2019 – OUR YEAR OF GOD’s KINGDOM COME – “KINGDOM TAKE OVER”
UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF WAR AND WARFARE STRATEGY: PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE PART 5
SUNDAY MARCH 24TH 2019
COUNTER STRATEGY FOR VOIDING PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE!!……….. Download here……… Psychological Warfare Pt 5 Summary
Matt 6:5-15, 1 Chr 29:10-12, Ps 22:28, Ps 47:2,8; Dan 4:17,25,32
INTRODUCTION
If you want to rule on your mountain, embrace the word of God. The word of God will bring you honor and promote you in all ways and means possible. Your step will not be hindered neither will you stumble if you have the word of God as your guide. I pray you continue to have the right relationship with the word of God.
END PRODUCT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE
Psychological warfare is the mother of all warfares. Some people are not able to achieve their desired outcome in life because they are already defeated in their minds. The enemy has already won the war of their life in their minds and they are not able to make progress as they desire.
The end product of propaganda is to produce a set of actions and behavior or conduct which are detrimental to you but beneficial to the enemy. The aim is to control you or cause you to take some actions that are detrimental to your destiny, to discourage you from taking the right steps in the right direction thereby causing you to go off succeed desire is that the enemy will not succeed in this warfare against you.
HOW DID NEHEMIAH KNOW THAT THEY PLANNED TO HARM HIM?
Nehemiah 6:1-19
NEHEMIAH CHAPTER 6: Conspiracy Against Nehemiah
6:1 Now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and that there were no breaks left in it (though at that time I had not hung the doors in the gates),
2 that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono.” BUT THEY THOUGHT TO DO ME HARM.
Your ear gate is so important as it is usually the entry point of all propaganda. Ensure that you have a filter in your hearing to sieve what you are listening to.
3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I AM DOING A GREAT WORK, SO THAT I CANNOT COME DOWN. WHY SHOULD THE WORK CEASE WHILE I LEAVE IT AND GO DOWN TO YOU?”
SHARPEN YOUR DISCERNMENT TECHNOLOGY: They wanted to distract him by cajoling him to abandon his business for a meeting and also wanted to do him harm. Are you easily distracted in your business? Do you magnify your office and put in adequate work such that distractions will have no room in your life? May you see your vocation, kingdom business, work, mission in life and the purpose of your existence as a great work Like Nehemiah did.
4 But they sent me this message four times, and I answered them in the same manner.
The enemy tried four times to distract and harm Nehemiah. This is a pointer to the fact that the enemy’s desperation to frustrate your kingdom business/ marriage and stop the work is an ongoing process. The devil does not get frustrated easily and will go to any length to achieve this goal. As a Christian, do you give up easily and abandon your dreams at the first sight of a challenge? Learn persistence and consistency from the devil. Repeated temptation can weaken one’s resistance, may you receive strength to overcome in Jesus Mighty Name.
5 Then Sanballat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand.
6 In it was written:
It is reported among the nations, and Geshem says, that you and the Jews plan to rebel; therefore, according to THESE RUMORS, you are rebuilding the wall, that you may be their king. 7 And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem, saying, “There is a king in Judah!” Now these matters will be reported to the king. So come, therefore, and let us consult together.
8 Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart.”
9 For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.”
Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
Propaganda (false accusation and rumor of wanting to crown himself as king) was deployed against Nehemiah with the intent to force him to back-off, make his people afraid, demoralize them, intimidate them and frustrate the work to a halt. Nehemiah was threatened to be reported to King Artaxerxes which unknown to them was his boss (He signed the letter that gave Nehemiah a thoroughfare journey when he got the burden to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.) Nehemiah was able to see through this propaganda and thus able to resist their schemings and false threat.
10 Afterward I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, WHO WAS A SECRET INFORMER; and he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you; indeed, at night they will come to kill you.”
11 And I said, “Should such a man as I flee? And who is there such as I who would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in!” AMP
12 Then I PERCEIVED that God had not sent him at all, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
13 For this reason he was hired, that I SHOULD BE AFRAID AND ACT THAT WAY AND SIN, SO THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE CAUSE FOR AN EVIL REPORT, THAT THEY MIGHT REPROACH ME.
The above is what I describe as PROGRAMMING YOU TO MISBEHAVE – PROGRAMMED MISCONDUCT
14 My God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat, according to these their works, and the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid.
The effort to stop the rebuilding of the wall went a step further by involving a supposed priest of the Lord to cause Nehemiah to disregard God’s commandment. Nehemiah was not a priest and so asking him to go into the inner temple was an effort in the wrong direction to save his life. He was ready to take responsibility while trusting God to help deliver him. Nehemiah’s gift of perception and discerning of spirit helped to save his life and counter the propaganda tools employed against him. The enemy will set a trap to make you to sin against God and use the occasion to tarnish your image and cause you to fail God in order to remove the covering of God over your head.
May you receive the grace to discern between good and evil in Jesus Mighty Name.
The Wall Completed
15 so the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days.
Compare:
Neh 4:6 so we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
NEH 6:16 And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.
17 Also in those days THE NOBLES OF JUDAH sent many letters to Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came to them. 18 For many in Judah were pledged to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah.
19 ALSO THEY REPORTED HIS GOOD DEEDS BEFORE ME, AND REPORTED MY WORDS TO HIM. TOBIAH SENT LETTERS TO FRIGHTEN ME.
Beyond the surface, what was at play is spiritual warfare between the forces of evil and the spirit of God. The enemies were disheartened and sad that the wall could be completed. They forgot that God was the master builder and He is more powerful than the shenanigans and scheming of men.
- COUNTER STRATEGY FOR VOIDING PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE
- Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel – Neh 6:10-14
Hear the submission of Apostle Paul regarding Psychological warfare
Striving and Suffering for Christ
Phil 1:27-30
27 Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent,( AMP27 Only be sure as citizens so to conduct yourselves [that] your manner of life [will be] worthy of the good news (the Gospel) of Christ) I may HEAR OF YOUR AFFAIRS, that you STAND FAST IN ONE SPIRIT, WITH ONE MIND STRIVING TOGETHER FOR THE FAITH OF THE GOSPEL,
28 and NOT IN ANY WAY TERRIFIED BY YOUR ADVERSARIES,
which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God.
29 For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30 having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.
-
-
- Refuse to be intimidated by your enemies
-
Suffering and conflicts are part of the faith package so don’t be intimidated or demoralized by unpleasant conditions. Instead let your conduct be worthy of the gospel and keep your focus on God and in due season, there will be a turning point.
There is a nexus between your conduct and how your adversary is able to terrify and intimidate you. Look unto Jesus the author and finisher of your faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:2
I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not in any way terrified by your adversaries
-
-
- BE A FIRM BELIEVER AND SHUN OTHER gods.
-
- Could there be faith in other things??
Some people have other gods apart from God alone. They patronize prophecy merchants and employ diabolical means to further the cause of their business, careers and other aspects of life. They trust Christ and also trust other things to augment their belief. This is not a sign of total belief. It is a pointer to mediocrity and lack of confidence in God.
- Can you be a Christian and still have faith in other things?? YES!!!
- Some are born again, tongue talking yet in marriage they still have faith in their tradition because those areas have not been yielded to Christ.
- Some are also born again yet in business they still exhibit the faith deep in paganism/consultation of the oracle (from prophecy merchants who are actually herbalists/occultists with a gospel façade)
Yield everything to Christ and have no hidden sins for God to be able to defend you and counter all the propaganda of your enemy. God defends His faithful children who discard other things and only look up to Him. He will never disappoint.
Rom 1:16-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
FATHER ABRAHAM: God took Abraham from serving pagan gods and redeemed him to be able to walk worthy of the calling and become a friend of His. God did so many miracles and delivered the children of Israel from many known and unknown wars. Joshua 24:1-8
- Your life must be marked at every corner with the beacons of God’s faithfulness such that in your everyday life and conduct in your marketplaces, make sure that you are walking worthy of the gospel of Christ!!
- Don’t ever forget how God lifted you at your lowest point and saved you when it seemed all hopes were lost. You should reciprocate God’s graciousness by walking worthy of the calling.
To be continued ….