Tell the righteous that it shall be well Part 23
There is seed of greatness in you V
Guard against losing your prophetic destiny II
There
is a seed of greatness in each and every one of us, the enemy of our souls is
aware of it and seek after it to kill, steal and or destroy it. The enemy is
aware that so long as that seed is not thriving, you will never fulfill the God
given purpose. Therefore, the disposition of a gallant warrior is critical in
our lives, and it can only be spurred if the joy of the Lord is in us, for the
joy of the Lord is our strength. Having appreciated these facts Apostle Paul
once and again exhorts us to rejoice.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in
everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Rejoicing,
praying and giving thanks in every situation; good or bad, is a growth continuum.
Without the preceding we may fail to progress to the next, mostly when the circumstances
are not allowing. To appreciate this fact, let us draw our lesson from Paul and
Silas (Acts 16:16-40). They were thrown in jail for preaching and delivering a
girl who had a spirit of divination. However, in jail, they refused to mourn
and complain, but rejoiced in the Lord. The circumstances were not allowing,
but they chose to rejoice. When we rejoice to stir up the joy of the Lord,
which is our strength and a sign of faith and trust in God. When we rejoice we
have the energy to pray without ceasing. Consequently, when we pray without
ceasing we have the assurance that God has our backing, so we are able to give
thanks, being confident that everything is working for our good because we love
God.
The darkest hour may be the hour of your transition
As
David was dedicating his house, I believe he flashed back and remembered the
days he was under the weather as he dwelled in caves fleeing from King Saul. and
he sang the Psalm 35. And verse 5 goes ...
weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5). Stormy
and tough seasons are bound to come in our lives, but there are three facts
about them. Firstly, they are not permanent, secondly, they will work for our
good and finally, they are not there to destroy us, so long as we don’t give up
fighting. For sure, such seasons come to transition us to the next level of
grace. Before, God restored, the glory Jesus has before He left heaven for our
sake, Jesus endured such a season. And at the garden of Gethsemane, He encouraged
His disciples to pray. Watch and pray,
lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is
weak (Matthew 26:41). Our Lord Jesus Christ, refused to give in during a
dark hour, He held on hope of the assurance, that the it was the transition hour
and God was to restore to Him the heavenly glory, honor, majesty, splendor and
greatness.
You
cannot afford to faint on the way- If
you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small (Proverbs 24:10). And being found in appearance as a man, He
humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of
the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name
which is above every name (Philippians 2:8,9).
In
case you do faint, God will not be pleased. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has
no pleasure in him.” (Hebrews 10:38). We must appreciate that we are in the
battle field and we have the enemy who is ready to rob us of our destiny. But,
we must overcome at all cost.
Why did Jesus overcome
We
appreciate that Jesus appreciated where His help comes from, so He started His
ministry through praying and fasting. And
when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry
(Matthew 4:2). In addition, He continued praying without casing. Now in the morning, having risen a long
while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there
He prayed (Mark 1:35). Who, in the
days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with
vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was
heard because of His godly fear (Hebrews 5:7). Therefore, Jesus victory was
guaranteed as He was given to prayers in and out of season. And the life of
prayer did not disappoint, He was able to remain sober and alert always.
Therefore,
any time the enemy of our souls would roam,
looking for one to devour, Our Lord Jesus was vigilant. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about
like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). Therefore,
it is our responsibilities as believers to watch and pray. This reminds me of
two prostitute ladies recorded in the Bible in the book of First Kings. Both of
them had babies at the same time, one of them due to the nature of their work
could have been drank, lay on the baby and suffocated the baby to death. At the
middle of the night, she recognizing the mess she was in, so she exchanged her dead
baby, with the living baby of her partner. One
night while we were all asleep, she rolled over on her baby, and he died. 20
Then while I was still asleep, she got up and took my son out of my bed. She
put him in her bed, then she put her dead baby next to me. 21 In the morning
when I got up to feed my son, I saw that he was dead. But when I looked at him
in the light, I knew he wasn’t my son (1 Kings 3:19-21). Was her partner
sober and awake, she could have heard the thief coming to exchange her baby. So
is our spiritual walk, whenever, we watch and pray, we are not caught unawares
by the enemy of our destiny. Over and above, being vigilant, we need a strategy
for every warfare, from Him who knows the end from the beginning.
You need the strategy for each battle
Appreciating
the fact that each battle required a different strategy, David did neither went
to every battle field with a sling and five stones nor did he accept another
man’s armor. His secret was trusting God
for new strategies in every battle. So,
David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I
overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake
them and without fail recover all (1 Samuel 30:8). In this instance, God
allowed the enemy, to leave a week Egyptian captive behind, when David fed the boy,
he directed his troop to the camp of the enemy. We appreciate, the same
character with Jehoshaphat, he was careful to seek God before he engaged in any
battle. And he said, “Listen, all you of
Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says
the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great
multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s (2 Chronicles 30:5-15).
This should be our common practice as we appreciate: firstly, the battles are
not carnal and that whenever, we involve God, He is faithful to guide us.
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood
Having
recognized that our warfare is not carnal, then we must seek to win spiritually
and in the secret of our closet, so as to receive the parading of our victory
in public. For we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places
(Ephesians 6:12). For though we walk in
the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5
casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the
knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of
Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). This takes us back to the book of Daniel chapter
10.
We may have to tarry like Daniel
Daniel,
relentlessly prayed for twenty-one days. Though God heard and answered his
prayers, the prince of the kingdom of Persia delayed his answer. In those days I Daniel was mourning three
full weeks. 3 I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth,
neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were
fulfilled.....Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day
that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before
thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. 13 But the prince
of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael,
one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings
of Persia (Daniel 10:2,3, 12,13). However, Daniel persisted in prayer and
fasting till he got his answer.
Whenever we ask we get our answers.
One assurance we have is that, whenever, we pray we get results of our answered prayers. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him (1John 5:14-15). Only on condition, even if we have to labor like Hannah, we will not leave our prayer closets until something happens. For if we faint not, we will have the answer to our petition. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16).
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