Spirit of Fear
Notes
Transcript
Spirit of Fear
Spirit of Fear
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For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
Watching the news and what do you see?
Head to the grocery store and what do you see?
Tune in for your favorite sporting event and what do you see?
Check your 401(k) or retirement account and what do you see?
I see fear.
And almost nothing else.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are aware of the fear, bordering on hysteria, about a virus.
Call it the Corona Virus, COVID-19, Wuhan,
Or as I heard one person refer to it, the Kung Flu.
It seems most people are gripped by fear about this bug.
And it seems most of it is being stoked by the media.
Just like the spies who came back from the Promised Land.
nu 13:32
And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Most of the news I’ve read or heard about this virus focuses on numbers out of context.
These reports seem focused on generating as much fear in people as possible.
Counting infections, but not the infection rate.
Counting the deaths, but not the death rate.
Ignoring other critical information that puts the facts in context.
And just like the children of Israel, many of the people around the world are in bondage.
Bondage to fear.
Bondage to hysteria.
And kept away from many of the important details.
WooHan is referred to as a pandemic,
Bringing images of the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic,
But is this anywhere near as dangerous or deadly?
Let’s start with what I know so far.
The WooHan virus has symptoms similar to the flu .
That means that many people may have the Wuhan virus and not know it, because they think they simply have a cold.
The 1918 flue had a mortality rate of 2-3% and killed an estimated 30 million people (1.7% of the world’s population).
Sounds scary, doesn’t it?
But the seasonal flu kills on average almost half-a-million people every year.
The CDC announced that the seasonal flu killed 20,000 people in the United States alone this year.
To date, less than 4,000 people have died from this virus.
That is less than 1% of the people who die from the seasonal flu.
One report I read pointed out the the Diamond Princess cruise created an interesting case study because it was a closed environment.
After 1 month, 17% of those on the ship had contracted the Corona virus,
Slightly less than the 20%-40% you would expect from the seasonal flu.
The death rate on the ship was 0.85%,
But EVERYONE who died was over 70 years old.
And more importantly, how many will die from it.
Like the flu, Corona is more dangerous to the elderly and those with weakened immune or respiratory systems.
Outside of Wuhan, the Chinese death rate is 0.4%, not the 3-4% originally reported.
Why the big number at first,
Many reasons, including the fact that many in China have a compromised respiratory system due to smoking and smog,
And China does not have a first-world healthcare system.
So this is a nasty bug,
But not the killer pandemic being promoted by the media.
As children of God, we have to ask ourselves.
Will we be ruled by a spirit of fear like the Israelites?
So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
That seems to be how most of the world is reacting.
Raiding store shelves,
Stocking up on everything they can,
Planning to barricade themselves,
Or simply expecting everything to shutdown.
But how should we react?
But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”
nu 14 6
Rather than being enslaved to fear, we should look at the facts.
Just as Joshua and Caleb, we should not ignore the dangers.
They didn’t disagree that there were giants in the land,
But they put that fact into perspective:
“Their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us.”
We should take basic precautions.
Wash your hand regularly,
Avoid unnecessary large crowds,
If you think you might have picked up the virus, avoid the elderly or infirm.
Yes, other people’s panic may make some products harder to find or more expensive for a period of time,
But don’t let fear drive you do something you will regret later.
And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.
There are those who won’t believe you,
They are so gripped by fear that they would rather stone the messenger than listen to the message,
But just as that did not stop Joshua and Caleb, don’t let the crowd change what you know to be true.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Our lives should not be ruled by read, but by love and a sound mind.
Care for those who are sick,
Including those whose sickness is solely in their minds.
Get good information, preferably from the source.
Don’t let those who benefit from hysteria profit from you.
Take reasonable precautions,
And love others enough to be considerate of their risks.
Just as Christians remained in the cities caring for the sick during the plagues of the middle-ages,
Let us care not just for the physically ill,
But those who are enslaved to their fear.