The answer that he has given

“You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions, stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you.”                2Chron.20:17.

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” Eph.2:6.

From our position ‘in Christ’ we can “see the deliverance the Lord has given us”. We have been delivered out of death (separation) and into life (union) with God (Eph.2:1-6). We are all growing up into this life and even now, our minds are being renewed daily to the benefits of this life, including authority and power over every disease (Matt.10:8, Luke 10:19).

None of us despise earthly wisdom. We all use seat belts, avoid sour milk and check the brakes in our car! And so we should. It is with gratitude that we accept the wisdom of those in authority, who would seek to protect us from danger. If a natural disaster such as a flood or a fire was affecting our communities, we would all look to play our part in resisting that threat together and the threat of contagion is no different. But our hope is not in avoiding disaster or disease. It is in knowing that, right in the midst of such enemies we sit at a heavenly feast and our cup runs over. (Psalm 23). Such peace is not given, so that we may chastise the world for being in fear, but that we may be still enough to hear the Fathers heart, beating for every soul in distress.

What is the Father doing about this pandemic crisis? He has planted the Spirit-filled body of Christ in every nation, a river of healing and wholeness. We are salt and light. We know what Spirit we are of. We are of Him who came to save men’s lives, not destroy them (Luke 9:53-56). We have good news for a dying world. God loves you and His love is not like this world’s. His love is not conditional on your behaviour, for He set His heart on you, before you had done anything good or bad (2Tim.1:9). He knows the only love powerful enough to change your heart, is a love your heart doesn’t know, a love that keeps no record of wrongs, a love that nailed that record to a Cross (Col.2:14).

When this world looks to us at this time for answers, as to Gods view on all this, let us point them to the answer that He has given, His eternal view and opinion on each person’s worth to Him; Christ and Him crucified. We have not been left as orphans. We have the Spirit who leads us through the valley of the shadow of death and opens our eyes to see that that the Father’s table of blessing, communion with Him, is not a place removed from trouble, but a table in the midst of our enemies (Ps.23:5). All the darkness can do, is better reveal the light. When all that this world trusts in is being shaken, it only reveals more clearly the things that cannot be shaken; eternal things (Heb.12:27).

In Christ, we have the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead, living in us (Rom.8:11). We are not passing away in this eternal world. We are living eternal life in a passing away world. We are of another Kingdom, an eternal Kingdom, into which we were transferred by He who qualified us for this Kingdom, our Father (Col.1:12,13). To have His Spirit is to have His heart, His vision and His voice, that each of us at this time, may carry the testimony of Jesus, (the spirit of prophecy), that we make say to this generation too; “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”  (Luke 4:18,19)