RADICAL changes ahead!

I was reading about John the Baptist this morning, and a note beside the text caught my attention:

John's message centers on repentance, which is not merely a change of mind but a radical change in one's whole life.

Christ-followers have imperceptibly drifted far away from Him over the past two thousand years. And I believe that the brothers and sisters we've seen who appear to be extraordinarily close to him are actually the norm, where we all should be. But I also believe that, in 2000, He began to make that happen, re-conforming our lives to His. For the past six years, Holy Spirit has been encouraging each of us as never before to break sinful habits, snip the strings that tie us to the world and fix our eyes and ears on our Father.

Things are beginning to happen quickly throughout the world, and we need to be ready to be snatched up by Holy Spirit and dare to do things we've never even imagined.

... which reminds me of a scene in The Last Battle, the seventh and final book of The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis.

All the characters find themselves in a heavenly land, in the midst of which they see a dozen dwarfs, who are experiencing something entirely different.

They were sitting very close together in a little circle facing one another. They never looked round or took any notice of the humans till Lucy and Tirian were almost near enough to touch them. Then the Dwarfs all cocked their heads as if they couldn't see anyone but were listening hard and trying to guess by the sound what was happening.

"Look out!" said one of them in a surly voice. "Mind where you're going. Don't walk into our faces!"

"All right!" said Eustace indignantly. "We're not blind. We've got eyes in our heads."

"They must be darn good ones if you can see in here," said the same Dwarf whose name was Diggle.

"In where?" asked Edmund.

"Why you bone-head, in here of course," said Diggle. "In this pitch-black, poky, smelly little hole of a stable."

"Are you blind?" said Tirian.

"Ain't we all blind in the dark!" said Diggle.

"But it isn't dark, you poor stupid Dwarfs," said Lucy. "Can't you see? Look up! Look round! Can't you see the sky and the trees and the flowers? Can't you see me?"

"How in the name of all Humbug can I see what ain't there? And how can I see you any more than you can see me in this pitch darkness?"

Suddenly, there appeared a massive lion.

Aslan raised his head and shook his mane. Instantly a glorious feast appeared on the Dwarfs' knees: pies and tongues and pigeons and trifles and ices, and each Dwarf had a goblet of good wine in his right hand.

But it wasn't much use. They began eating and drinking greedily enough, but it was clear that they couldn't taste it properly. They thought they were eating and drinking only the sort of things you might find in a Stable.

One said he was trying to eat hay and another said he had got a bit of an old turnip and a third said he'd found a raw cabbage leaf. And they raised golden goblets of rich red wine to their lips and said "Ugh! Fancy drinking dirty water out of a trough that a donkey's been at! Never thought we'd come to this."

But very soon every Dwarf began suspecting that every other Dwarf had found something nicer than he had, and they started grabbing and snatching, and went on to quarreling, till in a few minutes there was a free fight and all the good food was smeared on their faces and clothes or trodden under foot. But when at last they sat down to nurse their black eyes and their bleeding noses, they all said: "Well, at any rate there's no Humbug here. We haven't let anyone take us in. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs."

"You see," said Aslan. "They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.

Tirian, Lucy and Edwin are like Christ-followers in the about-to-be-dramatically-revived Church. The dwarfs are like those who attend church but whose lives don't change. And Aslan is like Jesus, who is inviting His people to join Him "further up and further in."

There are three kinds of people in the world: 1) the comparatively few who are committed to Jesus, 2) the comparatively few who are committed to the devil and 3) the vast majority who are not yet committed at all. I believe our Father has begun to shake things up throughout the world in ways that will cause every one of the uncommitted to commit, to decide whether to receive or to reject Him forever.

At the same time, the totally committed are beginning to become totally dependent on Him for everything, not just for being given this or that for ourselves or even for others, but for every single thing!

So, if your world seems to be upturned these days, rejoice! You're right where you're supposed to be. Keep looking for him and listening for His voice.

Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. Be assured that the testing of your faith ,through experience, produces endurance, leading to spiritual maturity and inner peace. And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed in your faith, lacking in nothing.

~ James 1:2-4 AMP