THE SCHOOL OF ADVERSITY
Proverbs 24:10: If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
Psalm 27:13: I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
This Psalm says if you fail to believe that you can experience the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living you are bound to faint.
Sometime ago, I was reading a story abroad about the high rate of suicide of a country. The government commissioned teams of counselors to deal with the problem. Their job was to persuade suicide bidders from killing themselves. The counselors would follow up a would-be self-killer and draw his attention to the good things he could still do with his life. In most cases, these counselors succeeded in talking the frustrated persons out of the idea of committing suicide. At other times they did not succeed.
In one case, a man climbed up a high-rise building to take a plunge. He was followed up by a counselor who tried all he could to dissuade the man from killing himself, but to no avail. The counselor offered to give the man five minutes to explain why he must kill himself after which he, the counselor, would spend five minutes to tell the man why he should not kill himself.
The prospective self-killer accepted the deal and, told the counselor why he must kill himself after which the counselor, too, spent five minutes telling the fellow why he should not kill himself. At the end of this, both of them agreed to take the plunge together, after the original prospective self-killer had convinced the counselor that he, too, should kill himself.
There seemed to be many questions but very few answers or none at all. Sometimes, we feel there is no need to cry any more to God but circumstances around us keep saying, You can never make it”. Or when we are aware of facing satanic persecution and everyone seems to hate you. The trend is as when one problem strikes us and we are about to surmount it, another raises its head. This is when it really feels as if one has as fiery darts of the enemy keep assailing the shield of our faith. All our friends have abandoned us and that we are at the lowest reb. In that state one is probably waiting for the last straw that will break the camel’s back.
All the instances mentioned above are what the Bible calls the days of adversity.
A woman had a baby, and on the christening day, her husband walked in and said to the wife, Well, it has come to my notice that I am not the father of the child, so nobody will attend christening, the baby must not take on my surname. He adds, you may name the baby your own fathers name.
The man walked out. The woman felt like killing herself.
After she was dissuaded from killing herself, a pastor came to name the baby. However, something woke the woman up and said to her to kill herself by taking a whole bottle of Valium which was in the room.
Recalling the shame and the humiliation she had earlier been subjected to by her husband, the woman obeyed the voice. She was about taking the drug over-doze when, the same voice told her to kill first the baby so that the baby would not be subjected to the harrowing experience of growing up as an orphan. This idea appealed to her so she went for the babys neck to squeeze life out of the baby.
As she took hold of the baby, another voice screamed at her, telling her not to give up, but give herself another chance. At this point, the woman changed her mind. She could see the bottle of Valium in one part of the room and the baby she was about to kill in another part of the room and she became confused. But both voices continued to bombard her with reasons for and against suicide, respectively, throughout the night.
The next morning, she ran to me. She was living next door to me. I noticed that there was some arrangement for a party the previous night but guests did not turn up. When I asked her what happened, the woman told me that she and her new baby could have been dead the previous night as a result of her husband disowning her and her baby and walking out on them.
After listening to her story, I prayed for her. Whilst praying a voice spoke from her throat saying, Well, I am her grand-mother, I have already married her in the spirit world, why then would she marry another man? I shall kill her!
We continued praying, I urge her not to kill herself. On the second day the husband came with an entourage. To apologize and ask for forgiveness for what he did to his wife. But the question is, supposing she had killed herself and the baby, what could have been her plight?
A sister was bundled like a log into my counseling room after the man she was to marry walked out on her, just two days to the wedding. The run-away groom confirmed that he would marry the chief-bridesmaid. The former bride collapsed after taking some poison. Even as she was packed, as it was, into my office she was still insistent on killing herself. In my office she was still insistent on killing herself. Eventually, we succeeded in dissuading her from killing herself.
Two weeks later the man that married the other lady died afterwards. The sister found another man, and on the day she got married, I teased her by asking, What if you had killed yourself the other time, would you be married today?
DAY OF ADVERSITY – NO ONE ESCAPES
There is the day of adversity from which no one can escape. Jesus Christ Himself faced His own day of adversity. He cried in the garden, Father, take this cup away from me; nevertheless, let thy will be done. He was facing His own day of adversity.
WHAT IS ADVERSITY?
Adversity is a state of hardship or affliction. It is a state which is contrary to our well being.
Adversity means misfortune, distress and, sometimes, tragedy or poverty.
Adversities are circumstances that cause trouble and sorrow.
As a small boy, I never climbed a tree no matter the reason. One day, however, someone took me to somewhere called Railway compounds to pluck fruits. We did not know that the occupants had a big dog which started barking almost immediately we started plucking mangoes in the compound. By the time we turned back to look, the giant dog was almost on us. There was no other way of escape apart from the top of a tree. Somehow, I found myself on top of that tree. How I got there was a mystery to me. This is an example of what adversity can cause anyone to do; that is to achieve the impossible.
Many people could not believe they could become prayer warriors until they had received two or three slaps from the devil, then they got spurred into violent prayers. Previously they lacked interest in praying aggressively.
A road without obstacles would lead you nowhere. This means that, without a struggle there can be no progress. It is for this reason that God uses adversity to train us.
In prosperity, friends know you, conversely, during adversity, you know your friends. There is no education like adversity; it trains people more than any teacher. No wonder the Bible says, If thou faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. You develop courage by surviving difficult times. Difficulty is a harsh trainer that trains people into greatness. We grow through tough times.
Adversity forces us to focus on our purpose in life. This means that adversity clarifies our goals. Many people are hardly aware of their goals or directions until problems assail them. And God, in His own strength and wisdom, is a trainer. He trained Jonah by force. The man (Jonah) was supposed to go to Nineveh but headed for Tarshish. God was not worried, but if Jonah went quietly to Nineveh, the Adversities can be disasters, opposition or trouble.
Adversity can be trials, unfavourable circumstances, and hostile opposition.
Those who are quite familiar with the English language know well that words like adverse and adversary are all brothers of adversity; and the original meaning of this word means something turning against you.
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. This means that, the day of adversity is not the day to be tired. It is not the day to be weak or to hide your face and start crying. The crying of a believer is an entertainment for the devil, this is what he wishes us, to be crying and wailing endlessly.
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. And this small strength is quite insufficient to cope with the adversity because the Bible says, Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. The Bible does not say, Be weak in the Lord.
If there were no strong adversary, the Bible would not advise to be strong. The day you rise up and vow to pursue your divine destiny, there are bound to be opposition, attacks, hostility, and envious arrows.
FACTS ABOUT ADVERSITY
To enable you to see why it is not good to be weak or for one to faint in the day of adversity, it is important to make some statements about adversity.
Adversity brings out our talents, which, undercomfortable
circumstances, would have remained dormant THE SCHOOL OF ADVERSITY
fish would not have swallowed him, and neither would he have done the three-day emergency fasting. God asked the fish to swallow him up and immediately Jonah got inside the fish, there was no food to eat and since he could not eat raw fish he remained inside the fish for three days praying and fasting. The enzymes in the stomach of the fish began to digest Jonahs clothes gradually so that when the fish vomited Jonah, the man preached like no mans ‘business. In fact, by the time he screamed at his audience, the people quickly repented.
The adversity God organised for Jonah clarified his goal for him.
Adversity builds our character. By this, it nurtures our growth. It is said that the strongest trees are found in places where wind is strong.
As fire is being used to test gold, adversity is the test for strong men. After the prophecy on the life of Jesus, He was pushed by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by the devil.
A man is not finished when he suffers defeat. We suffer defeat every day but a man is finished only when he surrenders. We must, never surrender to the enemy.
According to Job 14:1, no one can completely avoid adversity:
Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
You are not the only one going through problems. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says:
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Adversity is not meant to get us down but to build us up. For example, it may come in the form of illness, which God uses to draw us aside and talk to us.
Adversity can be Gods call to us for self-examination. It may be God using it to conquer our pride.
Adversity motivates to cry out to God. The Psalmist says, in the day that I cry then shall my enemies turn back. This I know, for God is with me”.
Adversity may be the evidence that you need to do spiritual warfare and that there is a battle you need to fight. A lot of us leave our battles unfought. we transfer our battles to wolves to fight for us.
Adversity can be God’s way of purifying our faith. Adversity may be a signal from God for us to evaluate our priorities.
Adversity may be God’s way of helping us check the kinds of friends we have.
Proverbs 17:17:A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
It is possible to have a friend who is really not a friend but an enemy. But adversity tells you who is who.
The day of adversity is the wrong day to become weak. The enemy, in desperation, would reinforce and regroup while you relax, and your problems will accumulate.
The Psalmist says, I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness with the Lord in the land of the living
Psalm 27:14.
The Bible also says, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint lsa. 40:31.
It is a fact of life, that situations look hopeless sometimes. All through the ages, the needs of men have always been the same. There are a countless number of people who have been driven to despair. Many people have toyed with the idea of giving up.
A lot of people pray not to become prophets as many of the things they will see in visions are likely to make them sleepless; if you are not strong enough, you may collapse one day when you see that someone who is about to experience breakthroughs, suddenly fails to do so or is diverted into some evil ways. You will be disheartened, unless you have lost all sense of feeling towards other people.
The reason for this statement is that many people reading this message are at the point of their breakthroughs now but though their situation looks utterly hopeless. The Bible describes such a situation in Psalm 107:26-31.
They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. “They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end. “Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. “He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. “Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
When men give up at a seemingly hopeless case, God turns the situation around.
A girl, given up for dead, was once put on a life support machine, but God spoke to a man of God to start going to the girl’s bedside every day to pray for ten minutes. The man of God kept to this routine. But each day that he went into the hospital, the nurses would laugh and giggle at his ‘foolish’ hope of reviving a girl on a life support machine. This did not deter the man as he formed a habit of not opening his eyes during his prayers so as not be discouraged by the hopeless state of the girl.
One day, he came for his prayer as usual and was confronted by the nurses who told him of their intention to switch off the life support by the next day so that she could be buried. The man felt bad but was encouraged by the word of God to say his normal ten-minutes prayer and left.
The next day, the nurses came to disconnect the life support. As they did this, they noticed that the patient was winking. They screamed and alerted people all around and a commotion ensued. Amid the commotion, the patient only got better and came back to life after staying in the hospital for thirteen months.
A hopeless situation may not be an illness or an incurable disease, failed marriage, jilted lover, guilt of sin, failed examination or failure to achieve one’s goal, it could be on any matter beyond our personal solutions but if you faint at that hour it is like after taking three steps forward you then take four steps backward.
An old Christian once received some sad news about his daughter in the secondary school becoming pregnant by her teachers. The old man dropped his head in sadness and asked what happened. His personal assistant began to console him. Shortly, after the personal assistant received some similar news about his apprentice daughter got pregnant by the master. When he got the bad news, he broke down. This surprised the old man who was being consoled, so he asked the assistant, Were you not consoling me a while ago? Shouldn’t you have enough strength to withstand your own tragedy too?
The assistant fainted in the day of adversity.
Small strength is not adequate to flight the battle.
Unfortunately, many of us have sought destructive assistance, which has turned round to put us in a lot of trouble.
A brother wanted to travel abroad by all means. He tried to get a visa but could not. Afterwards, he got information about a herbalist who could help him out. When he got to the herbalist, the man gave him one hundred needles to swallow. The desperate fellow objected to the suggestion, on the excuse that the needle might puncture his intestine.
While they still debated this, a lady, who came in for the same purpose readily accepted the needle. When the young man saw this, he felt challenged that if a woman could swallow what scared him, he should be able to do better. He requested for the needle and which he swallowed on the spot with the aid of some cassava paste (eba).
The understanding was that once he swallowed those needles he would become invisible to immigration officials at the airport. With this assurance, he bought his ticket and headed for the airport. As he passed through the immigration area, the officials called out to him and demanded to see his passport. As there was no visa, they threw him into detention after dealing with him with some severe beating. But the worst was yet to come.
After he had gone through the ordeal, the needles he swallowed started to torment him. The needles came out of him at a deliverance session in our church. The fellow could be said to have swallowed needles in the day of adversity then, as he was too desperate to travel.
One of the ways you can succeed in the day of adversity is contained in what Jesus said in Luke 18:1, that: … ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Perhaps, as a child of God, you are going through a tough time now, feeling the heat and thinking that God does not care about you. Do not despair, for your God specializes in impossibilities and can bring honey out of the rock.
The enemy may have carried out his own operations and is already rejoicing that it is completed. But the words of that ancient hymn writer say, By whom shall Jacob arise? For his strength is small and his enemies are many; and his friends are few, and even these few friends still fight among them. How, therefore, shall Jacob arise? The last verse says, Lord, its only You who can descend upon Jacob like dew and Jacob shall arise”.
Perhaps, you have concluded that, My case has been beyond remedy. The witchcraft verdict has been passed upon me, and all you do is to operate according to their verdict. Do not despair, or give up; you may be closer to your breakthrough than you think, with just one final blow to the situation in the form of a prayer point, and you will move into the realm of your breakthrough.
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