Today our daughter and two grandsons were sitting on the deck looking out over the small lake they live on. It was a calm and sunny day. Out of nowhere a waterspout appeared, gathered strength and ripped the roof from their neighbour’s gazebo. They hardly had time to rush into the house when it had gone.
A black swan is a term for an event which comes out of nowhere and upsets everyone’s applecart. The last black swan was probably the day two planes flew into the World Trade Center. That changed our world. Now we’re living in another one.
Unpredictability is the biggest feature of a black swan. They are unpredictable in origin and unpredictable in consequence.
That is where Christians have an advantage. We didn’t see this coming, and we don’t know all the places it is going, but we do know the One who is orchestrating it.
Some are saying God had nothing to do with this, while others are saying he is hurling viral thunderbolts at sinners.
Neither is true. The first option leaves God as a kind of helpless bystander coming along to pick up the pieces after the disaster has happened. The second option suggests God is the author of evil.
One thing is certain, and Joseph got it right: God uses for good what the enemy intended for evil. He is sovereign.
When Revelation presents God as the Alpha and the Omega, it means he is Lord of all history from beginning to end. We need not fear because, in spite of outward appearances, he is in charge. Jesus prophesied that wars, famine and pestilence would be part of the entire age stretching from his resurrection until his return. So when troubles come that affect entire nations, or even the whole world, we have advanced intelligence: God is in control of it all.
And if he is, he has business to do. He is calling a complacent church back to himself. He is shaking the tree of a society which has found its security in technology and medicine instead of in him.
He is hard at work implementing his strategic purposes. God alone knew this was coming. And God has plans.
It’s not our responsibility to find out what all those plans are, but it is our duty to find out what he wants to say to us. We do that through taking time to listen to him in his Word and in prayer.
Anyone in Christian leadership right now had better be spending a lot of time in their prayer closet. He has plans for this world, but he has plans for your church. He is opening doors just as the world is closing them. You need to find out what those doors are and prepare to lead your people through them.
Change is in the air. And I can’t think of any better news in a culture which has been sinking fast and in a church which has moved far from its first love.
When this began, I thought I’d die of boredom. Now I feel excited.
Get on your knees and get ready. Something is going to happen. And those who are ready will be the first to reap the harvest.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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