.

We accepted Jesus as our Savior and hopefully you have made Him Lord of your life. Our life is not to be our own, but to be laid down for the cause of Christ, to reach those who are lost and dying. It is not about using our faith for the beautiful mansion down the street. Yes, He wants us to have homes and all the other things we need for life. He said all things will be given to us as we put first His Kingdom and His righteousness [Matthew 6:33]. But His gifts are to draw hurting people to Him that they may receive healing and to find their true purpose, destiny and ultimately eternal life. His nature is to become our nature so we will be changed into His image and likeness….this is the revealing of Jesus….Christ in us, the hope of glory!

I sense that the church is about to have a deep encounter with the Lord. This may very well come as the “Spirit of the Fear of the Lord” as He enters His church. We will come away from this standing up and no longer laying down being complacent. We will become light and shine; not just blending in with the world. One portion of scripture that I desire to be said of us is Acts 4:13-14 “When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they marveled and took note that these men had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.”

There is so much yet to be done before Jesus return, which is very soon. Let’s make a decision to walk in unity and love with one another. We, the church, are essential to the turning around of this world around with the love, power and authority we have been given. Let’s allow Him to direct our path and determine to allow our light to shine brightly in this dark and angry world.