Coronavirus / Covid19 and repentance revival

I struggled with how to do this post. It's not the end of the world, though it might feel like it - here's how to avoid going through the End Times and what to do if you are left behind. (See first link for more detail on the End Times.) And, many signs show we are getting close.
God is personal and gives perfect peace and comfort to those who call on Him, like teen moms from my previous post. We need to be careful and avoid the occultic stuff that gives false peace, as shown here. I thought about the National Day of Prayer which led me to start this blog years ago, calling for repentance and how we all mess up and need it. But while I have a number of blogs like this which speak of how to pray for our nation and why repentance is needed, not just for what we've done but what we've failed to do (it's sad this on honesty, compassion, etc. has so few views) and a few actions to take as part of revival.

I have a free blogged book here on taking the spiritual lead in your home (and, when we can, your neighborhood and community) which anyone can benefit from, and I encourage all to pass it on. As to the pandemic, though, I wanted to wait to see how bad this was going to get; we now don't have much face to face contact, which I lamented in one post about using phones so much from another blogs, but we can still learn to care deeply about others and love unconditionally like I talked about, not shallow like some..

In some ways, the response is the same no matter how I begin. One might ask as I did in another post or two if America is going to be judged for its sin. Whether it is or not, the answer for each of us as individuals is that we need God in our lives. We need him desperately, and that's how we are in a place with less to do where we can pray more fervently. I share at the end of this a part-by-part piece on one verse about how to do that, but put simply, pour your heart out to God in repentance for this country and seek Him to save lives and, more importantly, souls - not just for our own desires but for His glory.

   God loves us and wants to give us perfect peace. He made this world perfect but we brought sin into it, and death by sin. All Creation groans under the weight of that sin. (Yes, viruses were created to be harmless.) Thankfully, there is a perfect Heaven, and God will remake this world someday. But, He doesn't force us to choose Him. He lovingly guides and calls us to choose to be saved from our sin. So, we must pray He will use this to draw many to know Him personally. Eternal life with God begins the moment you trust Him to save you from your sins, when He comes to live in you through the Holy Spirit.

1. Know Jesus personally now

I will start with the simple ABCs of salvation and explain why we must pray and how. Because we must keep an eternal perspective.

Because, accepting His free gift of salvation is as easy as ABC.

1. Admit you are a sinner in need of a Saviour, that you can't save yourself becasue your sin separates you from God so you can't get to His perfect heaven on your own;
2. Believe Jesus Christ, God in flesh, died for your sins and rose from the dead to take the punishment for your sins; and,
3. Call on Jesus to save you, Choosing to Confess and to turn away from your sins and trust Him completely to forgive you and make you new inside, to change your "want to."

You can do that right here reading this blog, as can anyone you share this with. Just pray something like this in your own words. "Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I don't deserve your perfect Heaven. But, you died to take the punishment I deserve for my sins, and then you rose from the dead. I believe you did this for me, that you conquered death and are alive always. Lord Jesus, today I repent of my sins, I turn away from them and invite you into my heart to make me new inside. Make me a new creture, Lord, and work in me through your HOly Spirit. I believe and trust you have saved me today, not by any work I have done or who I am, but all becasue of who you are. I trust and believe in you as my Saviour, and receive you into my heart and life to make me new. In Jesus' name, Amen."

Rejection of God's free gift of salvation means separation from Him forever in a horrible place. God never wants to send people there. It was created for the devil and his fallen angels. . People choose to go there when they reject His free gift of salvation the that In God's great love, He clearly spells out that He doesn't want anyone to go there and how they can avoid going there.

2. Share His love with others

I won't be long with this so we can get back to discussing the Coronavirus. But, h=just like a beggar would want to tell another beggar where to find bread (and we are all like that), we should share His love and salvation with others.

God loves us, so He wants us as His followers to share His love and salvation with others You can share it like above, use the Gospel here or use something like this longer online tract. For someone to talk to and teachings, you can go to www.Godlife.com/Gospel. You can easily memorize the 4 Spiritual Laws (or order the tracts) like shown here. (See here for other languages.) . But, for it to work, remember they must believe you, so don't be a Pharisee.

 Once we know Jesus personally of course, we should live for him not because we have to but because we want to, because of the peace he gives us.

3. Back to the Coronavirus/Covid-19, we can be assured of a few things.

A. Our most important act right now is to pray
      We have time on our hands, we must pray without ceasing, intercessory prayer. It is the most powerful connection possible. We must seek God's glory, not ours. There is a lot of stress right now, but no matter when it comes, and how, God can see you through.
     Pour out your heart to God, as 2 Chronicles 7:14 says - the church hasn't replaced Israel, and America certainly hasn't, but the church has been grafted into God's Kingdom. We are His people, and therefore, we can humble ourselves and pray, seek His face, and most importantly, turn from our wicked ways. Then, He will hear from Heaven, forgive our sin, and heal our land. Another post about how God can heal the church and country is here.

B. While we wait, we can still, through the Internet, writing, etc. be Godly examples.
     Here are some great examples of answers to give when people ask about the Bible's reliability, etc., as well as how to show ourselves to be Godly people. Here are more ways, especially in sharing God's love with Muslims like the link shows, or this to show ways to show the Bible is true.
      Also, check this on God's Word (which also helps those of other religions thanks to words like "begotten being explained).

     The important thing to remember is, too many people just think we're against stuff - we need to be known by what we're for, like helping others and unconditional love, like above, the deep kind, not the shallow fleshly kind like when we say we love pizza. There are things to focus on like here which will help give you peace and joy, for instance. like in Philippians 4:8, linked below..

3. Coronavirus / Covid-19 isn't one of the deadly plagues of Revelation, but it shows a small dose of how it might be.
     There will come a time when things are a lot worse, during the Tribulation. This is a time when the antichrist will  uniting all against God's perfect love, a time you must prepare for as I show here by avoiding deception. I also show how to avoid such tribulation(or spread around to help people if it's too late and the Rapture comes) in this post which is important enough I also linked it above. There you can see how to turn to Him, and how turning things over to God will free you.
     Is it possible that - during a time with lots of quarantine - the Rapture will come and few will notice? Perhaps, but the Rapture could come at any moment. So, as that last post said, make sure you don't get left behind, and know what to do if you do. Don't worry about when it'll come, keep trusting Jesus no matter what.

4. Think on things of Phil. 4:8 to help calm fears over the pandemic, and to draw closer to God.
      This speaks of the list int he verse I mentioned.
     We need to focus on God's system, but instead emphasize the world system which is against HIm nd follows the devil. That's one reason so many are terrified, but also why so many will turn to the devil's ways is we're not careful and if we don't warn them of the coming judgment. Becasue, this is a global crisis, and we must trust God's ways to solve it, by believing in Him and what He said would happen.

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Finally, here is something long on 2 Chronicles 7:14. I share about praying for America above, but this also shows, going piece by piece of this verse, what is needed. And, how to see how many great things are in the Bible.

2 Chronicles 7:14. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

My people/called by My name: Notice 2 things.

1. We are His people. We are not the chosen people – the Jews – of Genesis 12, but we have been grafted in; we are called by His name. Romans 8:15 says we have the spirit of adoption in us. We were once in bondage to fear. He has freed us like a tender, loving father who will never provoke to wrath, never discourage his children with putdowns, but will speak the truth in love and spea life to them. We are adopted into His family.

2. We can’t lose our salvation. How do we get that from this verse? The people are sinning terribly; so much so God has smitten their land. It can be a disease like the virus going around today, it can be a famine, it can be a spirit of destruction hat brings people against each other, but in the midst of all this, they are still His people, called by His name. They never lost that, even in the midst of horrible sin.

Humble themselves and pray:

To be humble is to realize we can’t do it ourselves. It’s admitting our faults and failures. It’s accepting we’re not perfect, but God is, and He has the right to rule in our lives. He says we shall have no other gods before Him – we put many things in our hearts that we idolize.

To pray to Him is to acknowledge He is Lord. Yes, we sometimes pray when other things are on our minds, but this is not the fleeting thought we quickly apologize for, like being too quick to criticize or not bothering to listen because we have things on our mind. People put many things ahead of God, and they need to be humble like the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 and return to God. This is made clear by the next part of this verse.

Seek My face:

We need to seek God’s face because we are not following Him.

“Wait,” you say, “I am.” Okay, but all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I’m just as guilty of not praying enough as anyone, I get distracted by things of this world. And just admitting that to God and turning from it is one way to seek His face.

And, if we are right with God, if we do walk with Him, then we should be interceding for others, for this nation. Do we pray for our leaders, or only the ones we like? If we put certain people on our “naughty list” and refuse to pray God help them or work in their lives, it is not Godly. He wants children to pray for and help their parents because they are in charge. And, in the same way, He says to pray for our leaders, not to keep complaining. He says to seek His will for our lives, not our own desires. To seek His face, then, is to seek Him; not just to go through the motions but to actively let His Holy Spirit work in us.

Turn from their wicket ways:

Again, why pray for past sins of others? We are interceding like Jesus does for us. He mediates on our behalf. So, we can intercede for others.

My ancestors fought to free the slaves – they left West Virginia, then part of Virginia, and joined Ohio regiments. They were Germans and Germans hated slavery. Yet I beg God’s forgiveness for the horrible cruelty of slavery. I don’t just say, “My ancestors were on your side in that one, Lord.” I intercede for our country.

Daniel did the same thing in Daniel 9, praying for Israel, and the sins of his forefathers. He didn’t just say, “I wasn’t there. Not my problem.” I don’t know if his forefathers were persecuted or not, but being handicapped, I could just say, “Yeah, we had it rough” and not seek God’s forgiveness for others. I acknowledge the sins of my country and pray we will turn away from them, and turn away myself.

But, this also involves action on our part now. So many have neglected family, but now they have a chance to reconnect and love them unconditionally. So many rely on imperfect people instead of a perfect God, but now they are learning they must rely on God. So many are selfish and worked toward self-gratification instead of thinking of others first. So many turn to things instead of God to give them peace and comfort. And so on.

So, when we turn from our wicked ways, we must do so ourselves, and then pray others will, too. This doesn’t mean we have to become Amish, we can enjoy pleasures, we must just stop putting these things ahead of God and acknowledge God gives them to us to enjoy and see His creation in nature, in our skills, etc..

Imagine, for instance, if all the money spent on better and the lottery were spent on helping the poor and supporting missionaries instead. Now that’s something to seek God’s face to it happens. There’s a reason Billy Sunday preached so much against sin – he knew it could be used to help those who really need that help.

Then will I hear from Heaven

The Psalmist writes “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer.” (PS. 66:18) But, He will listen when we ask Him to point out any wicked way in us so we can forsake it. (Psalm 39:24, other verses.) He knows we’re not perfect, He just wants a willing heart, because He wants to hear from Heaven. That’s why He tells us even with a nation filled with sin how we can see our nation healed.

And I will forgive their sin

God is always ready to forgive. He came into the world not to condemn it, but so that the world through Him might be saved. Each of us is only a single, sincere prayer of repentance away from eternal life. Then, once we have the Holy Spirit living in us, we can know for sure He will lovingly guide us and forgive when we mess up. So, we should be interceding for others and sharing His love with them so they, too, can be saved.

And I will heal their land.

America needs healed not just from the Coronavirus, but from centuries of evil, so much pain that we have caused Him through the meistreatment of others, but also so much painwe have caused Him through our own selfish desires.

We need healed from the bitterness and rage that exists in our land. We need His healing from the terrible way in which we’ve turned the gifts He has given us around for our own gratification. We need healed from that desire to fight for worldly rewards instead of giving toward Heavenly rewards. We need healed of the terrible attitude we’ve had toward life, from the legalist mindset that insisted people be in church without trying to hel them in their daily lives. We need healed from so many sins.

I’m not saing Coronavirus is a direct judgment from God. It’s not like He would judge Israel as His chosen people. We are in the age of grace.

But, I am saying America needs a repentance revival. God has tried so hard to get our attention. Now, this is one more thing where He is begging us to return to Him and be healed. He has removed so much of our lives, so we can have the time to know our Creator, the one who has given us all of this. He has given us one more chance to realize we are filled with sin and to intercede for our country.

And then, when we realize and share with Him we know we are deserving of His judgment, and plead for our nation, for His mercy on us, then we have His promise to get us through this.

He can heal us from this plague. He wants us to have faith that He will. But, not just so we can have fun, as I shared before. He wants it for His glory.

It just takes some dedicated prayer warriors. Will you be one? As Morecai said to Esther, his cousin whom he raised, when she was afraid, because the wicked kind wanted to kill the Jewish people she she was needed to intercede, “Who knows whether you are come into the kingdom for such a time as this?” We need people to pray for repentance revival so God will heal this land. And then, He could restore the economy, maybe not in an instant, but He do great and mighty things.

We just need to have faith.