Standing Together with Faith and Courage

When the Covid 19 pandemic began to spread around the globe (March 2020), the Lord began to speak a word to us about our current time of trial and testing:

“When you have nothing, then you will have Me! When you have to depend on nothing – no work, no money, no riches, no food, etc. – then you will realize I exist. I am the living God. I am the Creator and Provider of all things that I have created.”

This worldwide pandemic caught most of us by surprise and disbelief. The passing months have forced us to face a new reality of lock down, closed businesses, lost jobs, very few people in our otherwise busy streets, and most of us bunkering in our homes for fear of sickness. Our beautiful community gatherings and times of worship together, our small sharing groups, our Lord’s Day Celebration have been replaced by cybernetic (Zoom and Skype) “get-togethers”. Some of our family and community members have been stricken by the Coronavirus.

What can we expect next? Could we be moving into a long dark period of darkness or chaos? It has happened before in past ages! Are we ready? Are we prepared to depend on the Lord alone?

Maybe some have been asking themselves, did God create this crisis similar to the plagues he brought about in Egypt? He protected his people (for 400 years) and then raised up Moses to liberate them from their slavery. We don’t know why God allowed it to happen. 

Maybe God is protecting His creation in ways we do not presently understand? Have we been living as God’s chosen? Is His kingdom, which He established with His passion, death and resurrection the primary driving force in our lives and in our hearts? Have we become too comfortable and even if we call ourselves disciples, have we given enough of ourselves or relied on worldly means and ways for our lives? Are we content with our answer to His call and mission? Even if we have done much!

The Sword of the Spirit was raised up by the Lord to fulfill a particular mission. We were brought together and offered a “covenant” which has banded us together as a people and given us a mission to build a “bulwark” to defend God’s people in a time of spiritual warfare and difficulty.

As a people, we need to stand together with faith and courage – especially in these difficult times of crisis. We need to repent and respond with faith and obedience to the Lord’s direction for us! God revealed to His people in Egypt to mark the door jambs in their houses, so when the spirit of death came, it would not enter and kill anyone in the houses, which were sealed with the blood of lambs.

We should respond in the same way the Israelites did! This is the time for all of the Sword of the Spirit to come together to pray and with trust and to seal our homes and our people with the sign of the “Covenant” He made with us and us with Him. We also need to repent for blending much into the “world”, its comforts and its gods and ask God to protect us.

God protected His people of the Old Covenant during their time of oppression in Egypt. He can protect us in this time of uncertainty and trouble in our pandemic Egypt which little by little we’ve accepted to live with as a new reality. The Lord can bring us back home to the “promised land” with a clearer vision and with new renewed strength.

His plan is not yet complete and our mission is not yet finished!

This article was originally published in the Sword of the Spirit website and reprinted with permission.

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