The Devil and the Detail

THE DEVIL AND THE DETAIL

There is a lot of speculation and attributing of blame concerning how the Corona virus came into being– was it made in a laboratory and if so where? Or was it transmitted by a bat or some other animal? Some people may even ask whether it was sent by God, and if so, why? Others may believe that it was sent by the devil.
In my humble opinion, which I think I share with many others - the jury is still out on the laboratory and/or the bat, and the exact whereabouts of the bat and the lab. 
I don’t think it was sent by the devil, but I think he is having an eventful and busy time with it.

GOD’S CREATION
Ultimately the virus is simply part of God’s creation, along with other viruses and bacteria and microbes and plants and animals and people - these are now all part of a disordered fallen creation that fell when man and woman fell in the Garden of Eden. The creation was put out of order and into corruption through the sin of Adam and Eve. And after that happened God said to Adam ‘the ground is cursed because of you…it shall bring forth thorns and thistles (and other ugly things - Genesis 3:17). 
The Bible also says that People walk on in darkness, and all the foundations of the earth have been put out of alignment (Psalm 82:5). That follows the fact that humanity is out of alignment with God and because of sin we do harm to ourselves and others and bring disorder into our world. 
But the Bible also says that this curse will only last for a limited time, when God’s plan of redemption is finished in the earth and the Lord returns and we are given new bodies at the Resurrection of the dead.
Romans 8:19-22 … For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing (apokalypsis) of the sons of God… The creation waits with hope to be set free from the bondage of corruption, and that there will be a New heavens and new earth (Isaiah 66, 2Peter 3:10, Revelation 21).

JESUS IN A FALLEN WORLD
The fact is that when Jesus arrived on this planet he lived his life in a fallen world in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. He knew he was not in control of the corruption that was going on around him politically and religiously, but he also knew that his Father was in command of everything, and that things were going according to his Father’s plan. 
Jesus did only what his Father told him. If his father told him to still a raging storm, it would happen, and on the other hand when Pontius Pilate said to Jesus, “Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus didn’t resist that claim but said to him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. God was in control and he had a purpose for everything and in everything that was going to happen.
Jesus did not come to reform the politics of the day, he came to transform lives.

So this current global pandemic was always going to happen within the purpose and plan of God.

TIMES OF TRIAL
We are living in times of great physical and emotional and spiritual trial in the current global pandemic, in which there is an enormous amount of strain being placed upon nations, governments, communities, corporations, churches, families and individuals. 
The physical and emotional pressure that everybody is under is out in the open for all to see and to be read about and talked about everywhere. 
But there is a spiritual activity of both darkness and light that all nations and all individuals at this present time are under in the unseen world of the spirit and that sits invisibly above everything else, ultimately influencing the feelings, the thinking, and the behavior of people in a far broader spiritual dimension than anyone could imagine.

DARKNESS AND LIGHT
The opposing spirits of darkness and light are both powerfully at work in this hour. The Bible tells us that in intense conflict between darkness and light, God says to his people that his Spirit is far more powerful than the spirit of this world – He says to us;  arise and shine, for your light has come…for darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you, and nations shall come to your light… (Isaiah 60:1)

THE POWERS OF DARKNESS
We will look first at the purpose and strategy of the power of the work of darkness. The purpose and strategy and the activity of darkness lurks behind the different names that darkness is known by – names such as the Devil, and Satan, and Lucifer and the god of this world, and the Prince of the power of the air, and a number of other nasty titles (Abbadon, Beelzebub etc.)

All those different names that are used for the powers of darkness also portray a range of different job descriptions that can be found in those Scriptural titles;
The Devil - Diabolos – to throw or let go of a thing without caring where it falls - to fragment and scatter - to create division.
Satan – Satanas – the accuser and the adversary – to create judgment and vengeance and hostility.
Lucifer –The fallen light giver who became the dark giver who said he would be as the Most High God (Isaiah 14:14) – and as the ‘god of this world’ he blinds the minds of those who do not believe (2Corinthians 4:4)
The prince of the power of the air who tempts the sons of disobedience to live for their own desires (Ephesians 2:2).

THE DETAIL OF DIABOLOS
Most of those dark spiritual activities found in the meanings of the names overlap in some way, such as lying and tempting and accusing, but I would like to feature the detail of the name of the Devil - Diabolos – to throw a thing - to fragment and scatter - to create division.

Diabolos comes from two Greek words, dia which means through, and bolos which means to throw. The word bolos is where we get the word ball from, like throwing a ball. It is also where we get the word ‘ballistic’ from, as in ballistic missile. So we have the picture of the Devil hurling destructive spiritual missiles at us to break and fragment our relationship with God and with one another and within our own souls. Diabolos doesn’t care what he throws as long as it destroys oneness with God and peace with one another.

DIABOLOS AND JESUS
When Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (diabolos - Matthew 4:1). Darkness came at Jesus as the Devil, the missile thrower, and he threw every missile he had at Jesus to tempt him to split off from his Father and show how powerful he could be independent of him. 
The Devil even subtly taunted him with ‘If you are the Son of God turn these stones into bread!’ What a victory if Jesus would have fallen for that and not remained faithful as ‘the Son of God’. Jesus didn’t do anything unless his Father told him, so Jesus was able to hold things together in his heart of faith and truth and love between himself and his Father. He was integrated with his Father and was not going to be disintegrated.

The disintegration of relationships is being hurled at humanity during this time of trial like never before. Jesus prophesied of times like this that would come; He said that nation would rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray, and lawlessness will increase, and the love of many would grow cold. (Matthew 24:7).

 

So when we look at the kind of behavior going on all over the world at the moment there is a heightened activity of people accusing one another, and violent disagreement over ideologies and medical and lifestyle and political opinions. All of this gets more heightened by the sensationalism of the media and the weird conspiracy theories broadcasted over social media. And it is difficult for people to remain objective in times like this because we often don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are, but we can still discuss and debate without aggression and antagonism.

THE TURNING POINT – LIGHT AND POWER
God does not want us as his Church family in the earth to live in the shadow and darkness of self-opinionated hostility as so many are doing in this world, because it is the devil’s work - Diabolos – to throw missiles of destruction that scatter and create hostility and division about opinions and dogmas and ideologies. That has always caused the church to lose its real power to be a light to the world in bringing God’s healing and transforming of lives. 
It is the work of The Spirit in us to make us one with God and with one another, and to transform lives, and to be his light in the world. 

God’s light in his people can overcome darkness in these days.
There is a swirl of redemptive God activity around you when your light is defeating the darkness in someone else. We wait with the ONE who knows all things, in the midst of an age full of unknowns and opposing views. God is at work in and through us by his Spirit in ways beyond our understanding as he reveals truth, his way, to the hearts of men and women everywhere, through our faithful trust in him. 
Jesus taught against antagonism and hostility to those who were different to us ethnically and culturally and socially and politically. He taught us about who was our neighbour in the parable of the good Samaritan. He taught us to love our enemies;  Matthew 5:44 Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. 

That is a principle of the cross, dying to things like division amongst ourselves as his family, and dying to hostility to others who do not know God, and growing in our faith and trust in God as our Father in Heaven. We know what and who we have faith in when we can name the one in whom we have absolute trust. I am grateful to the Lord for the times when I have found grace to have absolute trust in him in a matter, and to see his goodness come to pass beyond what I would have asked or thought, because I believe in this truth of surrender and in his faithfulness. And yet there are so many times when I think I have absolute trust in him and I find that residue of anxiety still there in my soul, and all I can say is that merciful verse in Mark 9:23 … Lord I believe, help my unbelief. And he remains faithful and we learn to trust even more. Jesus had absolute trust in his Father and he died and came alive again in order to live within us by the Holy Spirit and to impart into our hearts that same absolute trust in the nature of God. 

True transformation means that we sometimes have to pay the price of dying to self by not having our opinion agreed with, or by losing a debate about what civil duty means or by forgiving someone who judges us unjustly. We stay on the journey of dying to ill will between ourselves and others and coming alive in absolute trust in God’s love to bring peace and good will out of division and chaos. This can be how light comes in to darkness and powerfully results in someone finding truth. 

While we face the uncertainty of events in this world, which is God’s appointed way for us at this time in history, we put all fear aside as we live with the certainty of being led and guided by the peace of God in his world of the unseen, the world of faith and hope that is energized by his love to us and through us.
Philippians 2:1 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life
Shining as lights means having God on display in our lives, not in a pious or religious way, but by simply living in the flow of the powerful love of God. 

1Peter 3:8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or insult for insult, but on the contrary, bless, for you were called to this, that you may also obtain a blessing.