Lynn Green

Tag: Covid-19

  • Covid-19 A Kingdom Perspective.

    Covid-19 A Kingdom Perspective.

    Photo by Anika Huizinga on Unsplash.

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**


    (This article is by a friend who is also a mentor to me. He was called by the Holy Spirit to a life of celibacy and seclusion shortly after his extensive education and initiation into a profession he loved. He was a medical research doctor. Since he was called, he has lived much of his adult life in seclusion in the desert and has been refined by God to a great extent.

    Many people feel a most unusual sense of God’s presence when they come into contact with him. He very often has God-given insight into the affairs of our world and this Covid virus pandemic is no exception. I commend this perspective to all who will receive it.)

    Lynn Green

    Covid-19 review from a Kingdom of God perspective

    April 2020 (Easter Day in the Western Church/Palm Sunday in the East)

    We are now one month further on than when we last considered this issue and so need to know how to have a Kingdom viewpoint and to recognize our responsibility in this situation.

    • Throughout Scripture we see how The Lord takes His people by surprise
    “But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; Suddenly they shall be wounded.” Psalm 64v7

    “For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them.” Ecc 9v12

    “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.” Luke 21v34

    “For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.“ 1Thess 5v3

    • There is only one word to describe what is happening and that is… STOP!!!!!!!!! The world is hurtling towards a destiny that it does not perceive and does not understand.

    “For God may speak in one way, or in another, Yet man does not perceive it.” Job 33v14

    God is trying to gain our attention. The whole point of this suffering is to turn our attention back to God and to ask, ‘what does this mean’? We must learn discernment. Our role is to:

    • Inform the world, • Proclaim the Word • Pray.

    JUDGEMENT BEGINS WITH THE CHURCH

    For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” 1Pet 4 v17+18

    We are the ones who are supposed to be able to ‘understand the times’ and to discern God’s purpose. If we cannot do this we must STOP and ask for revelation. We need to STOP
    all our busyness and entanglements. We must STOP clinging to old ideas and ways of seeing things. We must exchange our worldly mindset for the mind of Christ and exercise faith informed by Scripture.

    “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.” Psa 119v5

    We must kindle the light of the Spirit within and calibrate with each other and with those who are our spiritual mentors and elders.

    “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 1Cor 2v12+13

    We need to approach this time with deep purification and consecration, with holy fear and seriousness in the same way that the Early Church lived.

    “that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Eph 5 v 27

    We also need to humble ourselves and submit to each other so that the unity of the Body which commands blessing can follow. We must wake up!!!!!

    “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” 1Cor 15v34

    SIGNS OF THE END TIMES

    1. Confusion, fear, terror and loss of peace. This is because we follow the news of the broadcasters and not the instructions and directions of Scripture. We may even be bored as we are denied our usual distractions!

    “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” Luke 21v25+26

    “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21v36

    “I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Luke 18v8

    Fear is not caused by the enemy as the enemy is also in great fear as he sees his time drawing to a close. What is absent is the fear of God leading to true repentance.

    “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Rom 3v18

    “For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” 2Cor 7v11

    Fear of death is a sort of slavery but fear of the Lord brings freedom by the death of Christ

    “through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Heb 2v15

    1. Manifestation of the Kingdom of the Beast and the number of the Beast.

    “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Rev 13v16+17

    We need to beware of human wisdom concerning this matter and its many misrepresentations. It is a time when there will be total control of the population with the potential for exclusion and persecution of those who do not submit. We need to consider if we, as the Body, are ready for this? The early church used to pray: ‘As it was so shall it be’ as a way of demonstrating their acceptance of the persecution that will always be part of the Church’s experience. In the time of the persecution of Christians by Islam many denied their faith but later recanted. They travelled to Mt Athos to be trained to accept suffering as part of normal discipleship. When they were considered to be mature in this they were sent back and were then martyred. This helps us to ask ourselves if we are ready to suffer in the name of Christ and whether or not we have the grace to endure? This calls for circumcision of the heart. We are in a season when the Holy Spirit pours His grace into hearts that are prepared.

    FORGIVENESS AND REPENTANCE

    There needs to be an awakening to the plans and purposes of God in these times leading to a deepening of faith in Christ and consecration of lives lived solely for Him. There is a need for Ministers and Pastors who have the knowledge of God so that souls can be nourished and their thirst for the Love of God, quenched. This is how the Bride of Christ will appear but first we must be made ready and prepared.

    “Who is she who looks forth as the morning, Fair as the moon, Clear as the sun, Awesome as an army with banners?” Song of Songs 6v10

    Amen

  • Is the Prophecy True?

    Is the Prophecy True?

    Photo by Jeremy Yap on Unsplash

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    I took an unusual step on April 6th and published a predictive prophecy about Covid-19.  If you have a look at it, you will see that Craig from Northern Ireland said the Lord had told him it would end in 24 days from the time he heard the message.  That would make it April 8th or 9th.  (The context was not global, but UK-wide.)

    Since then, the news has been consistently bad, leaving an overall impression that the pandemic is getting worse in the UK.  Today, with new figures published from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and the benefit of two weeks of hindsight, Philip Johnson published an article in the Daily Telegraph.  This quote comes from that article:

    “Figures from the ONS yesterday showed that, in the week to April 10, there were 18,500 deaths in the UK which is 7,000 more than average because of Covid-19 but about the same as in the first week of January 2000, a bad flu year.

    According to Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University and a clinical epidemiologist, we passed the peak of deaths on April 8, which suggests that the mortality from Covid-19 is not much worse than it was 20 years ago. Indeed, with a much higher and older population, it is statistically less so. Arguably, it has been suppressed by the lockdown and yet two countries that have not had one, Sweden and South Korea, have fared better than the UK.

    Prof Heneghan says infection rates halved after the Government urged people to wash their hands and distance themselves from others on March 16. But ministers “lost sight” of the evidence and rushed into an unnecessary lockdown.”

    In spite of the general impressions conveyed by the media, the worst might well have passed.  The other part of that prophecy was that Covid-19 would disappear faster than it came.  So far, we don’t have a lot of evidence for that, but the statement from Professor Heneghan encourages me to pray in faith that this virus will leave our nation and the other nations of the world faster than the predictions.  It has been written and said many time in the past week or two that we will have live with this for years.  May it not be so!

    With our faith strengthened, let’s pray that well-proven prayer,  “LORD HAVE MERCY, LORD HAVE MERCY, LORD HAVE MERCY” and banish this corona virus!

     

  • What should we be learning from this Pandemic?

    What should we be learning from this Pandemic?

    Photo by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    I write this as we are in the second day of lock-down in the UK; this is very hard on many people.  For Marti and me, though we are praying for many and empathise with their suffering, we welcome some aspects of it.

    REASONS WHY WE ARE GRATEFUL:

    This lock-down has coincided with the first sunny, spring days.  Though it is still rather cold, with highs of no more than 10C (50F), our large back garden is a sun trap, one that needs attention, so mowing, weeding, planting has taken up a lot of our time.  I was concerned that our garden and house were not getting the care and repairs needed, but now we are getting on with those jobs and enjoying it a lot!

    We live in this wonderful, God-provided community property, so we have room to get outside for walks to enjoy the birds and their songs, watch the development of the first spring flowers and enjoy the fresh air.  My heart goes out to those who are locked down in urban settings, especially in flats (apartments) with no outside space to go to in safety. We are deeply grateful.

    With a less pressurised schedule, we have more time to think and reflect, read the scriptures and pray, talk to one another, pray together, read books and articles and more time to sleep!  Although we are both awakening at about the usual early hour, it just feels different when we know we are not on a compressed schedule to get to the first meetings of the day.

    REST

    Which brings me to one of the subjects I think God is saying to us during this time.  (Perhaps you are like me and have received numerous messages from other Christians with their thoughts or “prophetic words” about this pandemic.  Out of the many, here there are two that especially resonate with me.)  When Israel went into captivity, it was because of their many sins, but one of them was the factor that determined how long they would be in exile.  They had ignored God’s commands about the sabbath, so God said He would give the land the rest that they had not given it and they remained in exile for 70 years. 

    I can readily recall the time when shops were not open on Sunday, so very few people had to work on that day.  It was a day of rest and worship and fellowship with others.  In my family, even sports and recreation were not allowed at first.  By the time I was a teenager, we were allowed to go to the park and kick a ball around or play catch.  That seems so unrealistic today!   But our addiction to 24/7 shopping, thus requiring more and more people to work on Sunday has grown to such an extent that very few people have a sabbath of any sort.  Now most of us are exiled from our work and from our social activities.  We are forced to rest –and for many, time to spend with family!   Some of us just don’t know how to do that, but it’s time we learned.

    So, “rest” is one word that makes sense of this imposed set of restrictions.  The other one is “reset”.

    RESET

    When we get time to rest and reflect, we can think about the patterns of our life and make changes and that is a wonderful opportunity to reset our priorities and patterns.  But there is more to it than that.  We will see some important, painful resets of what it means to be Church.  The Lord commanded Israel to observe a Jubilee every 49/50 years.  It was a rather drastic interruption of business as usual.  I believe it was designed to stop the growing momentum of economic necessity.  Maybe if I use YWAM as an example, that statement will be more easily conveyed.

    Interestingly, our first training courses were begun 50 years ago.  50 years ago, today, I was in the lecture phase of a School of Evangelism with 22 others.  Now we have over 650 training locations with more than 1000 students for every one of my fellow students in 1969/70.  In financial terms, there was no way the income from student fees would cover the costs of our school.  In fact, when Loren and Darlene Cunningham first sent out word that YWAM was starting short-term training (it was a 14-month school then, which was a lot shorter than the usual 7-year path to the mission field) they had no place to convene the school, so they couldn’t anticipate the cost.  They trusted God to make ends meet—and He did.

    After developing mission training for 50 years, it naturally has led to a more predictable financial model. Figuring out budgets, “marketing” our courses, paying our mortgages—all necessities — but dragging us toward running like any good educational business.

    BUT THE CHURCH DOES NOT RUN LIKE A BUSINESS! 

    Hundreds of YWAM bases will have to continue to pay the bills that come with their properties, but without student income. Can we still trust God?  For us here at Harpenden, we had clear commitments that would have led to us being full of students for the remainder of the year and we were expecting hundreds of young people to camp here for summer events.  All that represented the fruit we are meant to bear, but it also meant income.  We commissioned extensive building and improvement projects and the builders are working even today.  How will we pay them now?  God will provide, just like he did back in 1969/70.  We are being forced back to a position of high-risk faith again, and I believe that is a good thing.

    The Church in China also presents us with a picture of the reset. When they were heavily persecuted, they grew at the fastest rate of Christian growth ever known in the 2000 years of Christianity.  When government pressure was relaxed, they began to build church buildings and were quickly transforming into the Western, more business-like model of Church.  But their growth of Chinese people coming to faith declined.

    A MESSAGE FROM THE EPICENTRE

    One of our friends in China is a dynamic woman from Wuhan, where the Covid-19 virus was first identified.  She almost died of it herself but grew strong in faith even as she fought for life.  Now, a couple of months later, she has reported that people from all beliefs are seeking out Christians to find out more about Jesus, and that the number and manner of conversions is more like the high-growth period than they have seen in a long time.  This is happening at a time when they cannot meet as congregations.

    What’s going to become of the many churches that have never known of anything other than the business model?  What will become of the many Christians that don’t know anything other than “going to Church” in a large building?  It’s time to reset.  The Church has often been at its best when it has been persecuted and limited to small gatherings.  Even over recent years, Marti and I have probably valued our home Bible study with a few neighbours more than our various large-group expressions of Church.  Those congregational and celebrational events can also be inspiring and deeply beneficial, of course, but the essence of Church is people sharing their lives together, day in and day out.  It is living like Jesus together and that must be done, by definition, in small numbers.

    Now that I have got started on this subject, there is a lot more that I would like to write, but this is long enough.  Thanks for reading this far.  By the way, according to current government restrictions, we can’t meet outside our household; however, our only scheduled meeting this week is our Bible study with our neighbours, which we are doing by video conference. 

    Let’s pray that the Lord will reset the Church, as surely as He designed Jubilee to reset Israel!

     

    Lynn Green.