WHEN YOU ARE KNOCKED DOWN | When You Are Knocked Down by Dr. D.K Olukoya

 WHEN YOU ARE KNOCKED DOWN

I want you to close your eyes and take the following prayer points before reading this chapter.

1. Anything, that will not allow God to help me, be shaken out of my life by fire, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every spirit of the valley, I reject you, in the name of Jesus.

3. I command dumbfounding miracles into my hands, in the name of Jesus.

If you ask believers who knew the Lord several years ago to recount their experiences in the Lord, most of them will tell you that they have been knocked down at one time or the other.

IT IS PART OF THE RACE

,Being knocked down is part of the Christian life. When you come unto God, the first thing He does is to give you a blow and knock you down. He does this because He must first break you down before He lifts you up.

Generally, when you come unto God at salvation you are so sure of yourself and you want to walk in the high places, scale the utmost heights and achieve great feats physically and spiritually. Your eyes are focussed on the top of great virtue of Christian faith. So God allows you to get knocked down so that you can bow down before the cross, knowing that you have no power of your own.

No matter how strong the energy of the flesh is and no matter how violent your will power is, since God wants you to know that the race is not for the swift, He will run you through the school of affliction.

The Bible says this:

Eccles. 9:11: I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

God will allow you to be knocked down in order to chisel away the evils in your past, and to put you into shape, He   knows that if He allows you to remain as raw as you are, when you  come to Him, you will not be able to fit into the divine will.

Being knocked down, is not a strange experience. Most of the strong Christians you admire today were knocked down at particular stages of their Christian life. The great men of God that are celebrities today were knocked down by one experience or the other before God raised them up as mighty instruments of power.

Being knocked down is not the worst thing that can happen td you. No human condition is hopeless, the only person who has no hope is the man who has died. Therefore, as you go through life, remember one thing: if you ever get knocked down don’t be knocked out.

I have discovered that most people do not know how to handle crisis. A lot of people have allowed negative experiences in life to get them knocked out.

WHAT DO YOU DO…?

The question is, what do you do when you are knocked down? What do you do when your beautiful dreams suddenly collapse? What do you do when you go through negative traumatic experiences? What do you do when you discover that all the good news you previously had has suddenly become bad news? What do you do when you get knocked down after you have made brilliant calculations and laid excellent plans on the table?

What do you do when your best becomes your worst? What do you do when all the respect you previously earned from friends, colleagues and members of your community suddenly disappear and people are no longer willing to set their eyes on you? What do you do when you have your own crisis, while you are very busy helping others? What will you do if your hopes are dashed and your expectations are not fulfilled? How will you react when you suddenly get disappointed after you have made loud positive confessions?

What will you do after you have boasted and bragged about your achievements and everything becomes punctured, even before you are on your last statement? What do you do when confusion fills your heart while others are waiting for you to provide them with answers to life’s. greatest questions? What do you do when your marriage suddenly collapses and the home you have been building for 30 years become scattered? What do you do when you muster every strength within you only to fall flat on your face? What do you do when you are surrounded by wicked enemies?

108

 What do you do when you suffer serious attack from those you assisted? What do you do when all your benefactors and supporters suddenly turn against you? What do you do when you prepared so well for an examination but the result is unfavourable? What do you when you go through an embarrassing situation? What do you do when your income begins to dwindle and debts begin to mount?

What do you do when everything around you seems to have collapsed? What do you do when everything around you is telling you that God has contradicted Himself? What do you do when your friends are against you? What do you do when your time and God’s timing fail to agree? What do you do when you believe that things are going to work out but never do according to your belief?

What do you do when you have done everything you knew how to do and everything ended in failure? What do you do when your friends are tired of you? What do you do when family members begin to avoid you? What do you do when your pastor becomes tired of your case? What do you do when prayer points prove ineffective?

What do you do when positive confessions fail? What do you do when you have spent all available time attending programmes and prayer meetings and nothing seemed to have worked? What do you when what works for other people fails to work for you? What do you do when you have laboured until you no longer have strength only to discover that every effort made has yielded nothing? What do you do when you are misunderstood?

What do you do when your enemies seem to be succeeding in spite of the fact that you are placing all your hope in God? What do you do when there is no ray of hope on the horizon? What do you do when it seems that you have come to the end of the road? What do you do when you are weak and tired? What do you do when you do not know where your next meal will come from?

What do you do when the devil seems to be having a field day? What do you do when you are completely knocked down and there is no hope of upliftment?

 Unless you choose to live in a fool’s paradise, you will not go about believing that you can never get knocked down. A little matter can get  you knocked, down and insignificant experiences in your business, in your home, or in the church, can  knock you down—What you never imagined could get you discourage or may suddenly get you to a point where life becomes nothing but a bundle of confusion to you.

In view of all these, you must know what to do when you are knocked down.

This reminds me of a man who had a very frightening experience. He fell from the top of a very high mountain. He would have fallen into the ditch below the mountain but he managed to hold on to one of the branches of a tree that was close by. He managed to hold on to the tree until his grip was becoming weaker and weaker. Everything within him told him to get ready for death because he had nowhere to turn to. He screamed to God for help: “0 Lord, save me”.

Instantly he had a voice from heaven saying: “I will surely save you. You will not perish, but you must do one thing, loose your grip on the branch of the tree and I wilt c h you when you fall down below”.

The man became afraid. He felt that God was contradicting

Himself. How could he release his grip from his only means of survival and safety? Then he decided to shout, “Is there any human being around, apart from God?” He felt that God ran contrary to his expectation.

I have had a similar experience. Have you ever come to a point in your life when you suddenly felt that God had declined you? -Let me tell you, you are not alone in that kind of crisis. Jeremiah once felt so when he said: ”O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stranger than I, and hast prevailed, I am in derision daily,

every one mocketh me” (Jeremiah 20:7).

In the Scriptures, it is said:

1 Kings 17:1-10: And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. ‘And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, ‘Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. ‘And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. ‘So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. “And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. ‘And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, °Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.

What do you do when your brook dries up? What do you do when the sources of your sustenance and survival suddenly dry up?

Elijah went through an experience that appeared negative on the surface. However, God promoted him through that experience.

I want you to close your eyes and pray like this: My disappointment shall become a breakthrough, in the name of Jesus.

Elijah had a unique experience. While other prophets were being fed on bread and water, he was being specially fed from heaven. Everything was going on well until the brook dried up. What he relied on for daily sustenance suddenly dried up.

IMPORTANT TRUTHS

Let me stress this important truth.

 If a problem is going to catapult you to great heights, you can’t avoid it. There was no way Moses could have avoided Pharaoh. The destruction of Pharaoh brought about Moses’ promotion.

There was no way David could have avoided Goliath. His promotion lied in his confrontation with Goliath. Goliath was a real problem but when David confronted him, he met his promotion.

I want you to note another statement. God has a school for His children but has different curricula for each of us.

Brother ‘A’ may receive some blows from Him, whit sister ‘B’ may be spared. This shows us that He has different programmes or courses for His children. He knows y and He knows your peculiar problems. Therefore, He knows what course to run you through.

Many years ago, God gave me a message which I preached in a particular church, but by the time I finished the message they warned me that I should never come to that church again. The title of the message was ‘When God’s word refuses to change a man’. I made them to know that when a man refuses to be changed by God’s word, the next thing is divine judgement or chastisement.

God has a school for all His children. Some of Gods children are not going to learn their lesson until God runs them through turbulent situations. Many children of God are so deaf spiritually speaking, that they cannot benefit from the word of God, until God shakes them and subjects them to rigorous trials and afflictions.

If you tell a sister to pray and put more fire in her prayer, she might come up with an excuse that her husband told her not to pray. If you tell another sister that her dressing is unbecoming of a true child of God she might tell you that her husband likes it like that. That kind of sister is not going to listen to the word of God until God decides to remove the husband.

Some Christians are too lazy in prayer simply because they are surrounded by praying people. They are not going to change until God decides to remove such people then they will learn by force how to pray.

I know a prophet who had a strange experience when I was a young convert. He woke up one morning to discover that every strand of hair on his head was gone. He became afraid and looked everywhere wondering who had come at night to give him a clean shave. There was no evidence of such an action. He cried unto God, asking to know the secret of what happened to him.

I he Lord gave him a shocking reply: “I decided to remove every hair on your head because it was standing between you and me; I discover that you have come to the point where the hair on your head has become an idol and you have no time for me. You are busy going everywhere carrying a comb in your pocket with which you style your hair every passing moment”. God had to remove the prophets hair because it had become a stumbling block.

I heard the story of a man who was suffering from the cancer of the throat because he was a chain smoker. They had to remove some part of his throat to keep him alive. Later, the doctor discovered that his tongue must be removed too. Ile asked the doctor to do him a favour by allowing him the smoke a last packet of cigarettes he had. This shows how hardened he was. His experience did not teach him to give tip smoking totally the third statement I am going to make is that no single human being has all the wisdom and ability to meet the needs of the hour. You need other people. You cannot lwe in isolation.

God is interested in removing all the props that make us to forget Him. God wants to remove our dependence on earthly resources and make us to look unto Him for our supplies.

The Bible says, “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of (Isaiah 2:22).

Privilege can turn to pride. A lot of people that are given privileges by God have allowed pride to fill their hearts even when they know that if the responsibility given to them was to be based on merit, they would never have been given such a post.

A man who failed the School Certificate examination several times decides to seek more of God with a hungry heart. When such a man becomes baptised in the Holy Ghost, he may receive the anointing to do exploits for Christ. Such a person may get to a point where he begins to minister and pray for university professors. If such a person decides to throw humility into the dustbin, pride will make him lose his physical and spiritual privileges.

Elijah had a special privilege. God placed him near sources of blessing. If you allow your privilege to get into your head by exerting your position at the Brook Cherith, God can decide to tear it up so you know that blessing can sometimes become a barrier to our usefulness to God.

This reminds me of the story of a sister who was very consistent in attending to her Christian duties. She was the first person to come to the church and was spending her time in the service of the Lord. She had a rickety fan that was no longer functioning properly. The fan made such a violent noise that it was impossible for the sister to sleep at night. She cultivated the habit of constant midnight prayer. Her financial condition was not so comfortable so she had no other option than to worship God.

When God saw that she was very faithful, He lavished stupendous blessings on her. She became so wealthy that she installed several split air-conditioners in her apartment. There was comfort everywhere. Later, when we told her to be coming to night vigils, she complained: “Sorry, man of God, I can’t stand mosquitoes”. Her blessing had become a source of hindrance.

Do not allow your own blessing to become a source of hindrance. If you begin to worship your Brook Cherith, God will dry it up.

Every Cherith has a Zarephath. It is good to get to a point where everything becomes smooth, but you must remember that God can take you from plenty into famine, if God knows that you need to go through that kind of experience to become who and what He wants you to be.

On the other hand, the fact that your brook has dried up does not mean that God has finished with you. If one source dries up, it does not mean that God has finished with you. If one source dries up other sources will spring forth. God has provided a widow in Zarephath to feed you.

I want you to read these seven statements over and over again until the truth contained in them abide in your heart

Don’t cry whenever you are knocked down. Lift up your -eyes to the One from whom all blessings flow.

Are you going through a crisis at this moment? Are you a ‘weeping Jeremiah’? Have you wondered why things appear not to be going the way you anticipated? It is wrong to cry when it appears that you are knocked down. Lookup to God and He will change your situation.

op you know that God can open His own door when all other doors appear closed against you? God can start a new programme with you, when everybody around you has concluded that all hope is lost. When God starts a new thing with you, your enemies will have no option but to bow down before you.

The Bible says, -When men are cast down, then thou shall say, there is lifting up, and he shall save the humble person” (Job 22:29).

Do you know that there is a lifting up of every knock down experience? There is a lifting up no matter how down you are.

 There is a lifting up, do not give up when you are knocked down, what you need is not pity or human sympathy. You only need to get up and move ahead.

A man had an experience that can best be described as being knocked down. He was a successful merchant and so wealthy that his tithe and offering were the largest in the entire church. Suddenly, he had an experience that knocked him down. But he did not allow that experience to keep him on the ground he kept on holding on to God. Do you know what happened to him? There was a large flood that turned every grain of salt in his shop into water. The mishap became the talk of the town, it was televised and the news was brought into every home. Everybody knew that the man was a Christian. Neighbours and business colleagues tried to sympathise with him.

But instead of trying to draw sympathy from anybody, he went everywhere with a smile on his face. He told those who tried to console him that he needed no consolation as GOd was going to use what has happened to him to lift him up. He told everyone that although he had lost everything, he was going to bounce back with a larger shop that would become the largest salt shop in his community. True to his faith and pronouncement, God visited him and within a short time he became the owner of a shop that was not only bigger than the former one, but the largest in the whole city.

I would like you to take the following prayer points:

1. I am getting out of the valley by fire, in the name of Jesus.

2. I refuse to build any house in the valley, in the name of Jesus.

3. I am getting up, I am moving up, in the name of Jesus.

4. Witchcraft power, carry your load of stagnation, in the name of Jesus.

There is a wonderful animal called the chameleon. This animal has the ability to change its colour, depending on its environment. There is a demonic chameleon which the enemy has programmed unnoticed into the lives of many people. The assignment given to this evil chameleon is to make people give up at the edge of miracles.

Many people have given up when a little perseverance would have taken them to the realm of success. A lot of people are not aware of the power of the enemy hence they give up just when they get to the frontier of success.

A lot of satanic agents have gained access into the church of the living God. They know they influence people to give up just when they are about reaching their miracles. If you listen to the voice of the enemies, they would pack rubbish into your life. You must decide that you would not listen to them.

You must also make up your mind not to echo satanic messages. The dark chameleons in the lives of some people are family problems. Whenever a particular family is about to express a breakthrough, a crucial sudden eruption develops between the husband and wife. You must unmask the satanic agents that have been programmed into your life.

The devil has influenced many people to underrate themselves. Do you know that one of the best Christian hymns ever produced was initially thrown into the dustbin by the composer? However, the song was recovered by somebody who exclaimed, “What a wonderful song it is!” That was how a challenging song found its way to our homes. The composer of that song would have deprived the church of the blessing of that song because of discouragement.

Do you know that one of the greatest musicians in world history was initially written off as a nonentity by his music teacher? The first time he attended a music school, the teacher wondered how he found his way into the school because he did not have a good voice. Thank God, he did not give up.

/ Do you know the history of the aircraft? When the first aeroplane was constructed, it was a failure. When they invited a whole city to come and witness the first flight of the aircraft only five people turned up as people did not believe that a machine could fly.

I was challenged when I read about one John Kennedy Pool who took volumes of manuscripts to publishers but got his work rejected at every attempt. The man was so discouraged that he committed suicide. Strange enough, years after he died, his book became bestselling. I discovered that his book won the best prize in fiction. Meanwhile, he had died. He became a classical example of what it means to give up at the edge of success.

Do you know that the works of Charles Dickens, the author of Oliver Twist. Animal farm and 1984, were rejected so many times that nobody thought he would become such a popular author?

You also know that John Bunyan, the writer of Pilgrim’s Progress was once called a wizard. If he had listened to the voice of people, he would not have become such a wonderful blessing to the body of Christ.

The first time the renowned evangelist, Billy Graham, mounted the rostrum to preach, the woman who he later married felt like running out of the meeting because the sermon was so nauseating. Yet this man rose to become the greatest evangelist America has ever produced.

I have brought in all these examples to encourage you. I want you to know that you should never feel that you can never make it. God can always lift you up to any level.

SOLUTION

How can you cope with the situation that appears negative? What do you do when you are knocked down?

Remain in God’s will.

JI everybody around you is confused, don’t be confused, don’t allow what you have gone through to lead you into sin. Don’t allow what you have suffered to get you into trouble.

A man came to me for prayers. He told me how his friends invited him to participate in a shady deal. I warned him to to steer clear of such ungodly friends. He flared up and said; “Man of add, no matter what is going to happen, I am going to get involved in that deal. I have remained poor as a result of listening to church sermons. Why must I remain poor when others are getting rich because they are smart? You cannot persuade me, even if you preach to me for one whole week”.

Everything I told him fell on deaf ears. Eventually, he joined the ungodly gang to carry out the deal. They were arrested and jailed. The man is still in the prison now. If he had remained at the centre of the will of God, he would have been blessed by God. Wait on God, He will take you from cherith to Zarephath.

 Ask God for wisdom and light concerning the way forward.

Surrender all the areas of your life to the Lord Jesus.

Work on all the hindrances of the flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit. Crucify the flesh.

Cry out to God when you find yourself in the midst of fire of affliction.

Can you remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? They experienced the presence and company of Jesus, the Son, in the midst of fire. God responded in a fantastic manner when the fire was hottest.

Someone told me about a robbery incident that took place in the house of a Christian couple. The robbers shouted on them to bring out all their trinkets and other valuables.

 The couple replied they were sorry, they were Christian and Christians don’t use trinkets and gold.

 The armed robber became impatient and said since you have decided not to co-operate with us, we are leaving you in the meantime to carry out our robbery operation in other parts of the neighborhood. Then, we shall come back to you.

The thieves went to other fiats and robbed them of all their property and money. When they were satisfied that they had gotten enough, they came back to the house of the Christian couple. They broke the door and entered and made the same request, “Bring out your trinkets and jewellery or we shall shoot you”.

The Christian couple repeated what they had said, “We have told you that we are Christians. We have neither gold nor trinkets”. The robbers were infuriated. Their leader ordered one of them to shoot the man. The wife said, “You cannot shoot my husband, In the name of Jesus”. The eyes of the head of the gang became blood-shot. He ordered one of the robbers to shoot her instead of the man. The robber pulled the trigger but something strange happened by a stroke of divine providence. The bullet missed the Christian sister and hit a mirror near where she was standing and broke it into pieces.

The greatest miracle was that some of the pieces of the glass flung at the stomach of the robber that fired the trigger and ripped it open and he fell down and died. When his colleagues saw what happened, they abandoned their loot in front of the couple’s house, carried their dead colleague and ran away. God came to the rescue of the Christian couple because they had nowhere else to turn to.

 When you are knocked down, don’t give up. There shall be a lifting up. Why not confess this statement of faith: “I shall not go down but even if I get knocked down, I will not be knocked out. I shall rise again by fire”.

Determine to fight the enemy with all your heart. The Bible says, Resist the devil and he shall flee from you”.

Rejoice in the Lord always. You must cultivate the habit of praising and worshipping God everyday. The devil hates the voice of praise. If he discovers that the voice of praise has ceased he will stage a come-back. Nothing terrifies him more than a believer who engages in praise and worship even when he is going through crisis.

PRAYER POINTS

1. O God, show Yourself mighty on my behalf, in thename of Jesus.
2. O God, You are my God, show it, in the name of Jesus.
3. O Lord, let the whole world know that I am serving the living God, in the name of Jesus.
4. O God, answer me by fire, in the name of Jesus.