All Hands on Deck!

As I mentioned in my last post, being unwell the past few weeks has inevitably sent me back to God. There is a great C. S. Lewis quote about this that I love:

But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. --C.S. Lewis

Whenever illness, or any other form of great difficulty arises, I am sent scurrying back to the Lord. I have to admit that I don't know everything, in fact I don't know much at all, and cry to Him for help.


And the Lord is helping me. I see my health gently improving, and although money pressures with some large bills to pay loom, I know His peace and assurance that all needs will be met. But also in these times spent with the Lord, He sometimes speaks to me about other things.

One thing that I have heard much spoken of, often just in passing comment, is how the 'young' people will lead the way and be at the forefront of whatever God is up to. Whenever I have heard this it has made me sad a little bit on the inside, because I no longer consider myself to be 'young', yet I long with all my being to be a part of whatever God is up to. I believe this may have been the Holy Spirit telling me that these comments are not true. So I spoke to God about it, and asked him if age discounts people, as these passing comments would suggest.

I felt the Lord say that although many consider us to be in the 'end times' (the days/ weeks/months/ years/ decades etc directly leading up to Jesus' second coming (the second coming is spoken of in Revelation 19, the language cam be a bit scary, just keep in mind He is a God of love : ))), before Jesus returns there will be a huge revival, the likes of which have never been seen before. Most previous revivals have been located in one or two spots geographically, with perhaps some spread to other nations, but the revival that is to come will eclipse all others. I see it like a huge wave that would break across the globe. And from this amazing move of God many people will meet God's love and accept Him into their lives, knowing healing and freedom as a result.

However I believe that God would say that this revival won't be run by 'young' people. Instead God is looking for whoever is open and available to Him. He does not regard the outer man, but instead looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16: 7), and if you love Him and are available to Him, you can be involved.

I feel that God would encourage all people, but especially the older generation. With Him there is no retirement, no pensioning off, but you are always useful, valid and important to Him. Younger people often have energy, enthusiasm and passion, but they need the wisdom, staying power, patience, temperance and steadfastness of the older generation. We all need each other, with our different gifts, to create the balance and roundedness that God desires to see. Just as it speaks in the Bible of the whole body working together - all parts are equally essential and vital. It also speaks about the generations working together in Malachi 4: 6.

Now obviously God's not giving any timetables here as to when this will happen, so it may well be that the young people of today are heavily involved, because by then they may be the older generation and I may be long gone! Or we may all have passed because it's so far away. Or it could start tomorrow, only God knows. But I really felt the Lord wanted to encourage older people that you are not redundant, that in fact the best may well be yet to come! The phrase that I felt repeated was that in this revival it will be 'All hands on Deck!'

God has also been speaking to me personally about situations in my life, but more of that later in the week. But I pray you will be encouraged to know that God has a place of importance for all of us, a place He has designed with just us in mind, and that all our lives have meaning. Be blessed : )