DOMINION OVER THE SPIRITS OF THE AGE

CONTINUED . . .

• Blasphemy. This is another very cheap sin today. What is blasphemy? The simple definition of blasphemy is to speak evil against a divine personality, to malign, to cast aspersion at a divine personality. Once somebody is boastful, it will be easy for him to blaspheme. When you tell such a person about God, his response will be ‘who is God’? This is because in his heart, there is no God for him. This is one of the ways to blaspheme and it is so common today. Blasphemy is when somebody allocates the glory due to God to himself. Blasphemy positions people against God. Remember the story of Herod in Acts 12: 20-23 when he made an oration and the people shouted it is the voice of God and not of a man. The Bible says “immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost” Herod was judged instantly and worms ate him up. Blasphemy is one of the prevalent spirits operating in the world today.
• Covetousness. This spirit is already in operation in the world today. You own something that somebody else wants to own because that person is not satisfied with what he or she has, they are not contented with what they have. Covetousness is another form of idolatry.Run away from covetousness. The Bible says, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s” Exo.20:17. Don’t covet another person’s property, be contented with what God has given you “but godliness with contentment is great gain” 1 Tim. 6:6. You need to train yourself to say ‘No’ to covetousness because covetousness is not only idolatry, it will cover you, covetousness covers the glory of God. Run away from covetousness. It is a cheap sin that comes from the inordinate desire to have what does not belong to you.
• The spirit of disobedience. It is also one of the prevalent spirits in the world today. It is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to be a child of God in this ‘perilous times’. People are so disobedient to simple instructions especially disobedience to parents. I weep for many parents because of what they are going through with their children. Honour is one of the greatest things that you can give to your parents. The Bible says “honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee”. Honour is the seed of longevity. One of the reasons why children disobey their parents easily is because their parents fail in their upbringing. Parents bring up their children to be their friends. Many parents make this mistake; I almost made it too. How do you raise your children? Parents make this mistake easily without even realizing it. Once you make this mistake, your relationship with your children will become horizontal. Why? The relationship between you and your parents is not supposed to be horizontal. My Father loved me so much and I also love him but despite that, I never hesitated to carry out his instructions. The relationship between parents and children is supposed to be vertical and not horizontal. If you raise your children in the horizontal way, you will end up producing an Adam. Adam did not take God seriously because God was always coming down to have fellowship with him. That was where the problem started. If you raise your children like that, they will take you for granted and the first thing they will do is to disobey. Every disobedience is a product of dishonour. I worked with the Ministry of Defence many years back so I understand the meaning of order. Civilians may not really understand the meaning of order until they work with the military. The only creature of God that disobeys him wilfully, consistently and arrogantly even to the point of blasphemy is human being. Raise your children to be your children and not your friends. Abraham became God’s friend but it ended there, he was complete in obedience to the end. When your child is complete in obedience, then in your heart, you can become friends and then you can confidently commit things into his or her hands. It is not automatic. Many people have reversed the order in the home today; it is the children that dictate to parents how to run the home. This is negligence. Don’t forget that you are the one that God will hold responsible. Due to this terrible reversal, many young people are dying because there is a curse that follows this disorder. The curse of disobedience to parents is activated whenever children disobey their parents.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .