Today’s Readings:
Psalm 24
John 3:14-21
Luke 2:1-40
Isaiah 52-53
8 Listen! The watchmen are shouting in triumph!
Isaiah 52:8-10
Lifting their voices together, they are singing for joy!
For right before their eyes, they can see
Yahweh returning to Zion!
9 Burst into joyous songs, you rubble of Jerusalem!
For Yahweh has graciously comforted his people;
he has become the Kinsman-Redeemer of Jerusalem!
10 Yahweh has unveiled his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations.
To the ends of the earth, everyone everywhere
will see the salvation of our God!
The Lord says,
It’s time for a resurrection. It’s time for the unexpected. It’s time for change to seemingly come out of nowhere.
It’s time for a domino effect. It’s time for great, wild rejoicing. It’s time for celebration, parties, parades, confetti releases and fireworks.
This is the kind of welcome the commemoration of Jesus’s birth should have every year. My pleasure is on this change, this surprise, this resurrection. My pleasure is on it. My hand will have done it, and it will point the people to Jesus.
6–7 When they arrived in Bethlehem, Mary went into labor, and there she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped the newborn baby in strips of cloth, and Mary and Joseph laid him in a feeding trough since there was no available space in any upper room in the village.
Luke 2:6-11
8 That night, in a field near Bethlehem, shepherds were watching over their flocks. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared in radiant splendor before them, lighting up the field with the blazing glory of God, and the shepherds were terrified! 10 But the angel reassured them, saying, “Don’t be afraid, for I have come to bring you good news, the most joyous news the world has ever heard! And it is for everyone everywhere! 11 For today in Bethlehem a rescuer was born for you. He is the Lord Yahweh, the Messiah.
Just as the lone drummer boy desired to play a song to please Jesus, so will every heart cry out with longing for connection, with longing to bring an acceptable act and response of worship to the King and Savior, Messiah Jesus. Many will look on at the Christmas story and identify as the lone drummer boy. All will desire to worship and bring an acceptable offering of praise to the King and Savior. All will desire a true and worthy commemoration of Jesus’s arrival to Earth as God with us.
This is the miracle of Christmas. This is the Christmas miracle.
9 So wake up, you living gateways, and rejoice!
Psalm 24:9-10
Fling wide, you eternal doors!
Here he comes; the King of Glory is ready to come in.
10 You ask, “Who is this King of Glory?”
He is Yahweh, armed and ready for battle,
the Mighty One, the invincible commander of heaven’s hosts!
Yes, he is the King of Glory!
Pause in his presence
I desire resurrected hearts, cleared vision and unplugged ears. The move of My Spirit and the arrival of My Glory will tear away the deceptions that have been blinding people to the truth for so long. Only a moment in the Presence of My Glory is required for all of those lies to fall to the ground, powerless and inert. It only takes a moment in My Glory, and men and women and children alike will be overwhelmed by My love, My Presence and My Power. Hearts and lives and bodies and families will be changed in an instant.
My Glory reveals the truth of Who I Am and that Jesus is the only way to be reconciled to Me. This is all very apparent in the Glory, for it is written on the hearts of all. As the soot and lies, the hurts and protective coverings fall off of hearts in the Presence of My Glory, this truth can be seen and acknowledged, can be instantly known with great clarity and with resonance. My Glory is not restricted by buildings, institutions, religions, denominations. No, I will go where I will go. I will go where the people are. And many displays of My Glory will surprise the people in unexpected settings. Very wonderful things will happen in completely unexpected places, because I met the people there.
17 “God did not send his Son into the world to judge and condemn the world, but to be its Savior and rescue it! 18 So now there is no longer any condemnation for those who believe in him, but the unbeliever already lives under condemnation because they do not believe in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And here is the basis for their judgment: The Light of God has now come into the world, but the people loved darkness more than the Light, because they want the darkness to conceal their evil. 20 So the wicked hate the Light and try to hide from it, for the Light fully exposes their lives.21 But those who love the truth will come into the Light, for the Light will reveal that it was God who produced their fruitful works.”
John 3:17-21
Truth will burst forth like a mighty dam has collapsed, and the release of truth will point many to Me. I Am working all things together in this time according to My will and My plan because of My desire for the people to know the truth and be set free. I Am moving in response to the cries, the prayers and the petitions — for freedom, for release from bondage — from a place of repentance and a great desire for Me. I Am moving on behalf of those who know Me, the steadfast ones who have petitioned and desired and decreed, and I Am moving on behalf of those who are wrapped in the bondage of deception, whose eyes are covered and unable to see truth. I Am moving in power to set them free. I Am moving in power and with such explosive force that all will be set free. It will be left to individual choice as to whether that freedom is grasped and prized or whether it is refused, squandered or forgotten.
The move of resurrection is closely tied to the the arrival of freedom. My power and hand is behind it all. Change is nigh. Big unexpected, earthshaking change is nigh.
How to Respond
- Do the work the Lord has put in your hands to do.
- Worship, rejoice and put Jesus as the center of this Christmas in a renewed and purposeful way.
- Choose joy.
- Look for signs in the sky that the Lord is moving in power.
- Declare that change is imminent and that the Hand of the Lord is moving in power for resurrection, for freedom and to return the hearts of the people to Him.
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