THEIR WEAPONS SHALL NOT PROSPER

MEMORY VERSE: No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD. Isaiah 54:17

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Kings 10-13

There is no place in the bible where the Lord promised that once a man or woman give his or her life to Christ everything will be hunky-dory. There will be a lot of challenges on the way. There will be persecutions. A lot of your close friends and relatives will find your new way of life boring because you no longer entertain people saying terrible things behind people’s back, you no longer go out and get drunk, you rebuke them sharply when they share dirty jokes with you, you no longer accept bribes, you no longer participate in office deals, when they do something wrong you no longer cover for them, etc. Not only that, people will start attacking you for being too religious. When all these begin to happen don’t panic because the Lord has everything under control.

Isaiah 54:17 says, “No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD.” The bible did not say they will not fashion their weaposn against you, no. They will fashion it but it will not prosper i.e. it will not be able to harm you. I don’t know who is planning something against you in your place of work. I don’t know the lies they are cooking up against you in the ministry. I don’t even know how far they have gone in fashioning those weapons or those involved in fashioning the weapon. This is the word of the Lord, "no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper”. Psalm 21:11 says, “For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.”

Not only will their weapons not prosper, they will fall for your sake. Isaiah 54:15 says, “Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.” When you go through the bible, you will find that virtually everyone who tried to harm a child of God paid dearly for it. Oh Yes! Haman was hanged on the same gallows he had prepared for Mordecai (Esther 7:10). The same people who hatched the plan to throw Daniel into the lion’s death ended up in the lion’s den with their families (Daniel 6). I will never forget an incident that happened when i was in the secondary school. We were in the exam hall writing a paper when the invigilator came in and began to search everyone. Unknown to me, the boy who sat behind had the answers to the questions with him. Immediately he saw the invigilator, he squeezed it and threw it under my chair. The invigilator found it under my chair and took me out of the exam hall. At the end of the day, the boy and his friends were caught. He wanted to get me into trouble but God turned it around. He and his friends repeated the class but i was promoted.

NOTE: If you are busy planning or scheming against any child of God you better stop because you are playing with fire.

CONFESSION: No weapon fashioned against me shall prosper.

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Bro Samuel | Reaching the world for Jesus.

THE SECRET PLACE OF THE MOST HIGH

Psalm 91:1 – he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

The safest place in the world is the secret place of the most High. It is safer than the White House or any presidential villa you may think of. It is safer than all the royal palaces put together. When a man abides in the secret place of the most High, he becomes untouchable. In 2 kings 6:13- 21, the king of Syria sent a host of army to arrest Elisha. The king was aware of the level of anointing on Elisha so instead of sending just an army or two, he sent several to arrest him. When the host of Syrians got to the residence of Elisha, they could not do anything because Elisha was surrounded by battalions of horses and chariots of fire from heaven. Not only that, the mountain around the house was full of horses and chariots of fire. They were present to protect the man of God. In 2 Kings 1:9-15, the king of Samaria sent a captain of fifty with fifty men to go and arrest Elijah the man of God. When they got to where Elijah was unfortunately for them he was in the secret place of the most High. Immediately the captain tendered the arrest warrant, fire came from heaven and consumed the captain and his army. The king sent another batch and the same thing happened. When the third batch got there, the captain looked around and saw ashes everywhere, instead of tendering the arrest warrant; he knelt down and begged for mercy.

From studying Psalm 91:1, you will come to the conclusion that the Lord has a secret place. The location of this place is a secret that is kept from everyone. To get there one needs an invitation from the most High God. The question is how do I qualify for an invitation? What is the criterion for getting an invite to the safest place the world has ever known? The criterion is to fear God. Psalms 25:14 says the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. It is only those that fear God that are privy of His secrets. What does it mean to fear God? Proverbs 8:13 says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. When you fear God, you will hate what He hates and like what He likes. If you fear God, obeying God will be a must for you. Getting an invite is enough, you can decide to honor the invitation or not. Besides an invite only gives the location, it does not tell us how to dwell there. To dwell in the secret place of the most High we must be ready to spend quality time in the presence of God. Quality time is not the ten minutes we spend with Him daily. When you talk of quality, the least is an hour. If you cannot afford an hour daily, make it at least twice a week. The secret place of the most High is found in the presence of God. Start your day with praise and worship. I can guarantee you that as you begin to spend this time with God; He will begin to release the plans and the agenda of the enemy to you. Not only that you will begin to dwell in His secret place.

ACTION POINT: Create time to fellowship with God in praise and worship, bible studies and praying.

Except the Lord builds the house

Psalm 127: 1 Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman wakethbut in vain

The most important part of a house is the foundation. Architects will tell you that foundation is core to any building structure.  One of the reasons why the word of God is so powerful is because it has its foundation in heaven.   Psalms 119:89 says forever o Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Any project or building or endeavour that does not have God has its foundation will fall when challenges arise. One constant thing in life is challenges and the righteous are not spared of them. Actually the righteous will face many challenges; thank God we have an assurance that we will be delivered from it all, Psalm 34:19. We have seen organizations with huge knowledge base, lots of resources at their disposal, lot of experiences without God as their foundation collapse during recession while small businesses with nothing really except God as their foundation blossom.

It is not sufficient enough to have Christ or the word of God as our foundation; we need God to be the Builder.  Psalm 127:1 says except the Lord build the house, the whole effort is in vain.  There are many strong foundations out there with uncompleted or abandoned structures sitting on them. Psalm 60:12 says through God we will do valiantly for it is He who shall tread down our enemies. It is very possible for a man to work very hard and still have nothing to show for it. Paul can plant from today till tomorrow; Apollos can water all day, if the Lord does not give an increase the whole effort will be in vain. That is why Jesus says in John 15:5 ‘without Me , you can do nothing’. Without God all efforts will be in vain. Why? Because the destroyer (the devil) is walking about looking for what to destroy. He hates to see anyone progress. When the Lord is the builder, there is nothing the devil can do. He can try but you can be rest assured that all his efforts will come to nothing over that project. When the Lord is the builder of a church,  People that see themselves as strong pillars in the church might  leave but instead of the church to collapse it will grow. Those that have promised to help you might decide to withdraw their support but as far as the Lord is involved in the building process of your life instead of falling you will rise higher. Concentrate today on the builder which is Christ not the market or the resources available.

ACTION POINT: As the God who is the greatest builder to build your life.