When we are facing a flood of godlessness trying to purport itself as good; when we are at a moment in history when we are being marginalized; when we are being vilified; when we are being pushed to the sidelines of society, Jesus Christ, because of His mercy, will make His church aware of our need of Him again. By mercy and grace, just like he did with Paul, God will allow this buffeting of His body to finally bring us to the place of saying, “God, we can’t do this without you!” To finally bring us to the place where we, in humility, go back to prayer again.

Humankind typically despises weakness. We have a tendency throughout history to shun the simplicity of faith and gravitate to something more visual, more hands-on, more self-satisfying. Do we live our whole life trying to get out of the very things that God has sent to make us strong? God says, I have to make you weak first, so you can be strong because your strength is not in yourself! Your strength is in Me; it’s in the power of My Spirit within your life. But it only comes when we are out of the way. It’s the ultimate irony in a sense when we become weak, we become strong.

“Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you’” (Genesis 12:1). In spite of this incredible promise, the descendants of Abraham ended up in another place and in another spiritual condition serving their taskmasters. Like many of God’s people, you may have settled in a place that is far short of what you’re called to be, and you’re doing things that you know you shouldn’t be doing. A little bit of sexual play, a little snort; a little peek, what can it hurt? Then these things that offered you comfort become your taskmaster.

God in His mercy would not leave His own people in captivity, and neither will He leave you in captivity when you make the choice to cry out to Him. So cry out to Him. God will free you and take you on an incredible journey. It won’t be a journey where you’re always running from your former enemies, but a journey with a song and a vision that will give you the endurance to get through even the hottest fire and the deepest river.

It’s human nature that when we become familiar with something, we can become bored with it over time. We become bored with prayer, we become bored with going to church, but there’s a cry now in the nation – it may not be audible – but God hears it. A cry from a distance because they don’t have access to the throne of God the way you and I do as the bride of Christ.

God is calling an Esther generation to rise up and plead for mercy on behalf of others. Esther is the type of a Christian in this generation who says, “My relationship with the king isn’t what it used to be. We’ve kind of cooled off. As a matter of a fact, He hasn’t even been speaking to me recently.” Esther knew that when we go towards the king it could cost us our lives. Our prayer is, “Not my will, but thine,” realizing that if we fully embrace the will of God, it could be an unpleasant experience for us. But in that place of being abandoned to the will of God, for the sake of others, Esther found favor and wisdom from heaven. In that place, she found the power to re-write the law of death into the law of life. That, I believe, is what the king had always been looking for.

You and I are called to more than Sunday religion, we’re called to reign with Christ. If you and I are willing to pray, if we’re willing to put our lives; our freedom, everything we are behind that prayer, God once again, can put into our hands the power to re-write a season of death into a season of life.

Does the thought of becoming a new person intrigue you? If you have a sincere heart, God can and will do a miracle in your life. God knows you have no strength or power to get out of your situation so He sends heaven’s resources to you. Jesus died on a Cross for you. He took all your sin upon Himself and His Blood can cleanse the sins of your past and give you power to live for Him in the future. When you open your heart, Jesus will change you from the inside out.

When God came to earth, in the form of His Son Jesus Christ, the veil was suddenly torn and Heaven came into view. The first veil was Heaven coming to us, the second veil was torn so that we are no longer separated from the presence of God. The third veil is that which separates us from the fullness of what we are called to be in Christ Jesus. God has won a victory that takes us out of every place of weakness and brings us into His redemptive power. May we find ourselves in a place of prayer, anticipating the power of the Holy Spirit so we can burst out of the veil of obscurity and step into the market place and begin to talk about the wonderful things that God is about to do.

What is this grand conspiracy forming in the world today? What is the source of this agitation? Satan has succeeded in sowing his character in humanity that says we can be our own judge and determine for ourselves what is good and what is evil. The only impediment to this misguided journey in this society is now on God and His people who stand in stark contrast showing the world there is a God, and there is something called sin. Sin separates us from God, not just in time but for eternity. There is only one King in this world and Jesus is the only King that can show mercy to a sinner and declare them forgiven and cleansed. If you are a casual Christian living in compromise the Holy Spirit will help you escape the boundaries of your own stubbornness and empower you to live in the boundaries of God’s kingdom.