Father, glorify thy name….

Firstly, let me apologize for taking so long to write this note….It has been a tumultuous couple of days, but I rejoice that He has kept me faithful…..and in moments where my heart and my flesh failed, the Lord was the strength of my heart, and my portion forever…..Indeed when my flesh slippeth, God’s mercies helped me up, and so I rejoice……

Today, I wanna go back to sharing mode……What I want to share with you is how to break free from the yokes that the enemy has placed in your life…….

Do you feel like there’s an area in your life where the enemy has had a foothold…..Are you a Christian, but feel like you are struggling in something that seems like it will hold you down and take you to destruction? Are you battling something that you don’t want to have to deal with, but you still find yourself struggling with? Are you fighting things that you wish the Son of man would set you free from?

Today, I want us to look at John 12:27-30. Here, Jesus was talking about his death, and you could clearly see that His heart was getting troubled. In verse 27, He asked God to save Him but He also knew that it was for the sins of man that He came into the world to die…..What encourages me is how Jesus went about it…..He cried out to God, and told God to glorify His (the Father’s) name……

A voice came from Heaven (and I believe it was God speaking to His only beloved son) and said, “I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again” in verse 28. Then Jesus said to the people that the voice came not for His sake, but for theirs……

OK, why is this relevant? For me, this verse was power, because Jesus showed us here how to handle situations when our hearts are troubled…..He asked God to glorify His name! Jesus demonstrated total obedience and submission unto Yahweh when asked God to glorify His name…..I believe that this is what Jesus wants us to do in every situation….to cry unto God to glorify His name……And in my spirit, I feel God telling me that He has indeed glorified His name, and He will yet do so again…..

So, in that situation that’s gotten you trapped, cry unto God and tell Him to glorify His name! You do not want to continue in sin (Christ says that He who sins is a slave of sin). And we need not be slaves of sin…..coz sin pays wages, and its wages are death…..

But back to where I was going……Yes, in my experience, the way to break away from those areas in which the enemy has you bound is to ask God to reveal to you the true purpose of the thing that has you bound……OK, let me explain……

In my life, I have noticed that the enemy comes to corrupt that which God has given me.....From my sexuality to my worship……The enemy is there to corrupt and make me fall…..But I thank God that He is my strength, my shield, my buckler and my anchor. He is my refuge and my strength….

Here’s what I want to share with ya……..For a long while, I was hooked on secular music…….OK, I know someone would ask what I mean, and why that is a problem…….Actually, there’s really nothing wrong with it per se, but what happened is that the enemy had corrupted it for me….

Here’s what I mean….the more I listened to it, the more I found I was drifting away from my total dependence on God to thinking that I had made it this far by myself….Every time I would find myself singing along to some love song, or bobbing my head to some rap music, I was edifying my flesh, and not glorifying God….I had become a lover of my flesh rather than a lover of God……..I wasn’t growing, but rather it was helping me sink deeper and deeper into my flesh, and deeper and deeper into my iniquities…..

And looking back at it, here was the problem…..the enemy had began to corrupt music (which was intended for us to use to worship Yahweh) and was slowly using it to corrupt my soul and my spirit….And that, helped fuel every sort of wickedness in my life….

But a subtle change began to happen when I started to read God’s word with understanding and with a newfound revelation of who He is in my life….When I began to realize that God expects me to be fruitful, I began to realize that I needed to prune out the things that weren’t helping me get to where I needed to be…..

Here’s the thing….Because I was mis-using my praise and singing by not using it to worship Him, I had given leeway to the enemy to use it to edify his earthly kingdom. When I restored my relationship with God, and began to use my praise and singing to glorify Him the enemy had lost His grip over that area in my life…….

Now, a weird thing began to happen. Now, the urge to listen to certain types of music has totally gone…..and even when I hear that music playing, I feel ill and want to leave that vicinity……OK, there are some blessings…..like 20GB of my hard drive is filled with stuff I don’t feel like listening to, so yay, I have extra space for other things………But more importantly, I thank God that He is glorifying His name in that area of my life……By restoring the Love of God into that area of my life, the enemy had no area in which to infiltrate my relationship with God….

As for some practical steps….How to break the enemy’s hold in a particular area of your life ….

1). The first thing that you have to resolve is to have God glorify His name in that area….The truth is that you can’t do it in your own strength…..your flesh will fail you, but His spirit is more than sufficient…So I want you to cry out to God, ask for His strength, pray for His deliverance, and ask that He glorifies His name…..Do it daily….get on your knees, humble yourself before Yahweh and ask Him to perfect that which concerns you! Ask Him to put up a hedge of protection and to surround you with His love…..

2). The second thing that you have to do is to starve that thing that you are bound…..So, if it is fornication, adultery, masturbation, whatever, you need to starve it……Stop, cease and desist ….. Crucify your wicked flesh, by speaking against it…..Tell it that it is wicked….It is diseased….It is sick and needs the great physician. Speak against your flesh……But don’t just stop here…….

3). The third thing you need to do is to substitute that thing with God…..OK, this is the tricky part…..Why? Because you need to figure out what is making you vulnerable to that area in the first place, and ask God to remove the triggers in your life…..For instance, for me, I had to starve myself from the music that was corrupting my life….I was vulnerable, because I didn’t have enough of God’s word in my life….and I had stopped making Him King and Lord…….In the place of the secular music, I turned to sacred music….As much as I could…..and feeding my spirit with the word of God…..so that I could finally knock off “self” from the pedestal that I had put it on…..Cry to God and tell Him to make the sheer sight of that thing iniquity in your eyes, and ask Him to make you love that which He loves…..blanket your life with the love of God, and don’t give the enemy an in again……..

4). The fourth thing that you need to do is to rebuke…..Even after you have done steps 1-3, the enemy will wait until you are most vulnerable, and try and attack you again….And when that happens rebuke that spirit……..One of the most powerful ways I have found to stand your ground after you have rebuked the enemy is to start worshipping God…..If you have a favorite song, that which makes your spirit and soul sour, start singing…..start praising……And when you rebuke, don’t just do it in your mind….speak it…..voice it, let the devil hear you rebuking him…..Rebuke him in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazereth…..Remind him that He is a defeated enemy….That you are clothed in righteousness…..Tell him like Christ did…..It is written, that thou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength…Honestly, do you not know that there is power in praise. The word says that He inhabits the praises of His people and when you begin to praise God earnestly, He inhabits that praise, and all evil has to bow and flee at the name of Jesus….Wat? Nothing can raise itself higher than the throne of God, and so everything in your life that seeks to elevate itself to the level of the throne of Yehovah kick it down in Jesus name and command it to flee…The word says that resist the devil and He will flee…Notice, it doesn’t say he might flee, or hopefully, if you are lucky he will flee…No, it says, resist the devil and he will flee…

5). The fifth thing is faith…..OK, this seems kinda strange, but keep thanking God that He has glorified His name in that area of your life….Keep saying it, keep believing it….Why? Your spirit already knows it, but your flesh doesn’t yet…..So put it to voice, and say with power! “Thank you Jesus for delivering me from the yoke of……” Speak it !!!!! Why? When you speak it, your ears hear it, and it gets into your mind……Remember God told you to renew your mind…..So when that word gets back into your mind it forms new branches and new connections……So when the enemy comes to put you in bondage, your mind will already have formed that connection and you’ll be able to say “wait, I can’t do that…..Jesus has delivered me from that…..”

Actually, in one particular area, I felt the Lord asking me why I was fooling around with things that He had already set me free from…..And that was a powerful word unto my spirit…..coz He who the son has set free is truly free!

And as you declare that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, praise God more….I mean act a fool….get a singing, get a dancing, praise, shout halleluyah! Honestly, get to a point where like David you sing, dance, do a jig until your clothes are almost about to fall…….

Here’s another thing the Lord showed me while I was at church…There was this person who was acting a fool and I didn’t get it….In my mind I was upset, thinking….what is wrong with that person…..The weird thing is that I didn’t manage to connect back to my worship until I apologized to God (came to realize that it was a preacher) and began to also be free and willing to act a fool….and boy, did I have a miraculous worship experience!

The word says Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!!!

So said, say you are redeemed, say So!

For me, just thinking that I was crucified with Christ, and that He make himself of no reputation, Him that was of reputation, that I might be cloaked in His righteousness gets me pumped….It gets me praising, and gives me the juice that I need to stand on His promises…..

And should you fall again, don’t be discouraged, start up again…The word says that He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness….So come boldly before the throne of grace, and obtain grace and help in time of need…...Your mind will be ready to pick up from where you fell…Start the cycle again, and do it twice as hard…..reinforce that which you have learnt and continue…..And if you still fall, don’t give up….continue mighty man (and woman) of valor…..Keep striving…Keep moving forward….

Paul tells us that we aren’t wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities, evils, and spiritual wickedness in high places…..Our weapons are not carnal, but mighty for the pulling down of strongholds…..So go back, get into God’s word, learn more, pray for more understanding, ask God for wisdom and discernment, fight again, pick up your sword and shield of faith….Keep striving, keep pressing on, keep focused on your goal…It’s hard, it’s tiring, but trust me, just like Christ said some demons need prayer and fasting to be pulled out, some strongholds could run so deep that the enemy keeps trying to get you down….But don’t be discouraged….We have a spirit of power, love and sound mind….Declare unto God that you will yet rise above the circumstance, and stand on the promises of God concerning that situation….And then trust God, move on and conquer….He will do it, not because you are good, but because He is…Jericho’s wall will fall as you praise, and you will cry that the Lord is good and worthy to be praised..….And also, it is very important in all of this to perfect your love life with God…..walk in love, do nothing out of vain seeking, forgive freely love easily walk humbly and ask God to continually renew a right spirit within you…..Don’t you know that the enemy cannot operate in love….So when you are blanketed in the love of God, the enemy cannot see you…..Can’t touch this, because love is of God….

6). And when the Lord has done it for you, go tell somebody….Don’t just keep quiet….Your testimony will bless you even as it blesses someone else! How? When you hear your testimony, those words will sink deep into your mind…..In your mind you won’t doubt that God can rescue, can heal, can deliver, can save, and your faith will grow further…..It will go a long way towards crucifying the flesh, that is pre-disposed to worry and fear, and as you share your victory, you will edify the church and help someone else who is struggling…..I know some things will be hard for you to share, but do so anyway…..whenever I feel shy about sharing some stuff, I remember this….Christ hang on that cross, with all my iniquity, my sin, my immorality, my fornication, my issues, and was not ashamed…..He made himself sin for me….He laid His life down for me, and He quickened Himself back to life (He said that no one took His life, but that He laid it down and in 3 days He will raise it up).He that was the paschal lamb, without blemish was blemished just for me…He was ridiculed, made fun of, they doubted that He was the son of God, they did, and they did and they did……..But still, He hang there with all that shame, such embarrassment, such isolation (until He cried out to God, asking why He had forsaken Him) On that cross, Christ was isolated, hurt, betrayed, scoffed at (even by the sinners He had come to die for), but you know what He hang in there……And I thank God, that because of my sin, He hang on that cross, because when He arose in power on the 3^rd day, I arose with Him, to newness of life….And that is why, ladies and gentlemen, I can say I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ……He was not ashamed to be killed for me, and I am not ashamed of Him….I can love again, because He first loved me….I can walk, live, breathe, walk in victory, because He died for me! Stand up, shout and give Him praise, for He is Jehovah, the Rock of our Salvation and our God!

Remember this…..no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper……The enemy might form the weapon, used it against you, but the Lord God Almighty, awesome in Majesty, and righteous is judgement will lift up a standard against your accuser….For you are His beloved and folks, guess what, our God is mighty in power, He has been tried and tested in battle many times over, and guess what the report is Victory….His CV is victory! He reigns in victory!……