As we enter an election year in America a lot of issues are on the table. The most important issues are not the ones we are being told are important. Something yet undefined lurks behind the issues that are causing our unease. People are fearful and nervous about the unseen motivating forces that are steering the visible issues we see play out in our world. In this world of increasing fear and unease just saying to people, “Trust the Lord”, without understanding what is happening in the spiritual realm, will require additional input so we will know how to navigate and pray through what is on the table.

There is a potpourri of issues facing us: hot wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and now Yemen. The trembling bubble of tension hanging between China and Taiwan is ready to burst into war at any moment. It’s not just wars and rumors of wars that bring us stress. Depending on how one views the situation, there is evidence of demonic powers and advanced technologies revealed to us as “aliens” interacting with our military. Our economy is wrapped in the strangling effects of decades of political self-interests with no hope of ever being released from the overwhelming bondage of our debt. We need diversions like war, aliens, or the bondage of our financial system to take our eyes off what is happening behind those issues.

What the Church needs now is connectivity with the unseen issues that are causing uncertainty in our hearts. The stage upon which all these issues are being played is a spiritual puppet show. We need to take our prayers of intervention into the spiritual realm where these games are being played and where the puppet masters are dangling the future of entire cultures at the end of their rope of control. Those are the prayers that will change our world.

When Daniel heard from the angel Michael about what would happen at the end of days he said, “I heard what he said, but I did not understand what he meant” (Daniel 12:8). Michael then gave these instructions to Daniel, “Go now, Daniel, for what I have said is kept secret and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, cleansed, and refined by these trials. But the wicked will continue in their wickedness, and none of them will understand. Only those who are wise will know what it means” (vs. 9-10).

The wisdom Michael spoke of is a wisdom revealed only by God. The Lord not only reveals His heart for the world but also the ways of God. God’s wisdom keeps us from following the spiritual rabbit trail diversions placed before us without the guiding force of wisdom.

If you find yourself like Daniel not understanding what is taking place, ask for God’s wisdom in how you are to respond in the coming year. Perhaps the words of James apply to all of us this year more than ever, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking” (James 1:5). When God’s wisdom arrives it will bring with it the kind of clarity we all will need to live through what will transpire in our world in the coming year.