“Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Please notice, situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the ground barren.”
And he said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So, they brought it to him. Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness”. 2 Kings 2:19-21
We bless God for the victories, breakthroughs, battles fought and won in the past three months of the year and those of the months to come. This month, God wants us to focus on Divine Victory! We believers need to learn that divine victory can never be wrought through our own strength or abilities, but always by the help of the Spirit of the Living God.
In the book of Zechariah, Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and all Judah were so frightened because the adversaries had vowed that
the temple would never be built. Instead, the LORD sent the prophet Zechariah to Zerubbabel with the promise of divine assistance and success. Zechariah 4:6 says, “’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.” Are you on a building project and surrounded by adversaries? Are you so discouraged that you want to give up? Are the enemies, the Sanballats and Tobiahs, of this world saying, “you shall not do it?” Forget their threats, railings, taunts or accusations. In Zerubbabel’s case, it was consequent upon the threat of the enemies that God sent the message of deliverance, guaranteeing victory, through the prophet.
The Jericho Experience: “And the men of the city said unto Elisha, ‘Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren.’ And he said, ‘Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein.’ And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, ‘Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.’” (2 Kings 2:19-21)
Jericho’s Location: Jericho was pleasant, according to the testimony of the inhabitants. It was referred to as the “City of Palm Trees,” like the Oasis of Elim. The city was very plain land watered by clean waters. It was supposed to be a fruitful and productive land. But the products from the land were contrary to the nature and topography of the land. The inhabitants of Jericho could not explain why the waters were poisonous and bitter and the land barren. The people had employed every manner of technology to improve this deplorable situation to no avail. All the labors and efforts of generations upon the land had produced little or no results. Even the surrounding deserts and mountains were more productive and fruitful than Jericho. What a great irony and perplexity. It was wearisome and heart breaking.
The Origin of the Problem: The unfolding mysteries of life showed that Jericho’s experience was but a symptom of the reality of the spiritual state of its inhabitants. The only solution had to be divine because it was a spiritual problem. There were forces in the spiritual realm that perverted, diverted, and thwarted the destiny of Jericho, relegating it to a reality contrary to its potentials. It turned out that Jericho’s contradiction was rooted in the negative pronouncements or curses imposed by Joshua upon the land from decades past. “And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, ‘Cursed be the man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.’” (Joshua 6:26) When a curse is invoked, spiritual forces are released to implement the evils that the curse is sent to do. Thus, a battle is at play in the heavenlies because of the curses.
The Solution: Elisha was sent by God’s Spirit to address the ugly situation with which the people of Jericho were faced; so, they could experience divine victory. He went to the source of the river that watered the land, and spoke specific words of prophetic deliverance over it. The lesson there is that it takes a man of higher anointing to verbally revoke the curse imposed by the words of another. For, it takes words to annul words; it takes the power of a blessing to revoke the power of a curse. Words are formidable spiritual forces (John 6:63); yet divine victory is achieved only by the Spirit of God and never of our own doing (Zechariah 4:6). It takes a spiritual man to send his words into the spirit realm to dissolve or melt away stubborn and age-old battles that are in place in the spirit realm because of a man’s destiny.
There are a lot of people in life whose lives appear pleasant (like Jericho), yet their daily experiences are bitter and barren. They are beautiful, handsome, skilled, educated, ingenious, resourceful and hardworking, yet no commensurate results to match their efforts. They live lives of insignificance and a meaningless existence. For example, he’s anointed but cannot seem to succeed in ministry. This is another Jericho. However, by His Spirit, victory is guaranteed this month, in Jesus’ Name, I pray for you that the error and fault in your foundations will be healed, and the source of water for your destiny will be sweetened again, by His Spirit, in Jesus’ Name!
Prayers:
Begin to thank God for your life, for another month and for the Divine victory He purchased for us by His Blood at Calvary. Thank Hm for your yesterdays, today, and tomorrows
Father, You are my Jehovah-Nissi (Exodus 17:15), please weaken the hands of anyone raising any banner up against me, in Jesus’ Name. Every rod of wickedness raised up against me shall be reduced to ashes, in Jesus’ Name.
Father, please, give me a new song of victory to sing this month, in Jesus’ Name.
Holy Spirit, please strengthen and empower me against recurrent or ongoing battles in my life, in Jesus’ Name. Dear Holy Spirit, according to Isaiah 10:27, please lift every satanic burden off me, and break and destroy every yoke off my shoulders by the anointing, in Jesus’ Name.
Whatsoever is caging my gifting, skills, and endowments, causing them not to work and produce for me, be consumed by fire, in the Name of the LORD Jesus Christ (Isaiah 32:13-15).
Father, let me drink of the Holy Spirit’s River of Life (John 7:38) that I may be watered as the garden of Eden; experiencing continuous freshness in life and in the ministry (1 Samuel 10:6). Make me a man after God’s own heart, fulfilling Your every purpose for my life, in Jesus’ Name (Acts 13:22).
May the packages the LORD pre-deposited in my life, before I was conceived in my mother’s womb, begin to manifest corresponding results as from today, in Jesus’ Name.
As from today, I prophesy that I will begin to live a life of growth, meaning, and glory, in Jesus’ Name.
Shalom….
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