STUDENT IN THE SCHOOL OF ADVERSITY
God often allows us to pass through adversity because He wants us to experience certain things that will develop and build us up.
God had the power to prevent Daniel from being thrown into the lions’ den. While they planned to do so, He was watching them. He could have asked them to fall down and die, but the Lord kept quiet. When they went to report Daniel to the king, God saw them, likewise when they went to arrest him. When they got to the lions’ den, God saw them. Indeed, God was not sleeping when they eventually threw him into the lions’ den.
I may well ask you a question, like I asked myself when I got born again. If I am thrown into lions’ den, are you sure of not being eaten up?
The men who threw Daniel into the lions’ den forgot one thing: that God created these lions, and has the supreme power to shut their mouths. They forgot also that the Son of God Himself is called the Lion of Judah. Daniel was a son of the Lion of Judah. This means that it is difficult for lions to eat lions, especially if it is a great lion thrown into their den.
Daniels God intervened in good time and this will be your experience, in Jesus name. He prayed in the lions den. The enemy did not understand his life style. It is a good prayer point to say, “Let my life continually confuse the enemy, in the name of Jesus”.
Those men who threw Daniel in the lions den were eaten up. So the sword used against Daniel by the enemy turned against the enemy. While they planned to destroy him, they did not know that, by the same token, they were planning their own destruction.
In the same vein. God permits our enemies to thrive so that they can know that our God is, indeed, great. The Bible says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him of them all” (Psalm 34:19).
This makes it dangerous, to give up your service to the Lord, or to give up in the face of adversity. The Bible says the hair on our head is numbered. And if God is careful enough to number the hair on our head, how much more our lives?
That widow of Zarephath was at the end of the road, but God turned things around for her. This means that there is no hopeless situation, but people grow hopeless about situations. Your present situation. may cause other people to ridicule you, very soon, God will intervene and turn your situation around. Your God will now make a way where there is no way.
The incident of Israelites by the Red Sea is well known. Why did God wait until the Egyptians were very close? God shows up when things look hopeless. When doctors throw up their arms in despair, and lawyers, too, say, This is a hopeless case, it is then the Almighty moves into action.
This makes it imperative for us to learn the principles of shameless prayers.
Perhaps, you are already feeling defeated, worried or anxious about your situation. You must not allow your plight to drain your strength. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
Let us look at Ecclesiastics 7:14:
EccL 7:14: In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath sot the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.
I This means that, while we rejoice in the day of prosperity we should, in the day of adversity, never lose hope but trust that God is in control. That is why it is said that, there is no education like adversity.
The Psalmist says, Before I was afflicted, I went astray: but now I have kept thy words (Psalm 119:67).
If you observe an individual in times of adversity you will be able to tell what they are made of.
A young girl once came to report her mother. The girl was suffering from attacks of asthma and her mother had tried her best to alleviate her problems. The girl came to ask me what is meant by a person being bewitched by another person? I asked her who said that to her and she replied that it was her mother. What could be deduced was that her mother had given up on the girl.
CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS IN THE SCHOOL OF ADVERSITY
There are many students in the school of adversity. In that school, the pass rate is very low. They are the people who, when confronted by adversity:
Become bitter (against their parents, children, friends: neighbours, etc.): to succeed in the school of adversity, we need to put bitterness aside:
Fall apart and their predicament becomes known to everyone:
Respond with anger – this must go, if you must succeed in the school of adversity;
Respond with hatred against other people. This is tackling adversity the wrong way:
Respond with weakness and allow things to disintegrate, give up and become careless;
Backslide and become lukewarm towards the things of Make statements of failure. Examples of these are, ‘Nobody cares about me’. “Everyone seems to be against me”. 1 am worried that nothing works for me.”;
Face their adversity with discouragement. Many people quit at the edge of their breakthroughs. Discouragement is the most dangerous thing that can happen to a man in the school of adversity. When people get discouraged. They Say the wrong prayers. Moses and Elijah prayed to die because of discouragement (Numbers 11; 1 Kings 19);
•Think wrongly; Do the wrong things. Moses smote the rock out of discouragement (Numbers 20). Elijah ran away from Jezebel. Elijah took to his heels shortly after he called down fire from heaven upon the prophets of Baal. Due to discouragement he ran from a woman (1 Kings 19):
•See the wrong things. The spies saw giants instead of God and difficulties instead of Gods power (Numbers 13);
•End up in the wrong place. Jonah found himself in the belly of the fish; Elijah found himself under the tree, instead of pursuing Jezebel out of the land. Discouraged people are bad partners;
Get into the wrong spirit of defeat, murmuring, criticism, complaints, etc.
Discouragement is a very bad thing in the school of adversity. Unfortunately, many of us downgrade ourselves when faced with adversity. Whenever you are in the school of adversity, you should encourage yourself in the Lord.
Discouraged people cannot hear from God or commune with Him properly. The devil knows that encouragement brings hope, but discouragement causes despair. The devil knows that when a person is discouraged he fails to tie up a lot of loose ends. Whenever adversity strikes, the first thing the devil brings is discouragement.
A patient who receives no encouragement to live will begin to die gradually. A lot of people come to God forgetting the many mistakes they have made in the past and wonder if God has gone on a holiday.
Discouragement has killed more people then the sickness of malaria.
But when your heart is not encouraged, you will not receive good things from the Lord.
The children of Israel did not hear the voice of the Lord, when they got to Red Sea. All they heard was the voice of death. They cried out to Moses, asking him whether there were no graves in Egypt for them to die. In response, Moses did the most sensible thing: he prayed.
Discouragement is a terrible thing in the school of adversity. During the World War II, some children were rescued from the camp of the enemy. All of them were suffering from malnutrition. They were taken to another camp where they were cared for with the best medical care, food. etc.
However, to the amazement of those looking after them, they never slept at night, in spite of the fact that these children were well fed. Every night, they grew restless, rolling about and groaning. The doctors came to examine them but found nothing. Then somebody came along and said if the children were to sleep well, each of them should be given a slice of bread to hold. This was done. That night, all the children slept soundly. What was the problem with these children?
The children had grown used not being sure of food. The anxiety caused them sleepless nights. But, now, with that bread in their hands, they know that they had the next day’s supply.
When you are discouraged, you need to make a personal conscious effort to encourage yourself. If you get discouraged in the school of adversity, you will fail easily.
You need to be ready for battle at all times. You don’t have to wait for the devil to strike before you get ready. Proverbs 24:10 implies that a day of adversity will come. You have to be strong before that day of adversity comes. You have to be prepared at all times. David did not start using the sling on the day he met Goliath, he had been using the weapon before to fight lions, tigers and other wild beasts.
As I once said at a sermon, when you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. David was already well prepared, so when the day of adversity came he was able to stand up to Goliath to tell him, Though you are big, God is bigger. If he was not prepared maybe, he would not have been able to face Goliath.
As antidote to adversity is to prepare for war in time of peace.
SOLUTIONS
Do not be distracted. There are many distractors around who would divert your mind away from the most important things, to unimportant things. This is why, believers, need to be conscious of human praises. We may get carried away, then arrows will come into our lives.
You have to avoid flatterers. Likewise, we need not pay attention to those who criticise and ridicule our efforts. These days there are a lot of fake Christians in the house of the Lord. Many who claim to be born again are only born against, they have not understood salvation at all, let alone receiving it. They are in all churches and everywhere.
Watch out for comfort, especially comfort brought by prosperity. The devil can knock you down by making you comfortable. Many people are able to stand firm when they are financially down; they are able to pray like fire. When they have money, their prayer loses its fire power and the enemy strikes. They may want a person to be prosperous if in that state that the person prays less. This is because fire prayer makes the devil uncomfortable.
Conclusively, the Lord does not want us to be failures in the school of adversity.
PRAYER POINTS
1. O God arise, and let my pursuers scatter, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every strongman, sitting on my progress, what are you waiting for? Die, in the name of Jesus.
3. (Stretch forth your two hands). Everything stolen from my life, by household witchcraft, I repossess them by fire. in the name of Jesus.
4. (Stretch forth your hands). I bind and cast out, every spirit of almost there, in the name of Jesus.
5. (Lay one hand on your head, the other on your chest). I shall not give up at the edge of my breakthrough; it is my enemy that shall give up, in the name of Jesus.
6. You the strongman, behind my problem, what are you waiting for? Die, in the name of Jesus.
7. Riches of the gentiles, re-arrange yourselves and locate me, in the name of Jesus.
8. Every witchcraft operation, at the edge of my breakthrough, die in the name of Jesus.
9. Holy Ghost fire, pull down every barrier blocking my progress, in the name of Jesus.
10. I refuse, to participate in any failure of my family, in the name of Jesus.
11. I bury my failure today, in the name of Jesus.
12. Every rack and rag of poverty, be roasted in the name of Jesus.
13. Any power that says I shall not progress, what are you waiting for? Die, in the name of Jesus.
14. Every cage of household witchcraft, working against my destiny, break, in the name of Jesus.
15. My God shall arise and my enemies shall scatter, in the name of Jesus.
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