AFTER EASTER – A SEASON I

“Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) And when he had apprehended him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him … And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten up of worms, and gave up the ghost. But the word of God grew and multiplied.” 

Acts 12:1-25, KJV

This is one of the chapters I love studying particularly at this time (Easter period). The Lord uses it to minister to me a lot.

We can see the threat and the power that fights the children of God; wicked powers. One of the worst things that can happen to anyone is to be at the middle of an intense spiritual battle and not recognize that there is a raging war that has matured. Sometimes, I feel that that is how some Churches in Africa are. If we know the intensity of the spiritual warfare raging over the soul of our nations in Africa, then our prayer direction will change; our orientations and alignments will be different, our confessions will be different and even our preaching will change.

If you study Church history, you will notice a pattern; persecutions always makes the Church to grow and not prosperity. There is always the tendency during the time of prosperity for people to become lukewarm and park and think less of God. What persecution does is that it makes man to look up to heaven by force from whence our help truly comes.

The Bible says king Herod stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church and he went for the jugular. The devil is always very strategic in his attacks. He does not fire rubber bullets. He knows what to attack and he goes for it. I personally have found out that about this season (the season of Easter) is a season when the devil attacks Church leaders the most. If you do a study of some Church leaders that have died during the seasons of Easter or towards the Easter period, you will be shocked. That pattern has been sustained. The Bible says Herod stretched forth his hand to ‘vex’; to vex means to oppress, to afflict, to punish, to fight, to antagonize and if possible to obliterate. But he forgot the word of God. Jesus said, I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18).

Herod took Apostle James who was one of the topmost leaders of the Church and beheaded him. He went further to take Peter also. The Church rose up immediately and started 247 prayer chain, praying without ceasing. This is what the Church should be doing all the time. God’s prescription for prayer is pray without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:16). Ceaseless intercession was going on for Peter.

There are different dimensions of prayer but when you get into the dimension of intercession, it is different. Intercede means to come against; an intercessor is the person who comes against, a spiritual warrior. Sometimes, you get to certain levels of intercession where you fight literarily the forces of darkness.

There is no power out there without a spirit; you must understand this. There is no leadership without a spirit and that spirit can either be evil or good. If it is evil, it will be desperately wicked, if good, then, it may be holy. There is no in-between. If you study the lives of the kings of Israel, you will notice how they were classified in 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles.

The spirit behind the throne determines the nature of leadership. If the spirit is not the Holy Spirit, it will be desperately evil and will definitely not uplift anyone. It is only the Holy Spirit that can take us to the Promised Land.

TO BE CONTINUED.