Practical Wisdom from the Word of God

James 4:7 (NKJV) ⁷  Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you

We have been spending some time in this space looking at the current situation with the understanding from 1 Peter 5:8 that we have an adversary.  God did not bring Coronavirus into existence.  Human beings were obviously involved in this.  However, that is not what is most relevant to those who know God and his Word.  Peter makes it clear that we have and adversary and that he is the devil.  His aim from the Garden of Eden to this day has been to separate mankind from their creator, and from the supernatural life we were created to live.  He is the one behind this. 

I know there are those who would say, “There they go again.  They want to over spiritualize everything.”  God is a Spirit.  He created the physical therefore the spirit is the higher realm.  It is really impossible to over spiritualize because all true answers come from the realm of the spirit.  The solution to the coronavirus is not in social distancing, isolation or even testing.  Even if we use those physical tools, we need to know that they are not the answer.  What do we really need to do right now?  The verse above tells us.

Resist the devil and submit to God.  There are two very important points in that verse.  First, we must resist the devil.  Remember 1 Peter 5:8 makes it clear that the devil is our enemy.  From every direction I hear the term war used to describe what is happening with this disease.  The media and, to an extent, the government has used this term to compel us to accept things we normally would not.  If you are a Christian, you must realize it is as much or more a spiritual war.  If we do not resist the enemy in the spirit, we may never recover from this.  If we do resist in the spirit, we will rise up in revival.  However, it must begin by resisting the devil.

There are some things in Paul’s first letter to his son in the faith, Timothy, that we can look to which will help us understand how to resist the devil.

1 Timothy 6:12 (NKJV) ¹²  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

The first thing we see here is that the fight is a fight of faith.  What is faith?

Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV) ¹  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Put another way, faith is the ability to see what we hope as reality in the natural.  It is the evidence in my life that God is at work.  It is the connection between the natural and the supernatural.  We will not win this battle in the natural.  We must fight in the supernatural.  Faith is what enables us to do that.

Romans 10:17 (NKJV) ¹⁷  So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.  This does not mean just having the Word of God go into our ears.  It means to hear with understanding.  It means to hear as something that comes from the mouth of God himself.  God is almighty, unchanging, everywhere present and he knows everything.  When I connect myself to his word I connect to his wisdom.  My favorite definition of wisdom is “insight into the true nature of things.”  The wisdom of God is his insight into the true nature of things.  If we want to know what is really going on with Covid-19, we need to open our hearts to God’s wisdom and that begins with faith in his word. 

I am what God says I am in his word.  I can do what God says I can do in his word.  I must not do what God says I should not do in his word.  My reality is what the Word of God says it is not what the news media, the government or even the doctors say it is.  What does God say about disease?

Psalm 103:3 (NKJV) ³  Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,

Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV) ⁵  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

1 Peter 2:24 (NKJV) ²⁴  who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed.

Acts 10:38 (NKJV) ³⁸  how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

Psalm 91:5-7 (NKJV) ⁵  You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, ⁶  Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. ⁷  A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you.

That is what God says about Covid-19.  That is his wisdom on the subject.  The Bible says “out of the mouths of two or three witnesses a thing is established.  I have provided 5, but I encourage you to search the scriptures for yourself.  There are many, many, many more verses that tell us God can heal every disease whether caused by a virus, bacteria or anything else.

How do we use this to resist the devil and fight the “good fight of faith?”  The next phrase tells us.  We must “lay hold” of what comes to us with eternal life.  The word Translated “lay hold” here means to seize, to take hold of or to catch.  These are not passive statements.  It does not mean just wait around and it will eventually come to you.  If there was no adversary that might be true.  Peter tells us there is an adversary, James tells us that we must resist him, and Paul tells Timothy how. 

How do I seize eternal life in this situation?  I begin by finding out what the wisdom of God has to say.  Look at the verses quoted above.  That is the wisdom of God about every sickness and disease.  I resist the devil when I choose to believe what the Bible says over what the news says.  I believe God heals all my diseases, so if I get covid-19 it will be healed.  I believe this is true because he was wounded for my transgressions, bruised for my iniquities and by his stripes I was healed.  I believe it because when he was here, he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by our adversary the devil.  He never changes so he is still doing the same thing.

That is powerful but Psalm 91:5 tells me that pestilence, or pandemic, shall not come near me no matter who else it touches.  I take hold of that.  I take it as mine and I catch it in the midst of all the other true things that may be said in the news or other sources.  That is how we resist and that is the good fight of faith.

It is my choice what I believe.  I do not believe I am at risk from covid-19.  I will not get it; I do not have it.  If I were to get it, I will be healed.  I choose to resist the other voices.  I will do what I must, but I will not believe any wisdom but the wisdom of the Word of God.  That is what shapes my life and my view of the world. 

One more verse. 

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV) ¹⁴  if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

The healing of America from corona virus is not in the hands of the doctors or scientists.  It is in the hands of the church.  Will you resist the devil or give in to the wiles of our enemy?  The choice is yours and mine.