Rise and Shine

Guten Tag, Beloved! We bring love and greetings from your German family, but we also bring some insider information from a global perspective.

It is easy to fall into the snare of having an insular view of the world, and even the Spirit realm. The normal human way of life makes, “I,” the center of the universe, just like, “I,” is the center of PRIDE.  This forces one to filter all the information into a narcissistic application of, “How does this affect me?”

The Kingdom of God cannot be defined by the five senses or measured by personal, emotional awareness. The Spirit is supernatural, or “above” the natural. A better way to assess the real (Spirit) is to transform our data collection processes through seeing what the Spirit sees, and hearing what the Spirit hears.

What then? What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written:
“God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, to this very day.”
Romans 11:7-8 BSB

A couple of valuable points of importance are insinuated in this above statement:
1. What the chosen people of God, Israel, were seeking to find could not be obtained by them. But, notice the BUT about the “elect.” The usage of that descriptor is synonymous with our term, “remnant.” This means there was a passionate and pure community that separated themselves from the religious masses that became the recipients of the promises and blessings God ordained for the whole. Only some got what they all wanted.
2. The ones who were failing to acquire what was divinely ordained for them to possess became increasingly, “hardened.” This hardening process was prophetically described as, “a spirit of stupor,” that caused eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear.

I don’t know about you, but it sounds terrible to be called a, “stupor!”

This is one of those unique and interesting, “Bible words,” that encapsulate a massive amount of revelation in a little bitty package. This Greek word is another “hapax legomenon” or a distinctive term only used once in the whole of the New Testament. Whenever you come across one of these expressions, take note that it is usually a subtle hint from heaven that a priceless treasure of revelation is buried there. Grab your shovel and parrot, matey, this “X” really marks the spot.

Stupor: “katanuxis” – Definition: stupefaction. Usage: deep sleep, torpor, insensibility, stupor. Properly, a violent strike (prick); (figuratively) the bewilderment which comes after being struck, like falling into a mental stupor (state of senselessness or insensibility).

This is one of those peculiar locutions that intends to artistically create a descriptive mental illustration. It is a term that cannot be simply or mechanically defined because it requires personal, mental interaction for it to have shape and understanding. Instead of spending the time to attempt a thesis on how to properly exegete this textual usage, it seems more opportunistic to just illustrate it with a present-day application.

Approximately three years ago, the world was given a “violent strike” or a painful surprise “prick” that threw many members of humanity, and sadly the church also, into a state of stupefaction. Much of the world’s masses are in a comatose-like “deep sleep” that was self-induced as a defense mechanism to protect them from the devastating pain inevitable from recognizing the dark, evil powers our society has become enslaved to. Allow me a moment to verify this:
* The majority of parents still cannot admit they are sacrificing their children to the demon gods running public education.
* The woke-ification of society is just something being ignored by the lethargic while every moral thread in the fabric of society is incinerated by the furnace of progressivism.
* The average citizen ignores the exponential rise in gender dysphoria and LGBTQ grooming because it is not affecting them personally… until it does.
* The near-infinite new ways the government has exerted tyranny over the minute details of our existence are just accepted as the “new normal.”
* Freedom and liberty are consistently downgraded by virtue-signaling socialists under the mantra of, “it’s for your health.”
* Medication is the new road to happiness, paved with the cobblestones of destroyed families and destinies.
* God is minimally important and ONLY in His limited place… which is getting smaller and smaller.
* Lying is the new language, and some Christians are rising poets.

Our world, and most of the church, has willfully desensitized their hearts to the wretched reality, we face and in so doing have deteriorated into the spiritually blind and deaf. But, Jesus is famous for restoring sight to the blind and bringing hearing to the deaf.

We have seen it, Beloved. Kay and I were witnesses to the remnant in Deutschland who was wide-eyed and audibly attentive to what the Spirit of God desired to do. This Great Awakening is not an American phenomenon, it is a transformation of the totality of humanity.

When a person is spiritually blind and deaf, they do not recognize the evil, of course. But, even more heartbreaking, they cannot follow the promptings of God that are intended to lead them into the Promised Land either. Blind means you cannot see… the ugly or the beautiful.

In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled:
“You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”
Matthew 13:14-15 BSB

Jesus wants us to see and hear because He has healing for us, and all the world. The longing in the heart of God to see His human family whole, restored, prospering, and free is inarguable and undeniable. The price has been paid, the sacrificial blood has been shed, the enemy has been summarily destroyed, and the keys to the Kingdom have been placed in the hands of the Body of Christ. This is the time, we are the remnant people, and the alarm clock of Awakening is loudly vibrating off the nightstand. No more snooze, no more callousness, no more selfishness. It is time to open our eyes and ears to the Spirit and follow Jesus in boldness and truth.

The global healing service requires us to have eyes wide open and hearing ears. You and I are the remnant peeps who have been blessed to be here for such a time as this and the best is yet to come!

I love you sincerely!
Steve