Messages for June
2018: Our Month of the Holy Spirit
Message for Wednesday 20th June, 2018
Theme: Understanding the Ministry and
Gift of the Holy Spirit
Topic: Satan’s
weapon for trying to stop the move of the Holy Spirit
Introduction: So far we have been learning a lot from this
great theme of understanding the ministry and gift of the Holy Spirit. We have
seen why the Holy Spirit came and who He is and how we can take advantage of
this great blessing of God to us. However, this series would be incomplete
without looking at this great topic which has a potential to waste all of our
efforts to fulfil God’s plan for our lives if we do not understand and address
it.
We have seen different moves of God being
arrested or stopped altogether by this evil distraction of the devil. I want to
call it Satan’s triplet weapon against the Church; they are slander, gossip and
offense. He is able to do this if he can get carnal believers in the Church to
provoke strife and if the elders do not arrest the strife in time, he could
introduce envy and when strife and envy get married, their children are
confusion and every evil work. When these are in place, the Holy Spirit will
have to leave otherwise His continued presence there would result in incidence
like the Ananias and Sapphira one in Acts 5.
Strife: what does strife mean? Strife is
defined as exertion or contention for superiority; lack of agreement or
harmony; bitter conflict. From these definitions, we can see that strife is
manifested in competition usually about vain glory. Anywhere you have strife,
you cannot have peace because of the discord that exists there.
What the bible says about strife:
The first account of strife in the bible was
about Abraham and Lot’s herd men. This happened in a family as you would
observe. Gen.13:6-8. We learn a lesson from Abraham here when he told Lot that
there should be no strife between them. He instead took the high way of letting
Lot win the fight by telling him to choose where he wanted to relocate to
before he made his choice. As soon as Lot left God came down to speak with
Abraham. See Gen.14:13-18. This was where Lot truncated his destiny. The end of
Lot was the destruction of the land he chose and incest resulting in him
fathering his daughters’ children. There is no future for a person holding on
to strife. Abraham on the other hand immediately heard God’s voice giving him
clear direction for his life again. He moved on with God and Lot lost God’s
presence forever.
Strife cost Moses his place in being able to
enter the Promised Land because the strife made him disobey God when he struck
the rock instead of speaking to it at Meribah. See Num.27:12-14 and Ps.106:32.
There is the strife of tongues: When there is this kind of
issue, we are taught in the bible to pray that God will protect us from the
strife of tongues. Ps.31:20 – the reason for this is that when we speak ill of
others we are killing them with our tongues. Thus anyone who has been speaking
ill of others have blood in their hands just like a murderer has especially if
those contents being spoken or spread are lies. As a matter of fact when the
words are lies, the person speaking such things have entered willingly into the
thresh hold of witchcraft. This explains what Apostle Paul was saying in
Gal.5:18-20 that people who live like this have no inheritance in the Kingdom
of God and Christ.
When we strive, our enemies rejoice because they
laugh among themselves in mockery of us knowing that that strife has made us
like them [Ps.80:6]. This is why it is honorable that we take the first step to
stop the strife so that we can walk in the footsteps of our father Abraham like
God tells us to do in Isa.51:1-2. See Prov.20:3. He is the only person God
tells us to look up to. The other person we are to look up to is Jesus Christ
[Heb.12:2]. When His disciples strove among themselves as to who souls be the
greatest in the Kingdom, He gracefully told them about His servant leadership.
When James and John tried to display power just like the power displayed by
Elijah in calling fire down on people, He told them that that was not the
manner of spirit of which they were made. In other words, even when people
strive with you, do not react in strive, respond in love because the Son of man
came not to destroy men’s lives, He came to seek and save that which was lost.
See Lk.9:51-56 and Lk.19:10.
At the root of strife is hatred: The antidote for this kind is
to walk in love because love covers all sins. See Prov.10:12 and Jn.13:34-35;
15:16-21 and 1Jn.2:9-11. How do you walk in love? 1Cor.13:4-8 tells us in the amplified
bible translation. Until we bear the fruit of love, our faith in God is really
questionable.
Strife is a work of the flesh and proof of an unbroken
life: The problem with
strife is that if it is not arrested in time, it will result in envy and where
envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. In essence,
strife gives Satan the legal access into people’s lives. It has the ability of
wrecking families and institutions. It is a no good to any people at any level
of life. See Gal.5:19-20 and 1Cor.3:3
Strife is stirred up by pride: Pride is what makes people
compete with each other to outdo each other. The result is that it magnets envy
into the life of those who would not let go of it and where envying and strife
is, there is confusion and every evil work. Prov.28:25; Isa.58:4 and Jas.3:13-18;
4:1-17.
Result of strife:
1.
Spiritual
blindness: Strife is a proof
of hatred existing in the heart of another person. The bible teaches in 1Jn.2:10-11
that anyone who hates his brother is blind and cannot see afar off. Such a
person does not even know God. Thus any hatred that resides in a person’s heart
towards anyone makes that person culpable and the next thing it would result in
is that the person will always strive with whoever they hate. This is however
without prejudice to a person making effort to live in peace by avoiding the
person stirring up strife. This is the example Abraham left us in the matter of
Lot in Gen.13. Just in the previous chapter they started to take the journey
together but the next chapter; as soon as Lot got some financial prosperity, he
began to strive with Abraham. To avoid this, Abraham had to put Lot away and
the strife ceased. See Prv.22:10 and 24:9.
2.
Attracts envy: When envy mixes with strife,
confusion and every evil work is born into the situation and this is
particularly dangerous especially for people handling any kind of leadership
responsibility because it can create roots of bitterness that has the potential
of defiling many people. Jas.3:14-16; Heb.12:14-17.
3.
It can result
in the abortion of destiny: One of the evil work brought about by strife is slander and this is
spread by gossip resulting in offence of the injured party. Many occasions
where slander is spread, they are not true; even if there were some truths in
what is said, they are distorted to suit the intent of the person from which
the slander is originating and this is actually murder taking place and there
are dire consequences for this. Some people never find their places in destiny
as a result. See the account of Amnon, Absalom and Tamar in 2Sam.13. Amnon was
the heir apparent but could not handle the issue of lust for his sister Tamar
so Satan sent Jonadab his cousin to encourage the lust in the unhealthiest
manner and the end was the death of Amnon, Absalom, and desolation of
Tamar.
4.
It can result
in unfruitfulness: As long as one is walking in strife, the devil has access to their
lives and the end is that he will get them involved in the unfruitful works of
darkness and this will bring about their inability to become like Christ unless
they repent sincerely and begin to walk in the word otherwise they would end up
being judgmental and farther and farther away from God until the little image
of Christ they had would be sunctured out of their lives and you do not want
this. See the account of the tower of Babel where God frustrated rebellious man
Himself in Gen.11:1-9.
5.
In extreme
cases, it results in murder: This could be as a result of strife degerating to physical combats that
may result in mortal injuries. Some husbands have killed their wives this way
without meaning to do so. Some wives have poisoned their husbands to death
without meaning to do so because of strife. In some other cases some people end
up becoming suicidal like the case of Ahitophel See 2Sam.13; Prv.26:20-28.
6.
If not
handled in love, it can create anger and bitterness: The only way to handle strife
in love is to stop the strife, forgive, avoid the source of strife and move on.
Solution to strife:
1.
Walk in love – Love is not easily angered
so you can be patient enough to give another person a chance of being fairly heard.
Fair hearing can really change a lot of things. It takes patience to hear
another especially when you are offended already. See Jn.17:20-23; Jn.15:17-19;
1Cor.13:4-8 amp and Gal.5:16-22.
2.
Avoid
divisive people – Apostle Paul says to mark those who cause division among us and avoid
them. Rm.16:17-20; Philip.3:17-21.
3.
Do not be
friends with people who strive – the bible tells us not to be deceived to think that we
can still maintain our purity being friends with bad people. See 1Cor.15:33;
Prv.13:20 and Ps.1:1-3
4.
Do not
encourage gossip: When people bring you stories even of those who hurt you, even if you
have to respond, do it with God’s perspective. This would not be easy, this is
the reason you need to be prayerful. In the place of prayer, you draw strength
from God called grace. Then you meditate on the word of God teaching us love. Prov.22:10
and 26:20
5.
Organize your
life around God’s purpose: Follow God’s word and ways every day and you would just find out that
people who bring contention would begin to avoid you. They are usually people
not going anywhere. So you would be good company for them when you are not
going anywhere. If they bring you any tale, call the person being slandered and
let them repeat what they are accusing you of in their presence. If they
refuse, tell them not to visit you again but you can still greet with them
along the way but never have any relationship with them close enough for them
to defile you again with their lies. See Prov.29:18
6.
Avoid
slanderers: The reason is
that tale bearers can separate chief friends and friendship that is productive
is of God. Check the people you call your friends; to what extent are they encouraging
you to be productive. Also check yourself; to what extent are you making others
around you to be productive?
7.
Become a
disciple of Jesus Christ: Only disciples can bear the fruit of the spirit because until a corn of
wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone. When you learn to live the
crucified life, you will bear much fruit and glorify God thereby. The demands
of discipleship is spelt out by the Lord in Lk.9:23-26 and Jn.12:24-26.
We shall draw the curtain here for today. The
conclusion of this message is that we become genuine followers of the Lord
Jesus Christ. To become a true follower we have to start with the new birth and
then a commitment to discipleship to become more like Jesus Christ by the day.
You can start the journey by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and
the Holy Spirit will come to help you:
Heavenly Father,
Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus
died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore
declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the
fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you
for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.
