And when Jesus had been baptized, just as He came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is My Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” . . . Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the Devil – Matthew 3:16,17;4:1

In these days of the Coronavirus I’ve found plenty of opportunity to electronically connect with family and friends and the Body of Christ.  There have been Zoom prayer meetings 4-5 times or more each week. Prayer is flourishing. They are an awesome use of tapping into God’s amazing creation through technology. Yet, I must admit I find it only an adequate substitute for gathering together and it does come with some risk.

The Zoom Bomb

One of the regular prayer meetings I have been participating in has been Dr. Chauncey  Crandall’s Nights of Hope and Healing on Sunday Evenings.

This last Sunday was an exciting opportunity for Dr. Crandall to share his testimony of how God has led him to where he is in his spiritual journey. This would lead into Dr. Crandall interviewing Jeff Markin who by Dr. Crandall’s prayer God miraculously raised back from the dead. It drew a great crowd excited to hear about God’s amazing handiwork.

The event opened up with worship and prayer but as Dr. Crandall began to share – it happened. What I had heard and been warned about happened. The event was Zoom-bombed.

Zoombombing, Zoom-bombing or Zoom raiding is the unwanted intrusion into a video conference call by an individual, causing disruption.

In this case the intruder started posting disgusting, lewd and illicit pictures as well as scrawling crazy political and offensive comments. As the ministry team scrambled with how to address the intrusion a sinister voice cackled, “Yeh, what are you going to do about it?”

I must say for myself and likely all on the call it was upsetting and initially the enemy’s goal to disrupt was being realized.

Very quickly, though, the mind of Christ took over. Dr. Chauncey and several others began rebuking the evil spirit and casting it away. We all entered into a prayerful state for God’s victory and for the disturbed life of the intruder. We all turned our video imaging off and Dr. Crandall pressed on followed by Jeff’s testimony without further disruption.

What were we on the Zoom Meeting for?

Yes, it was disturbing and it did accomplish setting the purpose for the meeting back a few minutes but what the Zoom-bomber didn’t understand is that he was playing right into God’s hand.

Satan may attack at any time but there are 2 occasions you can count on it:

1. In order to disrupt a great spiritual experience and,
2. To derail the beginning of a new spiritual initiative

As noted in the scripture above, Jesus was attacked by Satan right after His baptism and it occurred right before He began His public ministry.

These Zoom meetings with Dr. Crandall meet both of these criteria. This should teach us a lesson. After a great spiritual experience and as you embark on a spiritual journey we should be ready for spiritual attacks from the enemy.

As this bombing was occurring I had to remind myself that this was the very purpose of the Zoom meeting – to pray. We should be entering into any prayer meeting expecting God to move in powerful ways even if the enemy shows up. What is more powerful than to see the enemy drawn out and to see God show up in victory?

Certainly, Jesus never ran off in fear when engaging with Satan or his demons. No, it was the enemy who always recognized Jesus’ identity as the Son of God and begged for mercy. Jesus then took the opportunity to cast out the demons and to heal those who suffered under their occupation.

I had a sense that was exactly what occurred with this particular Zoom-bomber. Why would someone do such a thing other than that their lives are oppressed with spirits of anger and depression and frustration, wanting to control and destroy that which is good? He came to destroy but faced the Spirit of God and was driven away by God’s words of goodness, righteousness and truth. The very purpose of the bomber to destroy, lit a bomb fuse right under the rat that will ultimately destroy the rat.

So, what did the Zoom-bomber accomplish?

1. He brought further confirmation that God is blessings and driving this ministry,
2. He revealed the power of God to overcome Satan and his demons and,
3. He exposed himself to God’s powerful loving character

We continue to pray for the Zoom-bomber with confidence that our God is big enough to find a way to seek him out and to cleans him and save him from all unrighteousness.

“Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.” – Luke 8:35