These days are not ordinary days.

February 14, 2022: These days are not “ordinary days”. The absence of Nativity symbols or Christian references on last year’s “Peoples’ Capitol” Christ-mas tree was an unsung and virtually unnoticed symbol of the days we have endured….and are continuing to endure.

A Christmas with no mention of Christ…..and now, as the fraudulent Resident continues his reckless agenda of trying to destabilize and minimize the world’s greatest and free-est country, our return-to-freedom and return-to-God struggle in America is far from over. The installed head of country and his fellow globalists would like nothing more than for this beacon of God’s goodness and salvation to be permanently dimmed, then extinguished.

My Spring-Summer Journal and, now, Fall-Winter Journal, have had few entries because my concerns and focus have not varied since my last post many months ago: our nation is in trouble. An illegally-manipulated/impacted 2020 election has been allowed to stand and operate in America for over a year. This remains inconceivable to me, to my sense of justice and faith in our American structure of governance — in spite of the reality before my eyes. I intellectually understand the various factors, the misrepresentations, the misinformation, the soulless cowardice and deliberate inaction on the part of those elected to maintain a Constitutional Republic. Yet I remain in disbelief of its continued reality even as increasing days of illegitimate governance add up on a new-year calendar.

I remain in disbelief because of the firm conviction that God is in the midst of this turmoil and this is NOT the slow winding down of “the American story.” God founded our nation through our Founding Fathers, God sealed our nation unto Him as our forefathers covenanted with Him, and He has intervened at various points of our history to draw us back to Him and reset us on a steady path.

And He is in the process of doing it again.

I actually began this post back in December, then updated it in January. Yet I did not publish it in either month because it “felt incomplete.” For the very reason mentioned above, I think I now know why — God’s move of victory in this nerve-wracking saga also remains incomplete.

Yet I believe we are currently feeling the stirring of the waters around us being reversed, un-muddied, infused with the freshness of His Spirit in a river that flows to Him and from Him. My faith in the unwavering intention of God to intervene, to work through and bring about the just and right end to this nightmare remains unshaken.

In that well-known Ephesians scripture, Paul explained that our battle is “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6:12) I have never seen this principle play out on the world and national stage more clearly than watching the daily/weekly events of the last year.

Virtually every nation in what has been called “the free world” has been subjected to a tyranny of governmental control beneath the guise of a health-required “vaccine mandate”, and now the citizens of those nations continue to emerge in unified marches by the tens of thousands to resist the destruction of their liberty. Canada, Australia, Poland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy — we as American news consumers do not know the true extent of the number and scope of freedom marches across the globe because our mainstream sources of information — the supposed bastions of support for our First Amendment — choose not to reveal that particular truth as it unfolds.

And I sit back and ask why. Why would such worldwide movement result in virtually no mention among mainstream media outlets?

I have formed a bit of an hypothesis: to reveal such impassioned expressions demanding freedom would bring courage and hope to others, and it is hope that the enemy resists at all costs. Romans 5:5 proclaims that “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

I believe we are seeing a manifestation of the march of God’s Spirit and the prayers of His elect, taking physical form; of His angelic hosts carrying on warfare in the unseen realm, His servants carrying on warfare in the visible world, all working together in unison — and in unison, re-taking ground that was unwittingly yielded and calculatingly stolen. God is claiming back what is His, as the psalmist states in Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who live in it.” (NASB)

The Lord has spoken recently through many prophets that “the harvest has begun.” His Glory is being released in greater and greater measure upon people, ethnic groups, nations. This epic era we are in is more than a painfully slow, worldwide political transformation; God-given freedoms are being rediscovered and fought for, but not within a carnal void. This position in time is ushering in great spiritual renewal as hopeless people find their only direction to seek guidance and deliverance is to look upwards, to seek the Creator of heaven and earth.

And this, in unison with the spiritual forces of righteousness calling out to each nation, “Lift up your heads, you gates, and be lifted up, you ancient (everlasting) doors, that the King of Glory may come in! Who is the King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle.” (Psa. 24:7-8, NASB

He is not leaving His world and people bereft of His action and intervention.

Your Future Self and a New Day of Destiny

New Year’s Day.

I am thinking about a poster I photographed on my camera phone, which read, “Do something today which your future self will thank you for.” I posted that picture on social media and subsequently deleted it from my storage…but I have thought of it often in the year or two since then.

Your future self.

Sometimes it’s difficult to think of yourself as anything except “what” or “who” or even “where” you are, right now – and the details of that identity probably involve considerable time and energy to fulfill the routine and responsibility that is attached.

I certainly fit that category. But I know there is “more to me” than what I currently see and express, because there is “more of Him in me” that is constantly seeking to be released.

Envisioning my “future self” can be a tangible motivation to seek my heavenly Father Hope candle w flowers and ask His participation in bringing me to those steps, that growth, training, discipline and focus necessary to “being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” (2 Cor. 3:18)

The “same image,” of course, is His – “Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord.” But He chooses our individual and unique flavor of “the glory of God” to tangibly display His amazing, multifaceted love, mercy and transformative power to the world and populations He loves.

New Year’s Day is a fitting time to take a few minutes and think about that concept. Of the many tasks and engagements involving you, right now – which of them touch others with His Presence or cooperate with Him to develop those giftings, opportunities, assignments He has for each of us? Which are those activities which Paul describes to those of us who are “His workmanship” as being “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Eph. 2:10)

It is our ability to “walk in them” that is impaired by endless routine and responsibility which the world’s system is happy to throw our way. It is one of the enemy’s schemes that we are so thoroughly deterred and drained by earthly focus and demands that we have no energy or vision for heavenly opportunities. No energy or vision to make preparations for “your future self”…a forthcoming, fresh release of His Presence, Christ in us, “the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27)

Today is a good day to “take a stand.” Today is a great day to ask His guidance in sifting through the necessary and the assumed-necessary.

The Passion Translation begins Romans 13:12 with the words, “Night’s darkness is dissolving away as a new day of destiny dawns.”

I like that phrase, “new day of destiny.” As 2020 starts, we actually face a new decade of destiny.

In this New Year’s Day context, I think of “night’s darkness” as being those deceptions and busy-work the enemy endlessly shovels onto our path to drown out His Word and stifle His “light to my path.” (Psa. 119:105)

Today is the perfect day to consider your plans and strategies with a future thanksgiving in mind.

The Switched Nativity

Jesus in the center.

I was carefully setting up this year’s Nativity display on the wooden shelf by the fireplace. I meticulously turned individual pieces in incremental degrees until each one faced Baby Jesus in a stance that reflected wonder and adoration.

With a sense of satisfaction, I stepped back to view the final arrangement.

I sort of chuckled at myself, knowing full well that Biblical timelines do not place Jesus’ birth, first shepherds, and traveling kings all arriving in Bethlehem at the same time. Still, I love creating a niche every year that displays that time-condensed version of the events as described.

Unexpectedly, I felt like the Spirit whispered, That’s not what it looks like today. After that statement, a clear image flashed into my mind. In that image, each of my Nativity pieces had been switched around and now stood in a completely different configuration.

Instead of all attention focused towards Jesus, I saw Joseph, Mary, all three kings and even the shepherd, all facing one another in a circle of earnest conversation. Their circle was closed and turned away from the Messiah. He and the manger had been positioned at the opposite end of the shelf…alone, except for the company of a glass donkey and lamb.

The redesigned arrangement was thought-provoking.

I mused regarding the role each character might represent in today’s world: the three kings would still represent leaders of nations, countries, and their respective political systems. Joseph – perhaps a representation of men stepping forward to mentor, to “father” others, to model godly masculinity and leadership to the next generation; Mary — carrying the concerns, responsibilities and unique callings of women? And the shepherd – would he represent a segment of the less fortunate in this world, or those who dedicate themselves to finding and winning lost hearts back to God?

In this Nativity’s switched layout, the people and those they stood for were not seeking wisdom or guidance from the Miracle Worker, the King of Kings who has government “rest on His shoulders,” the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6) though He was very near to all of them.

Instead, they talk-talk-talked only amongst themselves, solidifying their own worldview in which each was a captive, both a victim and perpetrator of the worldly system’s injustices.

But God is never static and never distant. “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” (I John 3:8) One of my favorite Old Testament verses is Habakkuk 1:5 – “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! For I am doing something in your days – you would not believe it even if you were told!”

God is always “doing something” in whatever days we find ourselves.

Good days. Bad days. Days we anticipate with joy and even those days we face with dread and prayer. A “perfect Nativity” in this life has yet to be fully implemented or fully manifested in any area of our earthly walk, our sojourner’s path through both the marvelous and the horrific.

“The reason the Son of God was revealed was to undo and destroy the works of the devil.” (I John 3:8, The Passion Translation)

God is never without purpose.

The essence of “The Christmas Story” is not diminished even towards those nations whose cultures and calendars forbid its acknowledgement or celebration. God is always seeking His lost sheep, His captured children held deep inside satanic fortresses. As the grace of the Holy Spirit is poured out on those who seek it, so it is also poured out on those who are standing with their backs turned away from Him.

There is a resounding “Glory to God in the highest” that is constantly shed abroad, a sharing to step into the announcement “I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people.”