For the time of quarantine, we got used to masks, social distancing, isolation. And I’m for masks and distancing, but I’m against isolation. Isolation is advised to certain categories of people only. To all the rest, however, it’s ill-advised. Since everything that starts with isolation goes on to inertia and turns into stagnation. Stagnation becomes degradation, and degradation ends up in depression. People start to get the feeling that the whole world is against them and that God doesn’t love them. And we could so get used to this problem-plagued course of our quarantine-pandemic life that it would become normal. But that’s not a norm.

The norm is God’s joy! The norm is the feast of freedom.

The norm is the outpouring of Ruach haKodesh in power and the authority of Mashiah, the norm is when we trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and not hide, not tremble and not sit and wait who would attack and bite us first, rather we go forward and trample on those who just a while ago trampled on us, and we know that nothing shall by any means hurt us. That’s what the norm is!
The norm is when we believe in God’s word, that His compassions are new every morning. The norm is when we are renewed through His renewing compassions day after day. When we are transformed by the renewing of our mind and our mind becomes capable of containing the mind of God, Yeshua’s mind.

How to overcome the darkness that covers the people

When Yeshua becomes the center of our minds, then we think His thoughts. If we experience His tangible presence and allow Him to rise up in power from inside of our spirit then His thoughts freely flow through our minds. They become our shining beacons on the way that He has already paved for us. Those are different thoughts, different state, different taste of a different life!

We don’t have to give in to the pressure of this world’s lifestyle, as if it’s the only one there is. We don’t have to put up with its pressure neither on the outside, nor let alone on the inside. This goes to every area of our lives since God’s life is all-encompassing. There isn’t such a nook or cranny in our soul or an area in our lives that God’s life cannot reach.

Friends, what we see happening right now is not something new. The Lord multiple times warned us about it in different passages of His Word. He was very clear:

“For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you”. (Isaiah 60:2, NKJV)

The spiritual darkness is getting deeper as it’s covering the people. Those who think: “yikes! Look at this creepy darkness!” – you should know – it’s only the rehearsal. In the midst of the darkness that is covering the earth and the people, we have to learn to soak up God’s light and immerse in the luminous cloud of God’s glory. If these clouds guided even the sinful Israel in the wilderness that was unworthy of that in many respects, how much more these clouds abide over God’s children who have chosen Him and refuse to remain stuck in isolation, quarantine, plagued with fears and anxiety, expectation the worst.

If we cut ourselves off this dark temptation to give in to the norm of this world, then the clouds of God’s glory cover us. Israel followed the cloud of God’s glory in the wilderness and was safe. If we follow this luminous cloud, we won’t have unsolvable problems by God’s mercy, we won’t have problems with a tragic outcome. If we abide under the cloud of God’s glory that guides us in the ways of God – whatever problems will only serve for our strengthening and empowerment. Therefore, Apostle James exhorts us to count it all joy when we fall into various trials, because it helps us to grow in faith, become more established in God’s love and His holy presence (v. James 1:2-4, NKJV).

God cloud isn’t for us only

We have to remember that it’s not only for us, it’s for “the people to come to our light”. Why come to OUR light? Because if we surrender over and over again to God’s mercy on a daily basis and allow the Spirit of God to satisfy us on the inside if the oil of the Holy Spirit abounds and our lamps burn brighter, then not only this darkness won’t be able to overcome us, rather we will slice it and set the captives free. This is our glorious mission, our glorious task from our precious beloved Father.
In order to break the veil of spiritual isolation, we have to remember that the Lord promised His special presence, not to those remaining alone, rather to those who gather together in God’s family.

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20, NKJV)

Two or three is the minimum quorum for the Shechinah to come down. Well, obviously, when we strengthen each other and meet each other offline as well when even at this challenging time, complying with the restrictions, we smile at each other, look each other in the eye, shake each other’s hands – all that stirs the Heavenly Jerusalem. Those saints who had finished the race before us and who praise the Lord for us along with God’s angels can see that we haven’t given in to those fears, and even if we have, we are breaking loose from them. They are happy for us. And the angels of God, according to the word of God, descend and invisibly join in our worship and praise, singing and dancing together with us at every service, at every homegroup. They are upholding the hands of those who cannot imagine life without God’s family, those who find the family covering of Shechinah to be crucial.

God gave us everything for us to fly:

“Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you” (Isaiah 60:1, NKJV).

Every New Covenant believer who takes these words to His heart is able to rise even though the problems, the past, diseases, and the world nailed them to the ground. The darkness has started covering the earth, and if we want to soar above this darkness and trample over its spiritual rulers, we must rise!

Only when we rise, we will be able to shine. Only when we rise, God’s light will be able to cover us from head to toes. Only those who have risen, awakened, gotten up can be filled with the light of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the light of the heavenly glory, of the Heavenly Savior coming into the world. It’s only them who can walk in victory and fearlessly bring light into this world.

While we’re nailed to the ground we can whimper, complain, be bitter, raise grievances with God and inquire how he could let this happen to us. But He did give us everything for us to stop crawling!

After we have risen and have been filled with God's light, we’ll start not just pushing the darkness away from ourselves and our close ones, rather we’ll be defeating it, winning the souls back. The prophet Isaiah describes the following stage:

“But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31, NKJV)

We shall mount our wings and the streams of God's glory coming down to lift us up to the Heavens will fill our wings. And if you now think that you have the wings of the sparrow, it’s because they are spread on the earth. But when you rise and let the light of the Lord to enlighten your mind, your spiritual eyes, you will see that God has already given you the wings of an eagle, now you just need to spread them and lift them. This is our legacy from the Lord.

©Boris Grisenko, the KJMC senior rabbi