As we look at the USA, Covid, and the rest of it, we can easily take our eyes off things above and dwell on what we see in the world. But what is happening in the world is only a reflection of what is taking place in the Spirit, and some of the scenario of the spiritual battle is given to us – cryptically, I know – in the book of Revelation. When tears come to our eyes – as they do to mine, when I miss my grandchildren – we need to remember that the day is coming when He will wipe all those tears away. But before then, we are called to watch and pray. And if we watch, there are some things that are visible, but which point to the bigger picture. Here is a little snapshot of a bit of it:

A lady (in the USA) with a small Ebay business sold patriotic items, which she advertised on facebook. Facebook (and possibly Ebay as well, but I’m not sure about that detail) closed her down, because use of the terms “patriot” and “patriotic” are now “contrary to their policies.” She now no longer trades. Because of Facebook’s perceived anti-republican stance, many Christians and other republicans turned to a small rival to FB called “Parler” which some of you may have heard of. Parler is French for “to speak”, and it’s a platform that champions freedom of expression – in particular, but of course not exclusively, freedom to speak what God speaks. Parler used Amazon’s online web services platform. Amazon has now closed down Parler.

Following the Capitol Hill demonstration, the Facebook mouthpieces have justified their policy by saying that encouraging patriotism can incite violence. Yet FB has kept complete silence over all the Black Lives Matter rampages throughout 2020, so their policy has nothing to do with violence and everything to do with who they want to silence.  What is actually happening is that the online giants are closing ranks against those who do not agree with their liberal policies. I only know of that one lady who has lost her business so far, but I’m sure there will be more, and we can only see the “you can only use our platform if we agree with you” trend continuing.

Perhaps you can see where this is going? It’s Revelation chapter 13, verse 17 in particular: “No one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” If this seems far off, we need to look again, because that lady who loves her country and what it stands for would say that it’s already beginning to happen.

Meanwhile COVID continues to stalk the globe, and the thin ice of the world economy gets thinner by the day as it trades its mountain of make-believe printed money. By now we’ve all heard of bitcoin and blockchain, and some of us may have used it. The solution to a worldwide economic collapse would be a complete reset to a digital currency. China has already successfully trialled one – the E Rmb – in several cities, including Chengdu and Shenzhen. And in the Covid arena again, a comprehensive and international “track and trace” programme would seem to be an obvious development to combat the virus. It would also be very useful to governments trying to close down the Church. The digital cloud covers the whole of the world.

This of course is speculative. But what could we have, if we put these threads together – and it may not be as far away as we would like to think –  may be something like this:

“We are the digital state. We do not have national boundaries. The nations belong to us, and we belong to the Prince of the Power of the Air, because we are the Cloud. We know who you are and where you come in and go out. You cannot trade unless you sign up to our policies, and our policies exclude the Church of Jesus Christ. You cannot trade unless you use our currency. If you do not belong to us you will be cut off from society, and you will die.”

We need to look beyond the cloud, and look to the things above, where the Sun of Righteousness is shining. Because He will break through. The currency of the World may well end up as bitcoin, but the currency of the Kingdom is faith, and “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” (1 John 5:4) And amongst Kingdom businesses and financial organisations, God is already raising up an Ark of resources where this currency is in operation and where God’s people will be able to find shelter from the coming flood. So hen we see the news and read the papers, let us also be sure to read the signs of the times. Let us watch and pray, because we do not know the day or the hour…