Our religious traditions and personal opinions about matters of faith do not always reveal the Lord. They can make us falsely assume we have discovered all there is to know, but that is a faulty and blinding assumption to make.

When John the Baptist was calling out from the wilderness for the people of Israel to repent and make a way for the Lord in their hearts, he was confronted by representatives from the Temple. Those religious leaders questioned John about who he was and by what authority he was baptizing people. John simply referred to himself as “a voice shouting in the wilderness” (John 1:23).  

Then John said, “I baptize with water, but right here in the crowd is someone you do not recognize” (vs.26).

At some point in every move of God, it will be required of us to recognize where and how the Lord is choosing to reveal Himself. He does not ask our permission for the way He chooses to make Himself known. For the religious leaders who challenged John’s authority, all their accumulated religious knowledge and traditions were not able to reveal the identity of Jesus who was standing next to them in the assembled crowd.

In each move of God for the last 2,000 years, Jesus didn’t look like what people thought He would look like. He didn’t act according to manmade rules of religious etiquette. He simply came, and for those with humble and yielded hearts, He would be seen.

As John was crying out from the wilderness, hundreds of thousands of people who populated the surrounding region responded to John’s message, “People from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and all over the Jordan Valley went out to see and hear John”(Matthew 3:5).

The same is true today as the Father prepares our world for the coming of the Lord. We are living in a moment of a massive global transition. Rapid and uncomfortable change is taking place. In the din and confusion of that diverse global crowd, Spirit-empowered voices are embedded in each nation calling people to repent and make a way for the Lord. 

Our ability to recognize the Lord will be determined by the condition of our hearts, not our religious qualifications or the spiritual pedigree we bring in response to the announcement of His appearing. As John said on that day when out of curiosity a massive crowd stood assembled before him, “Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him! “ (Matthew 3:3). 

The same is true today. Preparing our hearts for His arrival is our primary assignment. That preparation will allow us to recognize Him when He appears and begins to move among us with power.