New Wine for New Wineskins April 2020


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Jesus versus Virus

There are two parallel kingdoms that exist right now – the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said that we should pray for our Father’s kingdom to come and for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

God’s will is his word and his word is his will.  God’s word is always relevant and so I believe we will find answers to our questions, solutions to our problems, and the way through the dilemmas that we face in regards to the current crisis that the world is facing.

There is one thing we can know for certain, and that is that our Father in heaven wasn’t caught on the hop or taken by surprise by the events of recent days and so we can also be certain that he has already made provision for these days.

Joel 3: 9 – 10

9 Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’”

Prepare for war! It always pays to remember that we are involved in a war with a defeated enemy who is so proud that he cannot acknowledge his defeat.

The war we are engaged in is a war of words.

Has there ever been a global crisis like the present one where people have been assaulted and bombarded with such an endless barrage of words with wall to wall news coverage and minute by minute updates on the number of people testing positive for infection and the statistics regarding how many have died in every country.

We are being attacked on every front by negative and fear-inspiring words, leading to widespread panic that is manifesting in all kinds of craziness and irrational behaviour.
As I was in prayer last week the Lord led me to:

Jeremiah 4: 19 – 22

19 O my soul, my soul! I am pained in my very heart!
My heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace,
Because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
20 Destruction upon destruction is cried, for the whole land is plundered. Suddenly my tents are plundered, and my curtains in a moment.
21 How long will I see the standard [banner], and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 “For My people are foolish, they have not known Me.
They are silly [foolish] children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”

You have very little chance of winning a war where your enemy has superior weaponry and firepower. And so, in a war of words you must have more powerful words than your adversary.

To defeat words of death you must speak words of life.

Praise the Lord that we have been equipped with the most powerful words of all – the word of Almighty God himself.

What are the words we are being targeted with, and what is the message these words are armed with? Basically, the underlying message is, “You are all going to die,” and so we readily accept the numbers that are thrown around conveying to us that hundreds of thousands – millions, even – of the weak and most vulnerable are doomed.

And yet who did Jesus demonstrate God’s love and the power of his kingdom amongst the most? The weak and the vulnerable. In God’s heart the weak and the vulnerable are not expendable.

What is the message that arms the words we are commissioned to unashamedly proclaim? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance – that all should come home to him and back under his protection and provision. Back to hearing his faith-inspiring words, his words of life.

Prepare for war.  You don’t prepare for war when the war has already begun because
that can be too late. You prepare [get ready] for war when it appears that all around is at peace.  And you never slack off in preparation.

Hebrews 12: 11 – 12

11 Now no chastening [discipline] seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. 

What do disciples embrace? Obviously, they embrace discipline.

2 Timothy 2: 1 – 4

1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 You therefore must endure [share in] hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

How do you prepare for this war that we are engaged in? You get trained in the word, you become strong in the word. Let the weak say I am strong.

Prepare for war. Wake up the mighty men and let all the men of war draw near.

I will never forget when the first Gulf War was kicking off back in 1990 and the TV news were interviewing soldiers who were being deployed to the war zone. I thought they might be regretting having joined up now that they were being sent out to a real conflict to engage in real battle. But I will always remember the words of one particular soldier.  He said that they were itching to go because this is what they had been training for.

Saints of God, this is what we have been training for – real conflict, real battle, in a real war zone. Let the weak say I am strong.

Remember the revelation Jesus gave us in John 10: 10. The thief only comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. Jesus went on to say that he has come so that we can have superabundant life.

What does the thief come to steal? He comes to steal the word – to steal our strength – so that we will be left wide open to his killing and destroying.

I remember just a short time ago when this new virus began to be seen as an international threat. I was telling all the people I met to take Psalm 91 as their protection. I couldn’t believe how many Christians said in a kind of half-hearted way, “Oh yes I’ve been seeing a lot about Psalm 91 on facebook.”

Psalm 91 was in the word of God (faithbook) long before it was on facebook. If people are depending on facebook to inform them of what the word of God says they will be very poorly prepared and equipped.

Driving the seven minute journey to work just over a week ago,  I was listening to worship music and meditating on the goodness of God when these words rose up in my spirit:

The devil who only ever comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy and so his will for us is virus.

But God longs for us to come to him and experience the superabundant life he has provided for us and so his will for us is Jesus.

In the battle of Jesus versus virus, who are we shouting for? I believe that’s the bottom line in this current battle.

Jesus versus virus. Which one will we crown as king? The devil has tried to anoint a killer virus and crown it as king. And so, will we bow to it?

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power who went about healing all who were oppressed of the devil. God the Father crowned Jesus King of kings and gave him the name above every other name so that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Will you bow before him?

Let the weak say I am strong. I am strong because he is strong.

As 2020 was approaching and everyone started talking about vision I was listening for our prophetic declaration for this year and I was thinking that it was bound to be something to
do with vision.

And then I heard the Holy Spirit say that this year will be, “The Year of the Unashamed.”

I believe that is because our Father in heaven knew what was coming long before we had ever heard of coronavirus or covid-19.

Our warfare in this hour of battle is to unashamedly proclaim the goodness and faithfulness and the full protection and provision of Almighty God, our Father in heaven –
to unashamedly proclaim the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, and to call people to repentance and faith.

We are right in the centre of the opportunity of a lifetime, but the opportunity of a lifetime only lasts as long as the lifetime of the opportunity.

Let the weak say I am strong.  I am strong because he is strong.

The world is in crisis and we are here for such a time as this because this is what we are trained for.

Listen to the testimony of John G Lake from when he was a missionary in south Africa from 1908 – 1913.

Now watch the action of the law of life.

Faith belongs to the law of life. Faith is the very opposite of fear. Faith has the opposite effect in spirit, and soul, and body.

Faith causes the spirit of man to become confident. It causes the mind of man to become restful, and positive.

A positive mind repels disease. Consequently, the emanation of the Spirit destroys disease germs.

And because we were in contact with the Spirit of life, I and a little Dutch fellow with me went out and buried many of the people who had died from the bubonic plague. We went into the homes and carried them out, dug the graves and put them in. Sometimes we would put three or four in one grave. We never took the disease. Why? Because of the knowledge that the law of life in Christ Jesus protects us. That law was working. Because of the fact that a man by that action of his will, puts himself purposely in contact with God, faith takes possession of his heart, and the condition of his nature is changed. Instead of being fearful, he is full of faith. Instead of being absorbent and drawing everything to himself, his spirit repels sickness and disease.

The Spirit of Christ Jesus flows through the whole being, and emanates through the hands, the heart, and from every pore of the body.

During that great plague that I mentioned, they sent a government ship with supplies and corps of doctors. One of the doctors sent for me, and said, “What have you been using to protect yourself? Our corps has this preventative and that, which we use as protection, but we concluded that if a man could stay on the ground as you have and keep ministering to the sick and burying the dead, you must have a secret. What is it?”
I answered, “Brother that is the ‘law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.’ I believe that just as long as I keep my soul in contact with the living God so that His Spirit is flowing into my soul and body, that no germ will ever attach itself to me, for the Spirit of God will kill it.”
He asked, “Don’t you think that you had better use our preventatives?” I replied, “No, but doctor I think that you would like to experiment with me. If you will go over to one of these dead people and take the foam that comes out of their lungs after death, then put it under the microscope you will see masses of living germs. You will find they are alive until a reasonable time after a man is dead. You can fill my hand with them and I will keep it under the microscope, and instead of these germs remaining alive, they will die instantly.”

They tried it and found it was true. They questioned, “What is that?” I replied, “That is ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.’ When a man’s spirit and a man’s body are filled with the blessed presence of God, it oozes out of the pores of your flesh and kills the germs.”

Suppose on the other hand, my soul had been under the law of death, and I were in fear and darkness? The very opposite would have been the result. The result would have been that my body would have absorbed the germs, these would have generated disease and I would have died.

You who are sick, put yourself in contact with God’s law of life. Read His Word with the view of enlightening your heart so that you will be able to look up with more confidence and believe Him.

Pray that the Spirit of God will come into your soul, take possession of your body, and its power will make you well.

That is the exercise of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8: 2

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Let the weak say I am strong. I am strong because he is strong.

Joel 3: 9 – 10

9 Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war!
Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’”

Saints, you have been prepared for war.

Jesus versus virus.

God who is for us versus the devil who is against us.

Romans 8: 31

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Let the weak say I am strong. I am strong because he is strong. And let us unashamedly proclaim that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. – stripping the enemy’s fear-fuelled words of their power.

Luke 10: 19

19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.


Let the weak say I am strong. I am strong because he is strong.

It is always wisdom to practice good hygiene – but always from a position of faith and not of fear. And we are required to obey the reasonable requests of the authorities in times like these.

But in the war of words we will continue to unashamedly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord over all the power of the enemy and that nothing will by any means hurt or harm us.

We thank God for all of those frontline and key workers who are doing everything that they can from a natural perspective to serve others and to stem the spread of this wicked virus.

But in the realm of the Spirit – where I truly believe this battle can be won quickly – you and I must take our position on the spiritual frontline, the position we have been prepared for, and we must take the keys of the kingdom and the authority we have been given and do the works of Jesus – knowing that we are supernaturally empowered.

Let the weak say I am strong. I am strong because he is strong.

If you are one of those who are told you must self-isolate then you are fully prepared and equipped to pray the prayer of faith from where you are.  You are a vital part of this campaign, and you can send out words of encouragement as you receive insight from the throne room.

Remember that Paul wrote a lot of the New Testament from a place of confinement.

2 Timothy 2: 8 – 9

8 Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, 9 for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained.  

Remember, this is a war of words and the word of God is never chained.

Let the weak say I am strong. I am strong because he is strong.

 

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