The Bible speaks about how “darkness” can come across the land and how “a word from the Lord” can become rare. When a generation fails to complete the tasks the Lord has for them, the Lord quietly backs out of the picture for a season. In these seasons the word of the Lord becomes rare, and darkness, even deep darkness prevails. I believe the deeper the darkness, the greater the prophetic voice God raises up for the subsequent generations. I also believe God’s man or woman receives strength from the disobedience of his/hers generation. A fire begins to glow within and continues to grow hotter, especially if disobedience and sin prevails.

The greatest prophets of the Old Testament were the ones born and raised in Israel’s darkest hours. It was so bleak and dark in Elijah’s day, he thought he was the only prophet left in the land. No one could hardly convince him otherwise. It didn’t stop him from calling fire down from heaven and praying for the drought to end. My point is this, no matter how dark it gets or how rare God’s word may appear to be… the Lord raises up men and women to be a light in dark places. The darker the night, the greater the light.

Flames surrounded firefighters fighting a forest fire as they backed up a mountain trying to put out the fire. They had nowhere to go. There was fire behind them and only a home and more grass in front of them. A firefighter moved ahead into the grass in front of him, struck a match, and burned the grass between them and the house. Just in time, as the fire he had set went out, he and his cohorts stepped into the already burned grass. The wild-fire blazed around him and the house because it had no fuel to burn and the firefighters were saved.

Today there is wild-fire of sin coming toward our homes and lives. Sin has never been more prevalent than it is today. People can destroy their lives without ever leaving home. The man of God looks around at the enormity of sin and sets out to burn the ground with God’s word. He knows people can only be saved inside God’s camp. God’s word and voice is uncompromising. Life may have fifty shades of “gray” for everyone else, but for the man and woman of God… the Word is just as black and white today as it was when it was written.

 

Blessings,

Pastor