Days of Distinction

Almost a year ago, the Holy Spirit highlighted Malachi 3:18 to me: “And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”  There have been days of distinction before in human history and I sensed the Lord say that we are coming into days of distinction again on a grand scale. As Jesus’ return draws closer, the discernible difference between the righteous and the wicked will become more visible, more distinctive.

The preceding verses (16 & 17) expand on who the righteous are: “Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honoured his name. ‘On the day when I act,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him.’”

The distinctive difference between the righteous and the wicked is that the former fear the Lord while the latter do not. In other words, the righteous revere and honour him, and thus delight to say and do what is right. We know that Satan, the god of this world is the great deceiver, and unsaved people caught up among the wicked are blinded (see 2 Corinthians 4:4). However, our God of grace is on a rescue mission to open blind eyes to truth and set them free, and we are called to partner with him!

The current spiritual warfare (as seen, for example, in the bitter ideological civil war between liberals and conservatives in many nations and the global Covid-19 crisis) will continue to be intense, and ongoing intercession for God’s plans, unity, and peace in the nations is vital. He is calling an international army of prayer warriors to rise up and pray as never before.

Not only must the global church pray fervently in these days of distinction, God is also calling us to arise and shine in these Isaiah 60 days where “darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the glory of the Lord rises upon you...” God is calling us to be carriers of his manifest glory in these times in a variety of practical ways. We should also exercise rational calm and kindness in the face of blind rage and falsehood in all its forms, and stand our ground of truth firmly with love. We are called to be a distinctive righteous people who uncompromisingly fear the Lord and love a lost world that he died for. Such a people will be his treasured possession in these last days.