OUT OF ZION 015 | THE COURAGE FACTOR – BECAUSE OF THE INSTRUCTIONS

OUT OF ZION 015 | THE COURAGE FACTOR – BECAUSE OF THE INSTRUCTIONS

Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you…. Joshua 1:7

The failure to run with the word is as a result of the focus on the oppositions because of the word.

I have believed all my life that courage is needed because of the challenges that you will face and not for anything else, but recently the Lord taught me that courage is not needed because of opposition but because of provision. You need to be courageous with what you have if you will win over every opposition.

You were possibly assured of your preparation in the past for an examination only to get to the examination hall to discover that as soon as the questions appear everything you have laid up in preparation evaporated. In such situation, the fact is that your consideration was more for the examination than for the information that you were armed with. Those who labour for understanding in their studies would excel in the actual sense as they will confidently draw up from their understanding to confront the exams facing them.

When the word comes, it furnishes you unto every good works (2 Tim 3:16-17). Your response is to write it clearly and to run only with it (Hab 2:1-3). Failure to run with it is most times as a result of the focus on the factors opposing you because of the word. The word of God is a causative agent that puts you on the way to becoming the exact intent of God, if you are uncompromisingly devoted to it.

If you would be uncompromisingly devoted to the word so as to run effectively with it, you will need to:

1. Break up your fallow ground. A fallow ground is one which lies unused or uncultivated. It is used to represent the heart that needs to be broken because it is hardened, lacking the essential preparation that will make it to find the word of God useful. That the word has come to such does not mean that the seed is sown; the ground or the heart could waste the seed (Jer 4:3-4). Such ground only ends up with the judgement of fire since it ends up producing what is not useful (Heb. 6:8). When the ground is broken and the heart prepared, there shall be rain of righteousness. Hos 10:12.
2. Avoid sensibility to dissenting opinions (Hos 10:13). For every instruction given by God, there will be contradictory opinions that seek to dislodge the word. Many in life are just naturally more inclined to the popular opinion and the populist supply. Note that the visit of the serpent to Eve was to dislodge the instruction given by God – Gen 3:1ff. He started subtly with a question and proceeded to drop the conflicting opinion. While the Lord was on earth, He very aware of why He came. As the time got closer for him to die on the cross, He communicated privately with the disciples and Peter ended up dissenting (Matt 16:23). Christ successfully resisted him being devoted to the instruction He came to fulfil. Dissenting opinions like this have dislodged many from what they are meant for. Where Eve failed Christ turned out successfully. Life is a guided tour. You will need to carefully adhere to the plan which comes emphatically in the correspondence from God to you (Ps 62:11).
3. Avoid anxiety for success or result as it chokes up the instruction. While God is interested in results – Luk 19:13, He does not want you to pursue it the way of the world where the desperation for result is more for the validation of self than it is for the fulfilment of obedience. If your concern is more for the result than for the needed adherence to the instruction received, compromise will set in and rejection will become the reward at the end of the day. In the scheme of God, obedience is His desire and not necessarily the accomplishments that possibly violate the objective of His instruction. In every assignment given by God, the preoccupation must be with the word and not with the destination. Christianity is more of a journey in obedience than it is of the pursuit of result. This is why when you have received the instruction with deep conviction and faith in God, your journey in adherence to the instruction assures you of the end. Your fear and your adherence should be, not for those you are sent to, but for Him who sent you (Pro 22:17-21; 1 Pet 3:15).

Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all that God has instructed.