A few weeks ago, while I was experiencing the presence of the Lord in a special way in a worship service, a picture came to my mind by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I saw a mass of people with a thick black felt blanket covering them. Immediately, the scripture came to mind:

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD shall rise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you. The nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isaiah 60:1-3, MEV)

He says, “Darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people.” So often we are surprised by the amount of darkness that is all around us—the sin, the deception, the cruelty, and the spiritual wickedness. But God is not surprised. He said it would happen. But He also showed us how to overcome the darkness!

The Lord made me realize that we could accomplish nothing by cursing the thick black blanket, nor is it fruitful to condemn the people who are under it. The felt blanket that I saw was so thick that absolutely no light could shine through. Underneath it, the teeming multitudes of people were pushing upward, trying to get out from under the blanket, to no avail. They were trapped and helpless under the power of darkness.

The thick felt blanket represents the spiritual darkness that is upon the people of the earth because of principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. The work of Satan and his cohorts is to keep people in spiritual darkness so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel. 

Screaming at the principalities and powers will not dislodge them from their position, nor will condemning the people under the blanket bring transformation. It takes light to push back the darkness! That is why the Lord said in Isaiah 60, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.” This is the message to the Church in this hour. We must take the light to the people! This is our responsibility! This is our privilege!

God’s eternal purposes will only be accomplished by a Church that is shining with the glory of God. This is the ONLY way that the people under the blanket will see Jesus.

Whenever we have seen great moves of God that have brought massive change to society, it has begun first with hearts being changed in the Church. The Welsh revival of 1904-5 brought 100,000 people in that small nation into the Kingdom within a few short months, but it began with Christians like Evan Roberts crying out for revival and saying, “Bend us, O Lord!” 

You see, it is us (the Church) who needs to repent. We need to become like Jesus. We need to quit cursing the darkness and blaming everyone else for all the problems, and look into our own hearts. We need to ask ourselves, “Are we being changed into the image of Christ? Are we loving our enemies? Are the things that are coming out of our mouths helping people to see Jesus or driving them away?” Bend us O Lord!

We may disagree with people, both inside and outside the Church, but when we stoop to name calling and holdiing malice in our hearts towards others, we really are siding in with the prince of darkness. We are placing ourselves under the thick dark blanket, rather than bringing the light of the glory of God to those under it. 

It is hypocricy to talk about how we love God, and then turn around and demean people or groups of people who we disagree with. The Bible says that we are to “speak the truth in love.” We should hold forth the truth and bring correction when it’s needed, but we need to do it in love. This holds true for words spoken from the pulpit, in private conversations, or on social media.

If we will recognize that we all are a people in need of mercy, who have sinned and come short of the glory of God, it will help us to have humility and to show compassion to those who are away from God.

When we allow God to fill us with His love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as for our neighbor who believes differently than us, revival will come. We will overcome the darkness and be able to bring light to those who are under that dark felt blanket, so that they may see Jesus as He really is.

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