As I’ve said before, Americans have a persistent problem with binary logic. It’s the go-to assumption everyone makes about anything they don’t really understand. While Americans are capable of gradations, levels and nuance, they don’t go there until forced into it. I’m forcing it on the issue of moral and spiritual things.
Divine covering is not an on/off switch. He offers one kind of covering for His Covenant family, another for His human allies, and another for His tools, etc. God has commissioned many servants, both individuals and nations, to serve a particular purpose, only to discard them later. There are the Elect, and then there are others. These tools were covered during their usefulness, but they were not family. Some of these provisional coverings may stretch over limited time frames and apply only to certain purposes.
But it gets even more challenging: Moral and spiritual truth cannot be objectified. You cannot examine it from the outside. You must get directly involved personally in order to understand anything at all about it. That’s because such knowledge is a matter of personal contact with God. Morality and spirituality are not things that exists in themselves; they are aspects of God and our roles in His Kingdom. If you don’t know Him, you don’t know them, because they are expressions of His personality and character.
As an elder, my spiritual covering is a resonance of God’s. I’m limited and so is my covering. If you are a husband/father, God grants you a limited covering over your household. As heads of households, there are varying gradations of covering we grant to children, females, males, etc. It’s all loaded with nuance, and your headship covering can be reinforced by your association with an elder, pastor, and others who have a strong role in the Kingdom of Heaven. That means the gaps in covering are also varied and nuanced.
Most of it is not too hard to estimate because of conviction and covenant. But sometimes it rests on your spiritual awareness. What you don’t know can harm you, but God may be patient with you, offering a covering you didn’t know you needed. It’s not guaranteed. Your role, mission and calling are also factors, as well as things like what happens in the Unseen Realm.
Understanding covering is like understanding a natural forest as a whole, all at once. It’s a living entity that can be fostered or neglected; it can thrive or degenerate. Bits and pieces can shift in strength and new demands on you may arise today simply because it’s not yesterday.
Our US government is under a provisional covering. It’s partial and has a limited shelf-life based on how it serves God’s inscrutable purpose. At some point, it is altogether likely that our ruling regime will slip out from under that covering. As far as I can discern, it’s getting very close. The anointing-for-purpose will expire or be abrogated.
I say that, not trying to speak for others, only for those who rely on my spiritual covering as elder. My convictions tell me that we are in grave danger of persecution of a type and means I cannot clearly see just yet. For now, I am convinced we need to do all we can to stay out of the way. Our community is currently avoiding provoking any government authority. But all too soon, the government will make new demands that will be impossible for us. The government will see it as politics, because our government has neither clue or interest regarding eternal spiritual matters.
In military jargon, we would say our government will wander out into a free-fire zone. Think about what that means in terms of spiritual warfare.
I have every confidence that God can make that moment clear to you without any need for me to point it out. At the same time, I can assure you I’ll find a way to let you know when I believe that moment has come. How you respond is a matter of your own convictions. I encourage you to study and pray about this before that day comes.
