BREAKER OF BARRIER

Barriers are unwanted components in our life that needs to be removed. Our barrier breaker is the Lord God Almighty. Yes He is, indeed! The Lord God said in Isaiah 45:2, 'I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron'.

Is 40:4 says, '…the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth'

The great prophet Micah said in Micah 2:13, 'The one who breaks all barriers is walking before them…The Lord will walk ahead of them'.

The presence of the Lord went before the children of Israel all the time. In the nighttime, there was a pillar of fire and in the daytime there was a pillar of cloud. The Lord was walking with the them as the breaker of their barriers. There were so many hurdles they had to cross before they could step into their promised land.

There were four major barriers for them. Each one is a symbolic of the obstacles, the devil brings in our life. God wanted them to go from a land of bondage to a land of abundance. God wants to do the same thing to you too.

The barrier of Pharoah:

God sent Moses to the king Pharaoh that he might bring forth God's people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt (Exodus 3:6-10). But Pharaoh was a very hard-hearted man. He would not let the Israelites go. In Ex 5:2 Pharaoh said, 'who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go'

Pharaoh is symbolic of Satan. He does not want you to do what God wants you to do. He does not want you to be delivered from the bondage. Therefore, he works through different people, in various ways and tries so hard to stop us in our tracks.

The barrier of the Red sea:

Exodus 14:16 God said to Moses, ' lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea'.

Exodus 14: 27 says, 'And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea'.

There was a time when Jesus got into a boat and suddenly a tempest arose on the sea and the disciples were so scared. But Jesus rebuked the winds and the sea. The winds and the sea could be compared to the difficulties we face in life. If Jesus is there in your boat, you can be rest assured that He calm down the sea for you!

The barrier of the river Jordan:

Joshua 3:15 says, 'Jordan overflows all his banks during the whole time of harvest'. Moses and Aaron were gone. Now Joshua their new leader took up the challenge of getting to the 'Promised Land'. The name Jordan means 'flowing down'. River Jordan is the largest river in all of Israel. The drop in level is more than three thousand feet and it is a couple of hundred miles long. The water current is so strong!

Joshua 3:13 says, 'as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark if the Lord the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the water of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap'.

Notice that, only after the soles of the feet of the priests touched the water, the miracle happened. God fights for His servants. Our God is a God who will honor His servants.

Jordan also means reproach and dishonor. Dear child of God, are there people who bad- mouth you with all kinds of words. There may be false accusations against you. But cheer up! The God who cut off the waters of Jordan is with you. He will talk for you.

Is 54:17 says, 'No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn, This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me" says the Lord.

The barrier of the walls of Jericho:

In Joshua 6:2-5 we read, that God gave this city of Jericho in the hand of Joshua. Jericho was a cursed city in the Bible. Finally the walls of Jericho fell down. God gave them the victory. The great shout is the shout of Praise! That is the weapon that is so powerful to break the walls. When we praise God, His presence descends and shatters the wall in your life. The Psalmist says in Psalm 18: 29; 'For by You I can run against a troop, By my God I can leap over a wall'.

What is that breakthrough that you are expecting? Are you desperate for something? Begin to ask God. The moment you begin to pray, the evil one will tell you reasons it cannot happen. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. Begin to loose the things of God and bind the things of the devil. (Matt 16:19) Begin to praise God for the answers right away. Do not wait till you see the physical manifestation. In other words, even if the circumstances look just the opposite of what you have asked for, start praising! That is the key to victory.

May the Lord give you a breakthrough in Jesus' name. 

STRONG HOLDS

As a Christian, we all need three things to fight the devil.

1. The Blood of Jesus Christ

2. The words that we speak

3. The willingness to fight till we win

Rev 12:11 says, And they overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives to the death.

The devil also has three weapons namely, sin, accusations and strongholds. Sin is 'separation from God'. Accusations are the 'blames that are caused by the devil'.

What is a stronghold? It is a mindset infiltrated with hopelessness. This state of mind drives you to accept situations as unchangeable, even those that are contrary to the will of God. Where does the enemy build strongholds? It is in our minds.

The devil always uses just one area to build a stronghold. He thereby brings down the 'Word of God' to a point of failure. In effect, the Christian will know the 'Word of God' but the 'Word of God' is hardly seen in their lives. They get a pass in the 'theory' but fail in the 'practical'. They believe in something and they do another thing. In some well-meaning Christians, there is this constant battle going on. They have godly desires but they cannot make it happen in their own lives. The battle is for the mind.

Paul asked the Galatians, 'O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth (Gal 3:1) The Galatians are warned against their foolishness which took their eyes from the cross. In the same way we need to check on a regular basis if there is anything that diverts us in our Christian walk.

James talks about a double-minded person in the following verses:

Jam 1:8 says, ...a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Jam 4:7,8 says ...Resist the devil...you double minded.

A double minded person has two minds. Mind 'A' thinks according to the will of God. Mind 'B' thinks contrary to the will of God. And there is a constant battle going on in our minds. Between Mind 'A' and Mind 'B' there is this "lofty thing". We are warned against this lofty thing which exalts itself against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:3-5)

All in a sudden you do not end up having a double mindedness. Initially, the devil tempts you. May be to sin, a secret sin, a bad habit or a sneaky little thing that is excusable to you at that moment. Every time you think about it you say, 'it is o.k. and it is just a small mistake. But the day, you want to do a great exploit for the Lord, that is when the devil says, Well! what about this? The enemy will encash the check at that time. And the Christian is unable to do something for the Lord. He remains a weak Christian. His talents and abilities lie dormant. This is a big problem in the life of believers.

The strongholds are developed in the shadow of our strengths. We are not as watchful in our strengths as we are in our weakness. This is the reason people fall into sin when they least expected. They think they can overcome when they really cannot if they have given room for the enemy. Eg: not most of the drug addicts wanted to become one when they first tried the drug. Why? They think they can control when they want to. What really happens is the enemy always tempts you to go further in the sin and you come to a point when coming out is far fetched.

Strongholds are built on good thoughts and well meaning attitudes: The devil is subtle in his ways. He always gives a glamorous thought and a good idea. It sounds good to you at that time. What we fail to do is 'to commit that idea unto the Lord and seek God's counsel'. Most of the ideas may not be God's ideas for you. Is 55:8 says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts". The thoughts we get naturally are mostly not God's thoughts for us. Strongholds are activated by trauma when acted on a good thought. This is why Jesus had to say to the enemy which influenced Peter, "Get behind me, Satan" (Mt 16:23)

Keys to overcome the strongholds:

1. Pull down the strongholds: The lofty thing needs to be broken in our lives. The partition in the double mind needs to be broken. The moment you realize that your mind is thinking something contrary to the 'Word of God', that is when you need to pull down the stronghold.

2. Fasting and prayer: We have to deal with the situation. We should arise and fight the battle and come out victorious. Jesus fasted for 40 days. Moses fasted for 40 days. Why should we fast longer? It is because 'the weaker team looses in a longer fight'. Fasting prayer is a spiritual warfare.

3. Hold on to the word of God: Pick up the "word" for your situation from the Bible and say it out loud. Tell the devil that you will not believe his lies and you will believe the Word of God even if the situation is contrary to the word of God at that moment. You will soon see the situation line up with the Word of God. You will also see the devil loosing and you winning.

1Cor 15:27 says, ... 'He has put all things under His feet'

Rom 16:20 says, ...'the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.

These words clearly say that the devil is under our feet. Victory is ours. We are not fighting a defeating battle. The devil is the defeated foe.

May the Lord give us a victorious Christian life in Jesus name.