Moreover, as humans, we are accustomed to believing that unplanned changes caused by a crisis are not our friends because they tend to threaten and upset the balance of our nature and livelihood. However, what looks like unplanned changes to us maybe God’s plan according to His purpose. But can God use a crisis to bring about His goodness and mercy to an individual or a nation? Since crises are the staircase to new appointments and opportunities in the journeys of life.
The answer is yes. Even so, the plans of the Lord always carry with her the potential to move us to a new level of experience. According to His purpose, God can allow changes when it is ordained to take us to Mount Pisgah so we can see the Promised Land. He says I know my plans for you are good, to bring you to an expected, or a successful end.
Hence, the Lord gave us the Bible as our guide and light to lead us in a dark world by which He assures us of the future. He is sovereign over the affairs of men. The writings of the scripture are enough proof of the plan of God to us.
In the same way, God has revealed the truth of His sovereignty to Daniel including his friends while facing a difficult situation in Babylon, the capital of the world. Babylon at that time in world history was the strongest among the nations, also doubling as the tech-capital of the then world. Even at that, our sovereign God did not insulate Daniel and his three friends from the crisis at that time. It was in a time of a great spiritual and moral crisis where death was a choice to escape the horrors of that time.
Today, the same Lord did not insulate the church from the consequences of the unplanned changes in the present crisis of the pandemic. For this reason, she must relearn the lesson of God's sovereignty over the affairs of man to move to a new level.
In the past, Christ Jesus the Head had passed through the worst form of crisis as appointed by the Lord God. It follows then that if the Head had experienced hardship in His perfection, then the body must experience some form of lesser suffering. Even Church history has confirmed that crisis and hardship is the most effective path towards spiritual awakening.
The hall of fame of our faith registers the crucible of suffering, afflictions, and persecution. Proving that suffering, crisis, and persecution are the most fertile soil for the revival awakening of the church if the body is to be refined and purified for the Master’s use.
Hence, the church can draw lessons from the biblical experience of the past to live in the present. That is why the writings of the Old Testament prophets are for our instruction in navigating difficult terrain and situations that includes the crisis of the Coronavirus outbreak.
Not that the Lord allowed the crisis to rattle the church to her foundation, but that the church might move to a new position higher in assuming her place in the world. Secondly, the church must put her house in working order as the next likely scenario. That is why I believe that God allowed, ordained that it should happen, including every single change and the consequence.
Therefore, whatsoever is happening tied to the truth of the steady march of creation. Because the invisible God allowed it. His authority is undisputed and His permission is unhindered. Hence, nothing in our world happens without His sign and seal. Without His permission, all the plans of man and all the enemies of God shall end up in vain.
According to the Book of Romans chapter 8, verse 28, we also know and believe that God is working all things together according to His purpose and His perfect will. The book of Ephesians chapter 1 and verses 11 confirms the same truth of the goodness of the Lord. Due to His sovereignty, He will work all things together both bad and good for the good of the Church in the latter days. The crisis of the coronavirus is just one of those events that may point the church to the sufficiency of the Lord.
