Isaiah 60 starts with this phrase. It is a positive word. It is a word that lends to a new level, a new approach. The Hebrew word used means “establish”. Establishing something in God means to “determine, to open, to bring forth”. The Kingdom is about preparing Creation for the reign of Christ.

Right now I am writing from the UK. There is a fight, a battle for a new lockdown, where the activity and interaction of people is closed off. Where businesses are closed, and where people are confined.

Right now this “confining” has to be contrasted with God’s command in Isaiah 60:1. Arise is the opposite of the restrictions imposed. The word “restrictions” is now so descriptive of what the government and scientific community are doing. There is a sense that these terms are depressing the people and fermenting fear.

The Church here in the UK is yet again in the firing line for more restriction and the narrative is that meetings are the worst environments for propagating the virus, hence campaigns from various sectors against the Church meeting.

If Jesus commanded us to “GO” how does simply accepting the “STAY” equate with obedience to “GO”? What I am proposing is that the Church see this move to wreck both economy and social cohesion is a master plan to bring in a more socialist and dictatorship based society. The trojan horse is to make the pandemic as a political demographic changer across the world. The effects of this will be akin to a post war aftermath.

The command to “Arise” comes in a context of darkness and ignorance where believers are either blind or slumbering.

What is the first step in this season?

The first step is to align with the programme God is engaged with. This can only be ascertained spiritually. I have been walking this intense preparation for 3 years now. In the many miles I have clocked up, the many hours in the Word and prayer I began to discern what God was about to do. What I did not see was the way He was going to work through. And the scale by which the Church would go through in the midst of 2020. The first step is not just take my Word for it, go and discern it out. The vision will start to spring forth through your spirit. Then like Hebrews 11.1 we will gain both the substance and the evidence.

How are we to engage rules and laws?

For the most part obey the guidelines and laws that governments bring in so long as they do not invade on what the Word commands and our personal liberty in Christ. We need to be praying that God acts judicially in favour of two harvests. These are the rest of the Gentiles that must come to Christ and the rest of the Jews to Jerusalem. These are on God’s heart. We must resist in prayer any initiative to be an obstacle to these two harvests.

How are we to view this time?

We must see this as the beginning of sorrows Matthew 24:8. This is a process of bringing the end of Satan’s influence upon the earth. We are to view this time as a preparation for our spiritual destiny where faith, hope and love are our anchor! We must access our spiritual life more and more in this process. For this reason “Arise ” is so apt as it comes to be a response to the light of God that comes to us in a time of great darkness.

Surely “Arise” marks a turning point for God’s people in a time of great darkness and affliction.

Shalom!

russell.durose@thespiritandthebridesaycome.com

Paypal: russelldurose@yahoo.com

20.9.20