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Forecast 2026: Spiritual Weather Coming

"Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel of the power of God." — 2 Timothy 1:8

As we kick off and dedicate 2026 today, I want to speak for a few minutes about the conditions in our world—which even to the least informed among us, we know things continue to change and shift. I also want to speak about the hope and security that we have in our salvation found in Jesus Christ. And how above all else, that is what 2026 can be about.

I want to use how I check the weather every day, pretty much daily, as an illustration for our current outlook for the new year. I also want to end with the reality of how much your walk with Christ and the function of your church fellowship can be your solution—remember that word, solution—to the spiritual weather conditions you experience.

Point One: The Wind

It's getting windy out there, folks.

The reality of reality. Think about that. Just reality itself is going to be under attack this year like never before. AI and deep fakes will grow this year, and they will alter the human subconscious in ways never experienced before in all of human history. Have you contemplated that?

The current content of incredible, precise, detailed reality that is actually fake—images, messages that are just astounding—but they're not real. They're fake. And that's accelerating. The strong breeze is accelerating to where we're going to have a hard time finding out if anything is real.

For a cheap app, you can take what someone has stood on a stage and said and turn them into anything that looks exactly like them saying and doing anything in any environment. The point of entry on these deep fakes is that common now.

I've been warning of deception for the last 20 years as I've watched deception and manipulation in the church and Christian industry. Manipulation that becomes the default position for so many ministries and churches that it's hard to tell the good from the bad.

But that strong breeze is now a hurricane-force wind.

Every time someone comes to know the Lord, they'll start to search online, and immediately they're confronted with a plethora of options. Many of these options are false teachers at best, outright heretics, and they're lauded as positive and helpful in some cases.

And the only break from the wind? The only storm shelter you can count on? It's the Word of God taken in context and the salvation found in Jesus that the Word points to and describes.

The Shelter: Abide in the Vine

Let me show you something in John 15:3-4. It says this:

"Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you."

This is Jesus talking now.

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me."

And the "bear fruit" in this context can also mean survival. You want to defend against the strong winds of deception and manipulation this year? Stay grafted in the vine. Stay grafted into Jesus Christ and His salvation.

It starts there.

But let's continue.

Point Two: The Temperature

The temperature of our population is one of confusion, depression, and anger.

The majority of those walking around and driving around—what you see out there today is a population that is genuinely downcast.

Did you observe Christmas last week? If you did, you are, according to a new Gallup survey, in the majority. 88% of the population celebrated Christmas last week.

Did you attend church services over Christmas? If you did, you're in the minority. Only 47% of Americans joined you. And not all of them were Christians. Some of them were dragged to church because it was Christmas. And that was down from 64% just in 2010—which for those of us around the age of 60 or older, that was like two years ago.

Now, I want you to consider a couple other Gallup headlines:

• "US Mental Health Ratings Continue to Worsen."
• "Americans End Year in Gloomy Mood."

The common sense temperature is dropping, and it's getting cold out there, campers. Almost like a strong delusion is coming across the land. If you know, you know.

Futile Thinking, Darkened Hearts

How about a scripture that kind of dovetails with that? Let's look at Romans 1:21-22. It says:

"Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools."

How do you heat up a population that has become comfortably numb?

I've labeled it spiritual hypothermia. It's setting in all around us—even among those who claim Christ.

So what do we do?

Well, before I get to the solution, how about we talk about the only thing that could make this condition worse? And that would be if it would rain, right? Cold rain.

Point Three: Possible Precipitation

Where's the rain?

Let's start with wars and rumors of wars. The Middle East is still a mess, and now Turkey is openly turning on Israel. Know your Bible. Wars and rumors of wars. There's a story of China moving around Taiwan, Russia and Ukraine every day. The UN talks about something that's completely irrelevant. All of this is causing economic worries and fears of this collapse or that collapse.

And every day it seems we're hearing of this worry or that worry. Other political maneuvering that is so detrimental to our way of life as born-again Christians wanting to live free in America. And I'm being generic here on purpose, because I know that you know. I know you know. I don't have to get into the details. You know what I'm talking about. You've seen it.

Will He Find Faith?

Luke 18:8 tells us—this is Jesus talking—He says:

"I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

When people are acting like the Bible predicts will happen in the last days... when the chess pieces are assembling in a formation that becomes unmistakable... you know the end is near.

The Signs of the Times

I'm going to show you some verses, and I want you to see something. I want you to see something in these verses. Let's just go through them first. Matthew 24:3-13. You ready?

As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

By the way, before I get to this, I just want you to know this comes right after Matthew 23, which puts a death blow to "blessed be the nice" because Jesus just lit up the whole community. He lit them up. Read it in Matthew 23. And so the disciples cross over. They're like, "All right, we're all going to die." So they come to Him and they say, "Tell us, when will these things be?"

And Jesus answered them, "See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains."

Do you see anything in here about a snatching away or a rapture? No. It's the beginning of the birth pains. What's going to happen?

Verse 9:

"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away..."

Many will fall away.

"...and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold."

Spiritual hypothermia will set in.

Verse 13:

"But the one who endures to the end will be saved."

The church is going to be in 2026 full—and more full and more full—of those strong enough and unafraid who will persevere and endure to the end.

The Solution

Why? Because if what I just shared with you is the case, then how shall the justified in Jesus actually be? How shall the redeemed roll in times like these? What are we supposed to do?

Jesus says: Endure to the end.

I have said the best way to describe this in this world is this way: Unity in the body, making much of His name. We celebrate our salvation. We applaud after each worship song. We laugh and we cheer and we have a good time—and then we fulfill the Great Commission. My turn of phrase for that is: share the gospel any way you can.

Your Jacket, Your Heater, Your Umbrella

So the solution—the jacket, the heater, the umbrella you use to combat life's weather in 2026—can and should be:

• Your Bible
• Your prayer time
• Your church—your forever family

And we do that in harmony. We do that with a settled truth. We do that always in view of Scripture, as much as possible, in a celebration way. We're excited and alive because we've been given new life. We're excited and alive because God the Creator loves us.

And you know something? He even likes us.

He Delights in You

Let me show you some stuff to back that up.

Psalm 149:4 says:

"For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation."

Psalm 35:27 says:

"Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, 'Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant!'"

We can do all that with abandon because we have Him. Do you understand that? We have Him, and we will forever be about Him.

1 Timothy 6:7 tells us why we can just live with abandon:

"For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world."

Nothing Can Separate Us

Now, with all of that in mind, I want you to see this. Romans 8:37-39 says this:

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

The Crescendo

And here's my point. Here's the big crescendo point right here:

We will seek our Father's purpose rather than our own to the degree we believe He loves us more than we love ourselves.

I'm going to hit you with it again:

We will seek and trust our Father's purpose rather than our own to the degree that we believe in our hearts that He loves us more than we actually love ourselves.

The True Calling

Let me use my calling as a pastor here to illustrate.

• Is my calling to provide good preaching and teaching? No. That's part of it, but that's not the calling.
• Is it to be a good counselor? No. That's part of it, but that's not the calling.
• Is it to be the chairman of the board as we run our organization in appropriate ways? No. That's part of it.
• Is it to be the good solid shepherd type that is there for life's journeys—you know, to marry and bury and visit at the hospital? No. That's part of it. But that is not the calling.

The calling—listen now—is to be obedient in all His ways.

And that means to fulfill what Jesus commanded us in its fullness.

The Great Commission

I mentioned the Great Commission earlier. I want to show it to you now. Look at it with me. In Matthew 28:18-20, it says:

"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'"

Do you see it? Do you see it?

It says how to make disciples and baptize in the name. Sure. But He also tells us how. Right there. Do you see it? He says, "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."

That means that we take the Old Testament prophets, and we take a lot of Paul's writing and everything, and the Gospels of Jesus, and we put them together in a harmonious way. And we look at what Jesus has commanded us to do. So anything peripheral that comes up that's not in that narrow path? We whittle it away.

We do that intentionally.

The Bottom Line

See, we are not a melting pot of theological ideas, but a strong and growing fellowship of people who know there is something better. And that something better is in coming back to the authentic truth.

No pretense. No religiosity. No pandering.

Just truth that cannot be denied.

And in light of Scripture, taking zero leaps, we give you a solid truth. That is what we are about.

May 2026 be the best year yet for all of us together in the body of Christ.