For more than a year now, COVID-19 has dominated our lives. Many of us have lost friends or loved ones. Others have battled the disease themselves. And all of us have faced the challenges of lockdown, isolation and quarantine in different ways.
But we may not have considered the spiritual impact of the fear surrounding all things coronavirus, naturopathic doctor Mark Sherwood says. All the clamor surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine has also become “a huge distraction,” he tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network. Our assignment from Jesus is to preach the gospel, not live in fear—and that, more than any other factor, must inform our decisions on this and every issue, he says.
Sherwood points out that right after Jesus tells His followers to “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), He says, “These signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17-18).
“In that situation I just laid out, the vaccine, whether it’s good or bad, or poison or not, isn’t going to harm me,” Sherwood says. “The enemy doesn’t need a vaccine to take out the people—doesn’t at all. So we need to take a step back and say, ‘All right; what am I doing? What am I thinking? And why am I putting so much intensity and emotion into this thing right now?'”
Sherwood says it’s absolutely not God’s will for people to remain in their homes, stuck in fear. Those people should get the vaccine, he says. “The loneliness, the isolation is killing people,” he says. “It’s crushing people. That is not God’s intent.”
If not having the COVID-19 vaccine is keeping us fearful, isolated and away from gospel opportunities, we should consider getting it, Sherwood says. “Satan tries to isolate and dominate. What happens is people get isolated, and that’s how the thief kills us.”
For much more from Dr. Mark Sherwood on the specifics of the COVID-19 vaccines, how they work and where God wants you to place your focus during this unusual season, listen to this entire episode of the Greenelines podcast at this link, and be sure to subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform. In addition, check out Sherwood’s own podcast with his wife, Dr. Michele Sherwood, Hope and Health, also on the Charisma Podcast Network.
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