Vision of Lights shining in Darkness

There is a time for everything. Much wisdom brings much grief and the increase of knowledge increases sorrows (Eccl 1:18). I find it hard to believe that things could go so bad within months. I had a vision during yesterday's Sunday worship during the worship song before the sermon. Suddenly in the Spirit, I saw many lights like stars sparkling over a canvas of darkness which in my spirit I knew it to be the city of Kota Kinabalu. In my spirit, I sensed these lights or stars numbered to one hundred or more. Then the Spirit spoke and told me that these were the churches in Kota Kinabalu pre-Covid19. But then I saw another cloud of darkness hovering over the city and I saw only 7 or 8 lights/stars.

Again, in my spirit I was given understanding that these are the churches remaining during these Covid19 pandemic. Within a year, the number of churches had shrunk by 90% in the vision, but there are still 7 or 8 lights shining in the city. Then the elder preached a sermon on Gideon from Judges 6-8 and elaborated on how God chose the 300 out of the initial 32,000 which came at Gideon's call to arms and war against the Midianites and the Amalekites. Only last night during my early hours (around 2am when I got up from sleep and meditated) I realised that the portion of Scripture confirmed what I saw in the vision. Many churches remained close since March of last year. Those that had reopened saw a drop in members between 50 to 90% of members. Even with social distancing rules, many churches looked very empty. People are still not returning despite Covid19 cases dropping to single digits in Kota Kinabalu in the past weeks. The highest number of worshippers which I heard was 180 in one of the larger SIB churches two Sundays ago. Those who claimed to have 1,000 before Covid19 now had less than 100 people attending. Yesterday we had about 80 people again. We prayed that many will turn up and be part of the church, the lamp-stand (menorah) that shines in the city of Kota Kinabalu for Isaiah said, "look, darkness covers the earth, the total darkness the peoples; but the Lord will shine over you, and His glory will appear over you.." (Isaiah 60:2).