.JPG)
-
Tunde Mabinuori
I want you to imagine yourself in
a boxing ring, facing a burly opponent. Both of you practice around the ring,
keeping up your guard while at the same time aiming deadly blows at each other’s
perceived weak point.
All of a sudden, your opponent
penetrates your guard and with a flurry of left and right punches, he knocks
you down on the canvas.
“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 …” goes the
count from the referee. Your opponent’s supporters taunt and boo you while your
coach encourages you to rise up and finish the fight.
You are faced with two options.
Either to stay down and let the count go, thus allowing your enemy to win, or
to spring up with a determination to continue and win the fight.
Yes, you may have succumbed to the
temptation and fallen into the sin. I want to encourage you that “down is not
out”. The devil may have knocked you down but you can still rise again. The
Holy Spirit your coach will lift you up and give you the desired strength to
finish and win the fight. The devil gave you a “knock down”, but through the
grace of God, you can rise up and give the devil a “knockout”. Micah 7:8 says “do not gloat over me my enemy! Though I have
fallen, I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness the Lord will be my light”.
Has the devil knocked you down
through your weakness? God is ready to pull you up again. Being knocked down is
not a shame, but staying down is. God will restore you and lift you up. You
will overcome that weakness, your destiny will not be truncated, and you will
make it in Jesus name.
The mere fact that the devil used
your weakness to knock you down does not mean that God can never use you again.
God will not use a perfect being to achieve His purpose. That weakness with
which men taunt you, God will turn it around and use it for His divine purpose
to shame your critics.
In 1st Corinthians
1:27-29, the Bible says “But Good has chosen
the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen
the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. And
the base things of the world and the things which are not, to bring to nothing
the things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence”.
Most times, the people that God uses
are those without any known pedigree, people whom men have given up on.
“There is a popular evangelist in
Nigeria today who Good is using mightily for His work, especially in the area
of prison evangelism. The man was once a notorious armed robber who had carried
out several daring robbery escapades.
After the police apprehended him,
he was sentenced to a long prison term. It was while in prison that he gave his
life to Christ and began the task of winning souls to Christ.
Expectedly, people were reluctant
to listen to him and started castigating him, calling him all manners of names
all in a bid to ruin him and his God-given mandate.
The grace of God upon his life
however overcame their criticisms and to the glory of God today, he is doing a
wonderful work in the Lord’s vineyard.
In the book of Joshua Chapter 2,
Rahab the harlot earned herself recognition when she hid the Israelite spies
from their enemies. Nobody expected anything good from her, not until she
submitted herself to God.
The intention of the devil is to
mess up your life so that you will not be able to fulfill God’s purpose. I want
to assure you that no matter the blemish, slur or stigma the devil has cast on
you, the blood of Jesus is strong enough to cleanse you and present you in a
new light to the whole world.
What is that blot that the devil
has put on your life that makes you think you are no longer qualified to tell
others about Christ? Is it on your marriage, your academics, or your job?
I have good news for you. The
blood of Jesus is strong enough to cleanse you. God will work on your weakness
and turn it around so that you will become a witness to the world of His
goodness and mercy. The devil’s business is to as much as possible; frustrate
you out of the will of God for your life by focusing on your weakness and using
it against you.
There is however no need for you
to worry. God will turn every arrow of frustration fired at you by the devil
into a demonstration of His power and love.
Just as a wise man will sharpen
his area of strength to perfection while he avoids areas that will fuel his
weakness, it will be foolishness for a man who gets easily aroused when with
the opposite sex, to put himself in awkward positions like staying in lonely
places with women.
Most Christians deceive themselves
by flirting around their areas of weakness and still expect God to deliver
them.
It is not a sin for a man to have
weaknesses, but it becomes a sin if the man puts himself in situations that
will increase the weakness. The devil will not attack you in your area of
strength, but in the area where you are most vulnerable.
A good Christian keeps his guard
up all the time and will not allow the devil to deliver bthe killer blow to
him. Most of the knockouts that the devil delivers to people of God are because
Christians usually let down their guards and allow the devil to penetrate.
Pastor Mabinuori is the
Minister-in-Charge, Rhema Chapel Intternational Chirches, Oluyole Estate,
Ibadan
e-mail: tundemabinuori@gmail.com
Comments
Post a Comment