Dearly Beloved,
The following are inspired thoughts I found grace to fetch, while attempting to acknowledge truths that disrespect sin; that celebrate the word of righteousness.
1. An Antivirus is developed after a viral outbreak, but God proffered the solution against a spiritual virus called sin - even before it infected man (Rev. 13:8b). He did so by offering man His Faith; by bequeathing to man a dimension in Him called Christ - so man would be restored to a higher life than that which sin corrupted in Adam (1Cor. 15:45). Our greatest need was provided before it ever existed (Rev 13:8b). All other needs are meant to be accessed as we follow through the words or instructions governing them (Deu. 8:1-3, Lk. 4:4, John 2:5).
2. All viruses are offsprings of a spiritual virus (sin), and have one goal - to physical or spiritually separate men from life (Rom. 5:21). Our escape or immunity from all such comes as we live by the dictates of the Spirit; by the revealed life (Christ) which is from above; one that brings us above all the fears and cares that can plague a natural man (Jn. 3:31). True security in these days we live in would be a function of how incorruptible we have become or how much of corruption our soul lost; even by the acquisition of divine power (2Pet. 1:3-4).
3. The source of all lies on earth and the creator of hopes outside God is vanity (Jonah 2:8). And wrestling against it - over decades - entails confronting thoughts and imaginations that tamper with our peace; with the assurance that faith brings (Eph. 6:12, 2Cor. 10:5, Heb. 10:22). So, a believer can’t claim to have overcome this world or held unto the mercy of God (eternal life) if he still loses out in his conquests against lies or if he can still be weighed down by thoughts and images of a future that exists outside Christ and God (Jude vs. 21, Heb. 12:1).
4. There are things that make us see the life that Jesus lived as unexciting, uncivilized and unadventurous; as not worth following headlong or sought after with all our hearts; things governed by a veil - cast upon our minds; one that limits us from seeing what the Lord saw about this present life and that which is to come (Isa. 25:7, 1Tim. 4:8). The doctrine (gospel) of Christ begins the process of delivering us from it while the doctrine of God perfects it (Heb. 6:1). Therein would we see what made Him treat His life like He did; like a grain of seed that takes the fall - and only qualifies for resurrection (the throne) after death (Jn. 12:24).
5. For the devil to separate us from the faith that is in Christ or from measures of divine life we have painstakingly gathered, he direly needs us to respond to a thought; to take a well-dressed thought around a life we still have outside Christ; thoughts that promises to favour us on time; that presents another hope that appealed to the likes of a King (Adam) and an anointed Demas; thoughts that comfort our flesh from the previous warfares it has faced while holding tenaciously to faith (Gen. 3:5-7, 2Cor. 10:5c, 2Tim. 4:10).
6. One qualification we would earn in the spirit after being justified by faith or after we have stopped loving the world or have profited with the first appearance of God’s grace (that deals with sin), is that, the world - through men - would hate us and persecute or pressure us to deny it (Rom. 5:1, Heb. 9:28, Tit. 2:12, 1Jn. 3:13). The absence of such might be a prove that a prophetic nature (that this world fears) hasn’t been cultured in us, or that the world is still in love with us, or that we haven’t found grace to hate it long enough (Matt. 5:13, Jn. 15:19, Rev. 2:13).
7. After man’s fall, most of man’s limitations around his humanity or earthly arrangement became a useful tool in God’s hand - to reach and save him; to limit him from walking further out of His coverage area; even into devices of the devil that we are ignorant of (Jam. 1:9-11, 2Cor. 2:11). They help us take our eyes off ourselves and limit the pace at which the will of man can be fostered in the flesh (Ps. 34:6). So - like Joseph - some of the breakthroughs we seek (at some seasons) are actually such that can empower us to escape God’s faith dealing at such hour
Blessings!
Tayo Fasan