Darkness before Light (1) Darkness Coming

The light of dawn is coming
but the night must come first (Isaiah 21:12).
The light that shaped New Zealand is fading;
spiritual darkness is rolling out over the land.
It will be deeper and darker than anyone expects,
so it will take a long time for the light to penetrate and break it up.
A bright spiritual light will shine again
but not before we have passed through a season of darkness.

The spiritual powers of evil seizing territory
and controlling it without facing any opposition
gaining control of places of authority without any resistance.
Political leaders have been given more power
than they have ever had,
because they are expected to deliver us from evil
and restore our lives to blessing.
They lack the wisdom to achieve what they have promised,
but their pride is amplifying the power of spiritual evil.

New Zealand is entering a season of spiritual darkness:
with ambivalence towards the gospel
and hostility towards Christian moral standards.
The people of the world will feel free to harass the churches,
and Christians will be afraid.
They will hear rumours of evil
happening in other places,
and unknown fears are more fearful than known ones.

The church is floundering and confused,
doing the same old things over and over again,
hoping for better outcomes,
but knowing that it probably won’t work;
knowing that they need more of the Holy Spirit,
but unwilling to obey his voice.

People are praying for revival,
begging God to move by his Spirit,
but God is not the problem,
because his spirit is always moving.
The problem is the church.
It does not seem to be willing to make the changes
that God needs it to make
before it can carry the spiritual life that he wants to release.

The season for revival has passed
and will not come back for a long time.
Refusal to do what revival required
has allowed the spiritual powers of evil
to entrench their stronghold over the nation
and they will not be pushed out easily.