For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind- 2nd Timothy 1:7 NKJV
On March 11th 2020 I had one of the strangest experiences of my life.
It was a grey, dreary day in Eastern Washington and the whole world was shutting down over the COVID-19 virus. I had just spoke with my husband whose boss had informed him he would be working from home indefinitely. Our daughters’ school had called to tell me the school would be closing at the end of the week for the foreseeable future.
I was scared.
I was scared my family and friends might die from COVID-19. I was scared of getting COVID-19. One of my daughters worked in a hospital at the time and I was terrified for her. The world knew almost nothing about COVID-19 at that point, so, my worries were not entirely out of bounds. However, I was worried about more than just the virus itself. I was alarmed at the pace leaders on all levels were making decisions. Even in places with zero confirmed cases everything was shutting down with no metrics in place to open back up. I had no idea what we should do but I had enough life experience to know good decisions are seldom made on the fly. Leaders everywhere were making decisions very much on the fly. So, I did what I do when I’m scared.
I prayed. Like crazy.
That’s when things got decidedly weird.
I am not a nut-job. I am not prone to flights of fancy and I do not routinely get messages from God, but that day I did. It was the weirdest thing ever, in a matter of seconds, I knew a couple of things for absolute certain. I knew the world was under judgment. I also knew it would be a judgment of fear. God downloaded into my brain all at once that COVID-19 was no trivial thing. But I also knew the worlds reaction to and fear of COVID-19 would cause more problems and more pain than the disease itself. I immediately knew that the worlds reaction would be a lot like the Midianites in Judges seven. They turned on each other in fear and were ultimately defeated by their own reaction to what was in reality a much smaller threat than they thought.
They were destroyed by their own panic.
I immediately told my husband all this. I also told a close friend. I didn’t tell anyone else at the time because, well, I don’t like people thinking I’m a nutjob. I was also hesitant to say God told me something that might turn out to be nothing more than my own fevered imagination searching frantically for a spiritual explanation for what I was seeing taking place in the natural world. Furthermore, I know enough of the Bible to know that God has very little patience for false-prophets who claim to speak for God without certainty (Deuteronomy 18:20, Jeremiah 14:14, Matthew 7:19-23).
It turned out to be totally true.
COVID policies have been defined by fear since day one and the terror has reached a dangerous fever pitch. Don’t get me wrong. COVID-19 is a real. Just over four million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide. I had COVID. It was awful. My perfectly healthy son was hospitalized with it. I know from personal experience that COVID is real and really serious. Anyone who argues to the contrary, is an ignorant moron.
That being said.
The overall recovery rate from COVID worldwide is between 97-99.5% depending on the age of the infected. Nonetheless, Australia has basically suspended all civil rights and has for all intents and purposes reverted back to being a penal colony. People are literally going to jail for leaving their homes. Church attendance is still prohibited in many nations. Lockdowns have become an accepted part of life. In the United States fear of the unvaccinated has reached a level of hysteria that is teetering on dangerous.
Why?
Are so many of the vaccinated willing and even apparently enthusiastic to strip the unvaccinated of their jobs, healthcare benefits, and social acceptability? In some places the unvaccinated are restricted from eating in restaurants or going to a mall, even with a negative COVID test or proof they’ve had the virus. There are a growing number of doctors who refuse to treat the unvaccinated for any illness even illnesses unrelated to COVID.
How will taking away someone’s health insurance or refusing them medical care make the world any healthier? Seriously. Someone help me understand. Because I don’t. This is virtue signaling without any actual virtue involved. If this were any other subject everyone would agree this is unhinged. The only reasonable explanation I can find for the unfettered nuttiness is fear.
Everything God downloaded into my brain on March 11th 2020 has come to pass.
We have been told repeatedly vaccines work. Vaccines prevent outbreaks. Vaccines prevent serious illness. And yet, many who are fully vaccinated are treating the unvaccinated as a dangerous threat to their vaccinated selves. There is even talk of putting the unvaccinated in camps.
We are destroying ourselves over fear.
It has to stop and Christians must lead the way.
Freedom from fear always begins with a commitment to fervent and frequent prayer. Every Christian must pray daily against the satanic spirit of fear that has taken root in the hearts of so many. We have to refuse to become slaves to fear or worldly thinking regarding this illness. We have to be brave enough to tell people it makes no sense to call the unvaccinated a threat. We must insist our leaders find common sense solutions to the COVID problem. Finally, we have to love our neighbor regardless of vaccination status.
