Harvest Pastor Greg Laurie has told Christians to be of good courage and pray in the face of the coronavirus outbreak.

The spread of the virus is causing increasing panic as the number of cases worldwide continues to rise and more countries impose travel restrictions and social distancing measures. 

In a message on Instagram, Laurie said that while there was "a lot of fear" in America over COVID-19, that fear needs to be replaced with faith.

The California-based pastor encouraged Christians to listen to the medical experts and take appropriate measures, like washing their hands, but he also encouraged them to follow the words of Philippians 4 and pray instead of worrying. 

"Listen, the promises of God are still true!" he wrote. "God is bigger than the Coronavirus! I believe the Christian is indestructible until God is done with them." 

He added: "Listen to the medical experts and take appropriate measures(Wash your hands,etc.) But we need to replace our fear with faith and pray for our nation, that God would protect us." 

Laurie addressed the panic over coronavirus in a sermon clip posted alongside his message on Instagram. 

In it, he said: "In some ways I think the viral fear about it may be worse than the virus itself." 

He added that while people needed to be "practical" in taking care of themselves, they should also be "prayerful". 

"We need to be praying about this.  We need to pray for our church, we need to pray for our nation, that God would protect us.  And the Lord can do that, He can put a shield around us," he said, as he asked people to pray for healing for those infected. 

He added, however, that the outbreak of the coronavirus was an opportunity for "proclamation". 

"I think we should use it as an opportunity to talk to people about Jesus Christ cos a lot of people are freaking out," he said.