What strange times we find ourselves in. Lockdown! Self isolating! Social distancing! Covid19!!
Praise God that His kingdom is not, and never shall, suffer lockdown! In the midst of all the chaos, God’s kingdom rules over ALL – (Psalm 103:19).
Isaiah chapters 24-26 make interesting reading for these times. As you read through them, watch the witness of the Spirit. Chapter 24:10 reminds us of our current situation: “The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up that no man may come in”.
In the midst of all this “shaking” (Isaiah 24:13), the people of God are exhorted to “raise our hallelujahs” – Isaiah 24:14-15 “They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord……Wherefore glorify the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea”.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”. Divine purpose is present in God’s clock and His timing. In this waiting period I can press in to God, tune my spiritual eyes and ears to the Lord.
Robin Mark wrote the song “My heart will sing to You because of Your great love”. The lyrics to the second verse ring true to our searching hearts:
“When earthly wisdom steals the light of knowing You,
Or if my search for understanding clouds my way,
To You I fly, my hiding place,
Where revelation is beholding face to face”.
My greatest need is to stay close to the Lord Jesus. All my “needs” are met in Him as I give Him preeminence in everything. Proverbs 3:6 exhorts: “Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your paths”. Do I? Or do I let sense knowledge dictate before I acknowledge Christ’s lordship and direction?
The world holds an opinion on everything under the sun found in Google. I must settle it, Google is sense knowledge from the tree of good and evil, (Genesis 3). It is a wonderful tool of information, but it is not God’s word. I must learn to listen to what God says through His Word and allow Him to have the last word. As I embrace and stand on His word, my Heavenly Father grants me His peace amid the world’s chaos.
Lockdown is the season for Believers to draw closer to the Lord and raise a united song of praise and supplication. God’s purposes will not be thwarted. Harvest season is imminent……Jesus said “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest”, Luke 10:2.
Let us not run ahead of God. Use this season of lockdown to draw closer to the Lord. Allow the Holy Spirit to excavate our fallow ground. In the excavation process the stones will be removed that have hampered the fullness of Christ in our “field”. Fertile ground is now exposed to the seed of His word. What will your harvest contain? In the parable of the sower, Matthew 13:23, Jesus likened the seed falling into good ground as a man that hears God’s word, understands it and therefore bears fruit…..”…..some a hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty”. Let us remove the stones from our field that have reduced our fruit harvest. God’s clock is ticking, and our times are being shortened.
LIFE’S CLOCK Robert H.Smith
The clock of life is wound but once and no man has the power,
To tell just where the hands will stop, at late, or early hour.
To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed, to lose one’s health is more,
To lose one’s soul is such a loss as no man can restore.
The present only is our own, live, love, toil with a will –
Place no faith in tomorrow – for the clock may then be still”.
Remember your calling: 1 Corinthians 2: 9-10 “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit…..”
