The Invasion of Light: Day 3

And that alone tells us everything we need to understand about the heart of God.

When Heaven decided to announce the greatest news in history, it bypassed the priests, the scholars, the elite, the trained, and the respected. God did not send angels to the temple where the religious leaders were performing rituals. He sent them to a field where ordinary men were simply doing their jobs.

The first revival of the New Testament didn’t break out in a church service; it broke out in mud, grass, and midnight silence.

Why? Because God is not attracted to religious performance — He is attracted to humility, hunger, and honesty. Shepherds were considered unclean, uneducated, unreliable, and unimportant. They had no titles, no influence, no status, no platform. But Heaven saw them. Heaven chose them. Heaven trusted them with the news that would shake the world. And while the religious world slept, the glory of God exploded in a field when angels tore open the sky with the announcement that the Savior had come.

Revival didn’t begin with a plan, a program, or a polished gathering. It began with hearts that were open enough to hear God in the dark. It began where no one was expecting God to move. And that’s still how He moves today. We think revival will come through our strength — our strategy, our talent, our buildings, our budgets, our plans. But God keeps reminding us: “I show up in the places you overlook.  ” He shows up in rehab centers, in prison cells, in tents, in living rooms, in quiet corners where people cry out with no audience. He shows up in the hearts of the broken far more quickly than He shows up in the pride of the religious. God is not after crowds — He’s after captives. He’s not after big gatherings — He’s after surrendered hearts. And when He finds them, even if it’s only two or three, Heaven breaks in.

The shepherds experienced more glory in one moment than the religious system had experienced in hundreds of years. Because God is not waiting for perfection; He is waiting for humility. Not the humility we talk about. The humility we live. The humility that says, “God, if You show up here, even here, it’s enough.”

The Christmas story reminds us that God’s presence is not limited to sacred buildings or special days — He comes wherever hungry hearts are found. The first revival broke out in a field, not a temple, because God wanted the whole world to know that His glory is not for the few — it is for the willing. The forgotten. The overlooked. The ones who feel unqualified.  The ones who think God would never choose them. Those are the ones revival visits first. And once the shepherds saw His glory, they ran to the manger with urgency, hunger, and awe. They didn’t bring gifts. They didn’t bring credentials. They brought themselves. And that was enough.

This Christmas, may God find us like shepherds — open, available, hungry, and ready to receive Him in whatever field we’re standing in.  Prayer: “Jesus, visit my field. Break into the ordinary places of my life with Your glory. Make my heart humble, open, and ready for Your presence. Let revival begin in the quiet places long before it ever reaches the public ones.”