This morning’s news headlines revealed that a Chinese spy balloon the size of three city buses was moving across the United States. A photo reveals that research equipment could be seen attached to the balloon. Its flight path was high above commercial air traffic and seemed to be moving with the jet stream. It just passed over Billings, Montana heading eastward. 

It’s not the first time something like this has happened when one nation gathers intelligence on another searching out and mapping defense capabilities. 40 years ago, we had an elderly member of our young congregation in Kalispell, Montana who was retired Air Force. In the late 1940s and early 50s, he was part of a flight crew that flew beneath primitive radar systems into the interior of Russia during the Cold War. Their assignment was to land on a dry lakebed to pick up U.S. spies and bring them home. They made multiple trips. When relating the story of those experiences, he smiled, and said, “They did it to us as well.”

When advanced spy craft or developing technologies like AI (Artificial Intelligence) gain superhuman abilities and even physical capabilities mirroring human behavior, it can create an unease that a robotic future is approaching where our world will look more like the storyline from a Hollywood blockbuster than our current reality. As nations use sophisticated satellite surveillance systems that can read a newspaper from orbit, it adds to our insecurity. When listening devices that capture conversations from miles away, nothing remains private, even our whispers.

As I considered these things, the Lord reminded me once again of the power and purpose of prophetic revelation. No matter how sophisticated AI or a government’s ability to spy on its enemies and citizens becomes, it will never be greater than Spirit-inspired revelation. The greatest advancements in our generation and any future generation can only be gathered from the natural realm. Revelation comes from the spiritual realm of eternity and enters the framework and limitations of time. When this level of revelation comes and confounds our earth-bound systems it will be to the amazement of those who have put their trust solely in what can be naturally discovered, measured, and discerned.

As events take place like a passing spy balloon or the development of human-like robots or a new generation of computers that seems smarter than any human in all of history, it is too easy to feel like they are taking over the world. This is not a time to let fear grip our hearts. It is a time to develop our ability to hear the voice of God. Our greatest advancements will always be seen from eternity like those who built the Tower of Babel thinking they could reach the heavens without God.

The Lord will always have the last word. He will reveal things unattainable by our greatest advancements in technology and science. The future is fearless when our trust is placed in God, not in human achievement.