My thoughts in the midst of global crisis

My thoughts in the midst of global crisis....

In reading scripture this morning over and over I read where the Lord said that various kinds of things would come upon a nation as a result of the  people’s refusal to “return to the Lord God” and instead worshipped people and things, conjuring up demonic spirits and listening to people speaking who spoke lies and operated in magic and offering up of their children and their own bodies to the pleasure of idols of wood and stone ( commerce, entertainment, etc) controlled by evil spirits.

After 9/11 did we in the USA or elsewhere in the world, return to the Lord God whose name was invoked upon this nation in its inception? When on 9/11 when those of a foreign godless nation made their way through our system of pilot training and managed to fly planes and bring the death and devastation to multiplied thousands in the United States, did we return to the Lord God?

While there was a resurgence of church attendance did we as a people or nation return to the Lord? NO, instead leaders of our government said, Yes, the bricks have fallen, we recognize an enemy has attacked us. But our nation’s response was…we will rebuild, we will not yield to God but will amass our resources and build our manmade systems back up even better and will replace the ancient markers that were destroyed with our own choice of remembrances. And we will work vengeance upon those nations from which those men who flew the planes had originated.

We did not bow before the Lord our God and the lives lost in America’s longest war started as a result against  a history of odds against such success of  a war in that nation,  live lost which continue to this day to mount. We did not bow. 

Instead we divided ourselves over how we would restore America back to the prominence it once had, who the enemy was and how to protect ourselves, and how much money to spend trying to protect ourselves from those enemies who have come through the breaches in “the wall of the city.” The Lord God has said..Except He keep the city, the people labor in vain!!

And now a global disaster out of the heart of evil in the East has come killing thousands through a plague called covid19. Why is this different from the annual flu virus that has plagued nations around the world each year and killed thousands?
It is because mankind has “no sense of control” over this new virus, not that man has had control over other flu like diseases or things like driving while intoxicated, heart disease, domestic violence, homelessness or adultery or any other of our  patterns of sin called iniquities that kill thousands and millions annually around the globe.

Instead we blame one another, we legislate controls over man’s fleshly wants and desires and “freedoms” uselessly, and then comes covid19 exposing the weakness of all fleshly efforts at control. Yet we continue.

YET when men pray, men raised in the house of the Lord, who bear leadership in the body of Christ…how do they pray and invite others to pray?  What do we hear…cries for help, for containment, to have immediate solutions to shortages, to vaccines, to medicines. 

Covid 19 is helping us see the failure of governments around the world to have control over such a thing as a virus, much less human lusts and desires. And our natural response…more government!

In ancient human elemental times 19 was often thought of as the number of surrender, a prime number only divisible by itself and #1.  Even among men, it is often considered the sign of completion..leading to a new beginning.

In scripture instead of looking at 1 and 9 as man does, it deals with 10 and 9.. representing God’s perfect order in regard to judgment in the bible. And 19 is the basis of the way of tracking years  …a 19 year time cycle….Ps. 19 declares that the heavens and the earth and everything in it, is testimony to the existence of glory of the power of God.

So then what is God speaking to us about?

We are a weak and frail people. We have no control: governments have no real control. We as humans struggle to even deal with our own personal lusts and desires, or our tongue which cannot be controlled by man but only by the Holy Spirit.

Yet, in the face of this global virus, we’re crying out to the Lord God to “help us.

Help us get through this virus…to heal us, to deliver us from this consequence of evil in the earth. This is not something God originated, but it originated in the heart of evil and is perpetuated by human weakness and failure to yield in our helplessness to the Lord who is in Control, who raised up governments to serve His purposes both good and bad for the ultimate saving of a godly remnant upon the earth to serve him for all eternity.

Does this mean we don’t pray healing into and upon those who are sick? Of course not!!  That is our responsibility as citizens of the Kingdom of God…the reason the Source of Life himself is seeded into our spirits and it’s our choice and responsibility to release Him in power of healing, deliverance, encouragement around the world that it might bear witness that HE IS THE LORD GOD.

But to pray for release from these consequences of man’s selfcentered ways  instead of repenting of our iniquities, our selfcenteredness as individuals and as a nation only reveals the carnal self centerenedess of our lives, even those of us who proclaim the name of the Lord God. God is our healer and our deliverer…but he is also the one who shed the blood of his son that we might be freed from the power of our sins and inquities and free from transgression to walk in relationship with Him eternally. Then we are free to move in all the power and authority that He is and has put in us to bless the nations. 

This is the time to realize we are members of a different Kingdom, not like the kingdoms of men where these viruses and the sword and the wild beasts and pestilences abound. How we learn to walk in the Kingdom of God in 2020 is part of the invitation that 19 invites us…surrender…surrender  the total lack of control we have as human being over anything, especially ourselves, much more a virus or the evil of the nation from whence it appears to have originated. To think that we as a nation can deal with China and Russia from a human standpoint refutes the fact of who God is and what is going on in the heavenlies. 

This isn’t the end…but as men of this world in looking even at 19 would say…a new beginning….but for us who are in Christ Jesus, it is the recognition that judgment is upon the world in these days, and  it will continue as the consequences of our independence  and our choice is to be in this world but fully operating apart from the Kingdom of God. Our choice who are in Christ is to surrender our rights and desires and failures into the work of His love for us on the cross. Then we will give thanks knowing that HE IS IN CHARGE, even when nasty things happen by the force of evil. The end is known…Christ..the Anointed King already won…we’re just playing out the script to that triumphal day with praise and thanksgiving IN all situations.

Just a place of praise and thanksgiving allows me to see His hand in things; it allows me to see where I can operate in his power and authority, praying over the sick, casting out demons where they raise their heads against the saints, walking in proper alignment and authority with God’s leadership and the leadership of the nations that he has allowed to reign in these days. Interceding from that dwelling place of rest under the shadow of His wings where fear and alarm cannot enter. It is the place where death doesn’t reign though it may manifest itself in the earthly body. It it is not the victor, for the Victor lives and dwells in my body by Holy Spirit, my hope of resurrection,  the hope of being found in His image when I see him face to face! The Hope of the ages…all glory and honor be unto Him!

Meri Ford