Ask Pastor Adrienne column: Run at this giant!

Q: Dear Pastor,

What do you think God is saying with this coronavirus?

A: Isn’t it interesting how all of us suddenly want God’s input? I’m in agreement with you that when something of this magnitude occurs, there must be enormous spiritual forces in play. Every pundit in any realm of import, from the Pope to the politicians, are claiming and blaming any number of things. “It’s God’s judgment.” “It’s the Devil’s scourge.” “It’s China attacking us.” “It’s the earth fighting back from our abuse.” “It’s global warming.” And CNN says it’s Trump’s fault (of course.)

Here I sit, sequestered. I preached two church services last Sunday, battling my way through a seasonal head cold which began long before anybody in this country ever heard of “Wuhan.” By Sunday dinner, I was losing my voice. Monday morning, I made a masked entrance to my doctor’s office where she, also in masked finery and gloves, diagnosed me with acute laryngitis and an upper respiratory infection. No fever, no scary symptoms - just handfuls of horse-pill antibiotics for the next ten days and a suggestion to stay out of circulation for a week. It is day three of my complete inability to speak and it’s interesting! Frankly, I feel the hush of God’s hand held over my mouth; shutting me up and wrestling me down into my prayer-chair where I’m forced to seek him and listen. I’m pursuing God through intercession and prayer about every issue on my plate ... on the world’s plate, on everybody’s plate ... and taking the hint: be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10). I’m getting a lot accomplished in the spirit realm and in the natural.

Telephone calls are hilarious, but there’s no one else in my house to answer it and take notes for me. One of my comical, less-churchy board members told me I sounded like a phone-sex worker when he called to discuss our church closures for two weeks. (Note to self: ask him how he knows what phone-sex workers sound like!)

One of God’s favorite people of all time, King David, faced numerous life-threatening situations like the pandemic surrounding us. This is what he had to say while hiding in a cave: “Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge in You! And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by. I will cry to God Most High, to God who accomplishes all things for me. He will send from heaven and save me; He reproaches him who tramples upon me. Selah. God will send forth His lovingkindness and His truth” (Psalm 57:1-3, NASB).

Reports have surfaced that this virus is a man-made, terrorist-engineered plague that escaped a sinister laboratory. Regardless of any nugget of truth in this, I know my God. He is good and he has surely done a little tinkering of his own. You see, our Lord inserts himself into the DNA of anything created on earth. This is because he is The Creator of all things. Nothing is created apart from him, according to John 1:3, even when it is misused for evil. Coronavirus has something built into it that knows the will of God and will respond to the Holy Spirit in God’s people. When God’s people pray; in Holy Spirit power, in unity and in alignment with Christ - the target of those prayers must respond. How do I know? Because of something Jesus said: “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you” (Luke 10:19). The Apostle Paul encouraged as well: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:3, 4, NIV). Strongholds of illness, any infirmity and anything which dares to exalt itself in defiance of our Living God. We run at the giant, now, Church. We run! We have precision tools of prayer far more powerful than those five, smooth stones. We have Jesus Christ.

So let’s get to it. We have a common enemy and we have all the strength in the universe living inside of us to defeat it quickly, cleanly and with all glory to the Savior who conquered death and disease forever.

Do you have a question or comment for Pastor Adrienne? Send your inquiries to: info@adriennewgreene.com or write to P.O. Box 214, Harrison, OH 45030. For more information on Pastor Adrienne, or to purchase her book, “Ask Pastor Adrienne: 100 Best-loved Columns,” please visit www.adriennewgreene.com.