AS A CHRISTIAN YOU SHOULD NOT FOLD YOUR HANDS AND LET THE devil RULE YOUR TOWN
ANY EVIL FORCE ROAMING ABOUT IN YOUR CITY IS AN INTRUDER. GO AND CHASE IT OUT
GOD IS THE OWNER OF EVERY CITY; HE CREATED THEM
WHENEVER GOD PUTS YOU IN ANY POSITION, REMEMBER YOU ARE THERE TO GIVE HIM PLEASURE
IF YOU CEASE TO BRING PLEASURE TO GOD, HE WILL SUBSTITUTE YOU. YOU CAN’T HOLD GOD CAPTIVE
IF GOD GIVES YOU A LITTLE BIT OF HIS POWER, DO NOT FORGET THE SOURCE OF THE POWER
STOP BEING AFRAID OF MIGHTY MEN – THEY ARE SMALL IN THE HAND OF GOD
NO MATTER HOW MIGHTY YOU ARE AS A MAN, YOU ARE LIMITED BY AGE, SLEEP, DEATH AND EVEN FIRE
IT IS GOD WHO MAKES MEN MIGHTY. HE ALONE IS THE ALMIGHTY AND UNLIMITED
– Pastor E. A. Adeboye on “FOR WHOM THE HEAVENS OPEN (Part 21)” || RCCG Online Sunday Service || 16th July, 2023
Joshua 6:2. Today we want to look at the prophecy that he gave in the text. Church Gist. How can the Almighty God say he has given Jericho, the King and the Mighty men. Well:
1. He owns Jericho. Psalm 24:1. Jericho was part of the Earth. He owns Jericho because he created it. Genesis 1:1. That’s why in Africa, at least in my own part of Africa, a traditional ruler of a town is called the owner of the town. Church Gist. The current traditional ruler might not be the owner but his great great great grandfather founded the town and that’s why we call them, “the Owner.” God is the owner of every city because he created them. So he owns your town, city, village, which is why you as a Christian should not fold your hands and let the devil rule your town. That town, village belongs to God so any evil force roaming about in your city is an intruder. Go home and chase it out in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
2. He didn’t just give Jericho, he gave the King. So the King is the pretender claiming to be the owner of Jericho. So God says, I am giving the City and I am giving the fellow who says he is the King. Why? Daniel 4:25. So if you get into authority and you forget who put you there, just remember 1 Samuel 2:7 – God can raise up and he can pull down; he has done it before and he doesn’t change and what he has done before, he can do again. He can do what he likes with anything and with all things. Church Gist. Why? John 1:1-3. He created all, he owns all. Revelation 4:11. He created you for his pleasure so if you cease to bring pleasure to him, he can remove you and put in a substitute. Whenever he puts you in any position at all, remember you are there to give him pleasure – never forget that! Like I have taught you before, for every person he puts in position, he has a substitute waiting. Just in case that fellow gets there and he forgets who put him there, you can’t hold God captive. Even as he is pulling you out, he will put somebody else in.
3. He gave the mighty men of valour that say, we are the ones protecting the City. Well, how could he give Mighty men to Joshua? Isaiah 40:21 – he gives strength to the mighty. You think you are powerful? It is written that power belongs to God. Psalm 62:11. If he gives you a little bit of the power, don’t forget the source of the power. He alone is the Almighty. Genesis 17:1; Genesis 18:9-14; Luke 1:34 -37. But there is something interesting here when he said, “I am giving you the mighty men.” Just overlook the adjective and look at the noun. “Mighty Men” – they may be mighty but they are still men and if they are men, they are dust. Church Gist. Genesis 3:19. As long as we are talking about men, remember men are limited no matter how mighty. Men can be limited by age – Ecclesiastes 12:1-11. If you are a man, you will grow old. I like the way Solomon describes what happens when you grow old – verse 4. He talks about the grinders becoming slow. That means the dentist will be removing your teeth one by one (laughs) and they become few.
I saw the picture of somebody they called the oldest person in the world. He has hardly any teeth left in his mouth. Church Gist. One by one they are gone and I was wondering: how can you say you are still enjoying this world and you can’t even eat meat anymore?
Verse 3: he said those who are looking out of the window will be dark. He is talking about your eyes – that as you grow older for one reason or the other, those things you can read when you were a child, you begin to need assistance. Church Gist. He even said that your leg will begin to shake. I don’t know why this Man has to give us this kind of description. If you’re a man, you will grow old! Age will limit you.
If you are a man, you will be limited by sleep. No matter how strong, mighty you are, when sleep comes, with all your mightiness, you become like nobody. 1 Samuel 26:7-25. I pity those who trust body guards, night guards. If God wants to kill you, he will put all of them to sleep. Church Gist. You will be dead long before they wake up because they are men therefore they must get tired. They are mighty but they are men. Isaiah 40:28-31 – only God does not get tired. 2 Samuel 21:15-17.
They are mighty men but they will die one day. It’s incredible to read in 2 Kings 13:20 that Elisha died. Church Gist. The man with the double portion of anointing died. Samuel died – the King maker. 1 Samuel 25:1. So everybody will die because we are human beings.
Mighty men are limited because they can’t even withstand fire. Daniel 3:19-22. Mighty men can go mad. Daniel 4:28-37 – a whole king became mad for 7 years with all his might. Do you know mighty men can die of thirst? Judges 15:14-19. Ordinary thirst! Take water away from mighty men and see how mighty they are. Do you know that mighty men can still be frightened by dreams? Pharaoh – Genesis 41:1-44; Nebuchadnezzar – Daniel 2:1-49. We are talking about kings so mighty they practically ruled the world. Church Gist. King Ahasuerus- Esther 6:1-11. Thank God the Bible says he gives his beloved sleep. When God wants to punish you and you say you are mighty, he can make sure you can’t even sleep.
Do you know that mighty men can destroy themselves with their own weapons? Take the example of Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:45-51. Church Gist. Esther 7:1-10 – it is the gallows that Haman prepared for Mordecai that he was hung upon. Stop being afraid of mighty men – they are small in the hand of God.
Your Daddy, God, is the Almighty. He lives forever. He is not limited by death. Deuteronomy 32:40. He is never tired that’s why he never needs to sleep. Isaiah 40:28. That’s why people like me can sleep very soundly at night. Once I commit my sleep into his hand, I just sleep. I used to tell people that I sleep like a baby and they said may be you have been far away from babies for sometime. But when a baby is sleeping, babies sleep without concern as for tomorrow. Baby doesn’t care what is going on, it knows that by tomorrow there will be food, clothes to cover him – the problem is not his own. Church Gist. Your God is not limited by fire. Daniel 3:20-27. Fire that killed the mighty men had no effect on him; why? He is the consuming fire. Hebrews 12:29. You know what? He never grows old. Psalm 90:1-2. That’s why he calls himself, “I am,” never “I was,” not a question of, “I will be.” Exodus 3:15.
So I want to encourage those of us who are children of God, you have the best of all friends. I want to warn those of you who are not his children, he could be the worst of all enemies. Church Gist. An enemy who can never die, never be tired, never sleeps nor slumbers, is a terrible enemy to have. Cross over to his side. There is a popular saying, “if you can’t beat them, join them.” You can’t beat God; join him.
Salvation Call:
#PastorEAAdeboye
#ForWhomTheHeavensOpen21
#SupersonicSunday
#16July2023
#OnlineSundayService
#DoublePortion
#RCCG
#ChurchGist
