There are a lot of people turning to Christ for hope and salvation during this precarious season the world is going through. With this new virus on the loose, and people, intentionally or unintentionally, scaring the beans out of each other regarding sickness and death, economic collapse, and any number of other fears built upon fears. There have been viruses before but never has the world reacted like this, not in our lifetimes at least.
I closed a recent devotional with a certain verse from John and after I did, and posted the devotional, the verse leaped off the page and grabbed me by the throat. It was one of those words from the Lord that many people seem to receive all the time, I, however, do not. It has happened maybe a handful of times in my life and based on the outcomes, I know it’s Jesus. Not only because He said it in the first place, but because He’s saying it now—right now.
And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live. (John 5:25 NLT).
Dear ones, Jesus is speaking and the dead in sin are hearing His voice—the voice of the Son of God. I think many who are hearing His voice are in the church, they have been church-goers for years, maybe their whole lives, but they are dead as door-nails, dead in sin. But this virus stuff has awakened something, and for the first time, in the deadness of their tradition, ritual, and habit, and they are hearing the voice of Jesus, and He is calling them out of the darkness and into the light, out of death and into life. Revive oh Lord!
Others hearing His voice have been on the outside, mockers, self-sufficient and self-made, they have never needed anything or anyone, least of all God–and now this. You can’t see it coming, you can’t do anything about it except wash your hands and stay away from the rest of humanity—what a way to live! And they’re scared. And Jesus speaks. And for the first time, they hear something, it’s a call or a whisper, and Jesus says, “I love you, child, I want to help you, keep you safe.” And they are turning to Him and finding the warmth of His embrace.
If you are awake, alive in Christ, there has never been a time in our lifetimes like this, when our prayers of faith, standing in the gap for neighbors and loved ones, for the literal billions of people outside of Christ, are being answered, as people are hearing the voice of the Son of God, listening and being made alive.
Pray brothers and sisters, pray as if the world depends on it. You and I can’t wake people up, We can’t make the dead live. We could scream Jesus in their ear till we’re blue in the face and most will just mock us and call us looney. But Jesus is speaking, He is digging ears into the sides of those hard-headed skulls and they are listening to Him – and those who listen will live!
Hallelujah! Save Now Oh Christ Our Redeemer!