Spiritual Power Failure and How To Deal With Them. RCCG SOD Year Six
Anointing is like electricity, so disciples should know how to deal with power failures. Anointing can be interrupted, it can be diverted or it can be stopped completely. The enemy knows this and he will do all he can to make sure it happens to the disciple. That is why this lesson is important.
CAUSES OF POWER FAILURE
There are various ways by which power can fail; as in the following examples:
#1 Run down battery
In the case of Elijah in 1 Kings 19:1-4, here is a man who has just called down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel and brought rain after three and half years of no rain. But when he got to the valley he ran several kilometres when they told him Jexebel was going to kill him by tomorrow.
And Jezebel said,
“Let the gods do so unto me or much more if I don’t kill you”
Elijah should have laughed, which gods is she talking about, gods that cannot answer prayer; but because his battery had run down, he ran away. Why did his battery run down? Because he had used massive power on the mountain and had not recharged.
#2 Damaged Conductor
The conductor that is conducting the anointing can be damaged. And if the wire is damaged, it could cause fire and it could cause death. A good example is that of Jeptha in Judges 12:7, as a result of which he lost his only daughter. Why? Because he mismanaged the power of God in him. You can read Judges 11:1-40.
#3 Blown fuse
There could also be power failure because the fuse is broken down. There is something called a fuse. It serves as a control to the power, so that if the power becomes too great, before it causes damage, the fuse will blow.
In 2 Kings 3:13-14, the fuse of Elisha was blown. Because the power that was in Elisha was tremendous and he suddenly became angry because some idol-worshipping king came to him, asking him to tell them what to do, he got angry and the holy spirit moved quickly out of the way, because it he was to use the power in him at that time, there would be trouble. That is why the Bible says in Proverb 16:32 that;
“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city”.
#4 Short Circuiting
There is another way that power could fail and this is called short-circuiting, it happens when one wire crosses another wire where it should not cross it. If you consider Joshua 1:15, where God told Joshua that no man will ever be able to stand before him all the days of his life, and then you compare that to Joshua 7:2-5, where the children of Israel fled before the enemies, you will know that something has gone wrong. Of course, something went wrong because somebody who was very crucial to Joshua had sinned. His name was Achan. You will find this in Joshua 7:10-12.
#5 Diverted Current
Current can also be diverted like in the case of King Saul. If you read 1 Samuel 10:1-11 and you compare it with 1 Samuel 16:13-23, you will see that there was a time when the power of God was heavy upon King Saul, but later on, the power was taken from him and given to David. Why? Because King Saul was using the power of God wrongly. According to 1 Samuel 15:22-28, he was disobedient to God and God found that the power He gave Saul was used wrongly, so the power was diverted from him to somebody else.
#6 Total disconnection
There is also a case of total disconnection as it occurred in the case of Samson in Judges 16:16-20. The power of Samson was disconnected when his hair was cut. What was the reason? Samson was negligent. In Judges 16;6, Delilah was plain in her request. She told Samson clearly, we want to bind you and torment you. So tell us the secret of your power”. And because Samson was negligent, he told her, and there was a power disconnection.
PREVENTION AND CURE FOR POWER FAILURE
How do we prevent these failures and how do we cure cure them?
- When batteries runs down, all you have to do is to recharge them. We have already discussed this in Lesson SB7 and you will remember in 1 kings 19:5-8, when the battery of Elijah ran down, what God did was to wake him u, feed him twice, so that his battery could be renewed , and then he could continue his journey.
- What can do so that the conductor of our anointing will never be damaged? All we have to do is to watch our mouth. In Eccl. 5:4-6, the Bible says:
“When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools ; pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou should not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel that it was an error; wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands.”.
Watch your mouth. Be careful of what you say. This is why the Bible says in Isaiah 30:15, that in silence and quietness shall thy strength be, because if your conductor is damaged , it is damaged. We don’t know how to cure it but it is better that you prevent it by watching your mouth.
3. What happens if your fuse is blown? How do we prevent the fuse from being blown? It is anger that blew the fuse of Elisha and you have already learned in the past in Eccl. 7:9, that the only way to deal with anger : the anointing of the devil , is to refuse to be a fool, because anger rests in the bosom of fools.
Now if your fuse has been blown because of anger, the way to ger reconnected is through worship. According to 2 Kings 3:15, Elisha said bring me a minstrel and while they were worshipping, the Holy Spirit came back and the fuse was restored.
4. What about short circuiting, when one wire crosses another, how do we prevent this? You must be careful who would be your prayer partner. Don’t make people who are not ready to live a holy life your partner. And if you have already made them partners, change them. Remember 2 Corin. 6:14-17, what fellowship has light with darkness? Separate yourself. Be seperate . It is better to have nobody to help you than have somebody who will now cause you to fall.
Now suppose somebody has caused a short circuit in your flow, what should you do? Do what Joshua did in Joshua b7:24-25 and Joshua 8:18-21, The moment you discover who is the one crossing your wire, be ruthless with the fellow. Remove the fellow ruthlessly. It does not matter what anybody may say.
5. What about current diversion? You can prevent your anointing from being taken and given to somebody else. Paul said in 1 Corin. 9:27:
“I keep my body under , I put it under subjection so that when after I have preached to others, I will not be a cast away”.
How do you prevent your current from being diverted? By constant fasting and prayer.
But supposed it has been diverted already, can it be cured? Oh yes, if you will repent and you will cry for mercy, like King David did in Psalm 51:1-17. After he committed that terrible offence when he killed Urriah and took his wife, God became very angry and the anointing left him. David cried and said,
“Please forgive me. Don’t take away your spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. I promise it will never happen again”.
And God was merciful unto him and He restored his anointing.
What about the case of disconnection? You must watch and pray. In Matthew 26;41. Jesus told his disciples to watch and pray. Watch and pray. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:5 to watch and pray. Now suppose there is a disconnection, how do we cure it? If you repent, God can reconnect. In the case of Samson in Judges 16:2-30, after some time, the hair on his head began to grow again.
Sudden Spiritual Power failure
What do you do if you thought the power was still there and you suddenly discover that power has been disconnected, that there is power failure, what do you do?
You better switch on your Standby generator, because according to Romans 8:26-27, the holy spirit is standing by to help you pray. The holy spirit is your standby Generator. If you want to do something in an emergency and you suddenly discover that the power of God is no longer there, begin to pray in tongues immediately and hopefully the power of God will begin to flow again.
But if you are going to switch on the generator in the case of emergency and you want the generator to start work immediately , the generator must be in good condition. If you want to call on holy spirit when there is an emergency and you want Him to answer immediately, according to Ephesians 4:30-32, you must make sure that you don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. You better be sure there is no quarrel between the two of you, so that when there is emergency, you can call n him and he will answer you.
Prayer
Now I want you to go to the Lord in Prayer and say:
LORD, IF THERE IS ANY QUARREL BETWEEN YOU AND ME, LORD PLEASE FORGIVE. GIVE ME THE GRACE FROM NOW TILL I SEE YOU IN GLORY NEVER TO DO ANYTHING THAT WILL ANNOY YOU, SO THAT ANYTIME I CALL ON YOU, I WILL KNOW THAT YOU WILL ANSWER ME.
Talk to him now.
He will answer you.
