THE POWER TO FRUSTRATE YOUR FRUSTRATIONS 3 “Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building. And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia”- Ezra 4:4-5. Last time I hinted on some fire level experiences I have had in the ministry. Then it was so tough to the extent that after service sometimes my wife and I would return home with not as much as five naira in our pockets to a food stuff-deficient house. Thank God for the wife I have who is so good in making do with whatever we have, no matter how little or insignificant. She would set about preparing food from the crumbs of foodstuff she finds lying about in the kitchen with not as much as a grumble hissing out of her lips. Though we passed through such hard times, no member of the church was privy to our ordeal. We refrained from wearing long faces and advertising our predicament or even seeking financial favours from the members of the church. We were just happy to be of service to the Master who rules over all. What’s more, we made it a point of duty to encourage ourselves in the Lord, listened to tapes of men of God who had gone through similar experiences and how they overcame in the long run. Beloved, God has promised to be there with you when you pass through fire and even water (Isaiah 43:2). Still I will have you know that so many people have been drowned and consumed by the waters and fire of life respectively. They simply failed to remember and encourage themselves with the promises of God which says that He will be there with them all the way through the waters and fire. Frustration has succeeded in crippling so many destinies, and it’s quite appalling that children of God who should be wiser are victims of this obnoxious trend. I pray for you today: receive the power of God to frustrate every of your frustrations in the name of Jesus; begin to frustrate every frustration in your life in Jesus name. Consider Nehemiah 4:1-4, “And it came to pass when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, what do these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.” See what Nehemiah did in response to the taint of Sanballat and Tobiah; verse 4 “Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity.” This shall the Lord do to everyone frustrating your life in Jesus name. Frustration is a spirit that requires human agent to carry out their activities in the lives of people adequately. Unfortunately some people have lent themselves to be used by this spirit against their fellow human beings. They move about sowing seeds of discouragement in the hearts of men. Frustration if nursed and nurtured by one’s inability or nonchalance towards warding it off, results in suicidal thoughts and when this allowed to gain grounds in one’s life; suicide becomes inevitable. Hopelessness is one of the dreadful precursors of suicide-prone frustration. Ahithophel, a man revered for his counsels which never failed in their efficacies, hanged himself. Why then did he kill himself, one is forced to ask? He was frustrated beyond reasoning because the counsel of Hushai, King David’s counter-intelligence agent, was preferred over his. Remember, frustration makes a man lose value and as a result Ahithophel reasoned within himself and concluded that his value had depreciated owing to the fact that his never-failing counsel was treated with disregard. Therefore, frustration culminates in suicide. Frustration once made a man to set out on a journey of no return (suicide mission), he employed the service of a very thick rope and off he went into a forest. After he had located the tree that would best serve his purpose; he quickly set up the apparatus that would send him to the great beyond, he just couldn’t wait to die. As soon as he put the rope around his neck and was about removing the support that lifted him above the ground so that the force of it would break his neck instantly, a cripple crawled out of the bush and pleaded with the suicidal man to pull off his pair of trousers, shirt, and wrist watch reasoning that he had no need of them since he was bent on leaving this world to the afterlife. This statement brought the man back to his senses. Here was a cripple who had no legs yet was willing to live, poor and wretched who couldn’t afford decent clothes yet was very much willing to flow with the pleasant and the not so pleasant that life offers. That incident banished every suicidal thought from his life and made him appreciate the things God has so graciously given to him. What led that man who had two hands, two legs, two eyes and every other thing that makes up a complete man into a mission that would have sealed his fate for ever? He had simply forgotten how privileged he was to be complete and alive. Frustration makes you disregard the things you have while focusing on the things you don’t have now, which would eventually come if only you can be patient enough in your wait for the promise (Habakkuk 2:3). What do you think made Judas Iscariot to hang himself? He never envisaged that his betrayal would lead to Christ’s eventual death and crucifixion. He didn’t sell Jesus with the intention to kill him. Judas was not a murderer but a thief. It was he who served as the treasurer in the ministry of Jesus and so he had access to money. I want to believe that he sold Jesus, so that he would replace the money he had been stolen secretly from the ministerial purse and still have some left over for himself. And he also imagined that since Jesus was powerful, he wouldn’t allow Himself to be captured. But unfortunately for Judas, his plans fell through as the Lord willingly surrendered himself to be carried away by the soldiers. There and then Judas became frustrated; his expectations had been dashed. He eventually didn’t get to spend even a silver piece out of the thirty pieces of silver given to him in exchange for the life of his Master and was driven by the demons of frustration to go and hang himself. I command every voice of frustration suggesting evil to you to be silenced forever in Jesus name. Prayer points 1. Appreciate God for availing you the opportunity to be blessed by this teaching today. 2. Confess and repent from every sin you have committed; ask for the blood of cleansing to be released upon you. 3. You the spirit of frustration fueled by the evil covenant my fathers ignorantly entered, I am no longer bound by that evil covenant, therefore lose your hold in my life and be wasted by fire in Jesus name. 4. I receive divine strength from above to break every limitation in my life, whatever stopped my parents shall not stop me in Jesus name. 5. Every arrow of frustration fired from the covens of witches and wizards against my advancement in life catch fire and burn to ashes in Jesus name.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 06:15:33 +0000