11. Spiritual Blindness – do you look and don’t see? Over seventy percent of what is involved in discernment is observation. To observe means to look with the correct interpretation; you look, see and interpret correctly.

12. Death – if blockade is not well handled, it can lead to death, this is because the enemy comes not but to steal, to kill and to destroy.

13. Prayerlessness – This is when you no longer pray as you out to. Prayerlessness is a very serious spiritual blockade. God’s standard for prayer is “pray without ceasing”.

14. Not feeling like studying the word of God – this is when you are no longer excited about the things of God or about going into his presence. David was a man of God’s presence; he said, “I was glad when they said unto me; let us go into the house of the Lord”. Psa. 122:1.

15. Loss of appetite for the things of God – it is a very dangerous signal when you start losing appetite for the things of God.

16. Praying without answer – God is still the God who answers prayers and he will surely answer you.

Strategies for Dealing with Spiritual Blockade

Isa. 57:13-15 says “When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain; … to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones”. From this scripture, we can draw the following: –

1. You must be born again – It is only the righteous that can effectively deal with spiritual blockade. You cannot be in satan’s kingdom and fight him successfully.
2. Jesus is a specialist in dealing with blockades – during his earthly ministry, right at the graveside of his friend Lazarus, Jesus said, “take ye away the stone”. John 11:39. You have to take away the stone for Lazarus to come forth. What constitutes your own stone? It will be taken away and the glory of God will burst in your life. Everything the enemy has used to cage you will be shattered, in the name of Jesus.
3. You must recognize the blessings we have in Christ. We have a wonderful inheritance in Christ; we have a wonderful connection in Jesus. John 17: 3 “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”. Eternal life is not something you inherit after death; it must start with you right now.
4. You must have boldness of liberty in prayer. Phil. 4:6. One of the things that Jesus has done for us is access to the holiest place. Our greatest asset is our access. Many people choose to operate in the outer court but you must desire to press into the holy of holies because that is where the glory is. If you take a look at the world today, you will find what is called ‘nominalism’ in the Church. We have Christians without fruit. What is responsible for this? There is something wrong, not in the teaching but in the order and in the selective application of the word of God. God taught me that if we will teach people to love him first, then we would produce better Christians. Today, we see preachers who present faith without emphasizing love for God. Jesus asked Peter “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? If you teach people faith without first teaching them to love God, you will produce nominal Christians. Some preachers even go further to teach grace without first teaching love. As a result of this, many see grace as a licence to sin. In the same vein, when you teach people warfare without first teaching them the love of God, you will produce enemy-centric Christians. Jesus said, according John 14:23, “If a man love me, and keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him”. The love of God will keep you away from sin. This is because God will be so close to you that you will hate what he hates and love what he loves. This is holiness. Holiness is cheap for somebody who truly loves God.
5. Access with confident assurance of answered prayer. Heb. 4:4-16, Heb. 10:19-23.
6. Faith from Christ. When you get to this point, your faith will be so consolidated because it is not only the faith that you have but the faith from Christ and the faith of Christ will come together and fortify your own faith. As a result, miracles will begin to happen around you. Acts 3:16, Gal. 2:20. There is the faith of Christ and there is faith in Christ. You live by the faith of Christ. If your faith cannot get it done, the faith of Christ will fix it for you.

TO BE CONTINUED