The Reference Point: When God Began a New Time
We are living in days when much feels unstable and hard to read. Headlines shift faster than we can process them, talk of wars and upheavals grows louder than ever, and an anxious question rises in many hearts: “What is actually happening?” Yet God’s people are not left with impressions and emotions alone. We have the Scriptures, and we have the Holy Spirit, who reveals and teaches us to discern the times.
In the last days, it is especially important not to try to lock God “in a box”, as if He only works within familiar religious boundaries. He is Spirit, He is everywhere, and He is active even where it seems that only earthly powers rule. David spoke of God this way: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there” (Psalm 139:7-8). When we truly grasp this, panic gives way to attentiveness – and we begin to hear what God is calling us to today.
At the same time, we cannot pretend that spiritual life exists apart from the world’s realities. In the story of redemption, spiritual forces and earthly, political forces were all involved – Pharisees and Sadducees, Herod and Pilate. And yet over them stood the will of God. So our stance is not to turn the pulpit into a battlefield of arguments, but to remember: God governs history, and His people are called to clarity and sobriety.
There are truths God presses upon us more insistently when the pace of the world accelerates. Jerusalem, for example, is not merely a location and not merely a topic for political debate. Scripture speaks of it as a spiritual center of God’s activity, and that is why a believer cannot treat it lightly. We pray for peace, but we also know that true peace is impossible without God, because “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). Peace without God often turns out to be nothing more than a pause before another surge of darkness.
And here the central question comes into focus: what are we leaning on? Leaders, systems, ideologies, human strength? Scripture repeatedly redirects us to a different foundation. “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man” (Psalm 118:8). This is not a call to indifference – it is a call to put our hope in its proper order. We may respect authority, pray for rulers, and be grateful for wise decisions, but we must not bind our hearts to any person the way our hearts are meant to be bound to God.
When the pressure rises, God reminds the Church with particular clarity of two simple, decisive realities – to pray and to proclaim the Gospel. This is not a slogan, and not “traditional religious activity”. It is what keeps God’s people within His will, gives meaning in the midst of chaos, and opens a door for people out of an inner prison. A person can be clothed, fed, and outwardly settled, and yet remain inwardly bare – without righteousness, without life, without freedom.
Here Scripture exposes the problem of self-righteousness. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Human “rightness” does not save and does not heal. But God gives something entirely different: “For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). This is what people need most – not another system of self-improvement, but the righteousness the Messiah provides.
Our reference point is not the headlines, not our fears, and not our forecasts. Our reference point is the Cross – where God began a new time for humanity and for each of us. That is the great dividing line of history. God had His “turning points” before: the birth of Moses marked the beginning of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt; Noah became the man to whom God entrusted the ark, and his faith exposed the unbelief of the world. But the greatest event is what happened more than two thousand years ago, when the Word became flesh.
The apostle Paul calls it “the fulness of the time”: “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son… to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). This is more than a beautiful theological phrase. It means God Himself stepped into human history to open a new era – an era of grace, adoption, and life in the Spirit.
That is why faith cannot be treated like a weekend hobby. You cannot live in constant haste, endless self-analysis, and the exhausting attempt to save yourself – and still expect strength to flourish in your heart. Messiah came not only to forgive sins, but to initiate a new time within a person – to make us sons and daughters of God, to open heaven over our lives, and to teach us to live not by self-righteousness, but by grace. “But without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6) – and this is not faith in yourself, but faith in what God has done.
Scripture also teaches sobriety about the prophetic. There is a “more sure word of prophecy” – the Scriptures, and they do not fail. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19). And then Peter adds a decisive principle: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation… but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:20-21). That means we do not enthrone our impressions, dreams, or words as absolute – we weigh them, test them, refuse offense at correction, and remain humble.
The center of the Gospel, however, is unchanging and clear. “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel… lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:17-18). This is why the enemy works so hard to pull believers’ eyes elsewhere – toward materialism, the pursuit of “special” knowledge, endless disputes, self-righteousness, and attempts to build an ideal world by human hands. But “we preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23) – and in that message is a power no “wisdom of this world” can replace.
The Church is steadied by two decisive practices: prayer and the proclamation of the Gospel. They keep us anchored when everything shakes, and they keep our hearts from being trained by fear instead of by faith.
If you grasp what happened at the Cross, you no longer have the right to live a small life. Not because God lays an unbearable law upon you, but because He has given you a new status and a new calling. And then you can live among people, speak, work, rejoice, and remain both simple and free – without blending into darkness and without losing your inner foundation. It is not you forcing God to fit your expectations – God has already stepped toward you: “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16), and now He calls you upward – to live by His thoughts, His will, His purposes.
So today, haste and agitation must be set aside – unbelief, satanic fear, and the sense of rejection must lose their grip. Our attention must return to where our salvation began, and we must learn to stand not by our own strength, but by faith. “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7). “Whom resist stedfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:9) – and this faith is rooted in the Cross, in the resurrection, and in the Lord’s coming return.
And if someone today is weary, feels that time has been wasted, is tangled in confusion, has slipped into endless self-examination or a chase after the outward – the way out is not to “pull yourself together” by religious effort. The way out is to return to the Author and Finisher of faith, to a simple friendship with Yeshua, to prayer, to the Word, and to the Gospel that must first be preached to our own hearts, so we do not remain inwardly “bare”. “O taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8) – this is an invitation not into theory, but into a living encounter with grace.
The fulness of time has come, the countdown has begun, and it will not be stopped. It will be completed when God restores His Kingdom on the earth. Until then, this is a season of preparation, a season of purified motives, a season of returning to what matters most. “But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) – which means we can live not by fear or the noise of the age, but by the clarity the Holy Spirit gives.
Pastor Oren Lev Ari