Breaking Through The Barriers To You Blessing

Let Freedom Ring: Part 2

Breaking Through the Barriers to Your Blessing

Today we continue a series of messages, “Let Freedom Ring,” on deliverance from evil. Some of you may say, Pastor, I am saved, I already have been delivered from evil. I don’t need to hear a series of messages on deliverance. That kind of view almost begs the question: What planet do you live on? The

bible speaks of salvation in three tenses, past tense - we have been saved, present tense - we are saved, future tense - we shall be saved. But you need to remember The Lord thought so highly of deliverance, that He included it as an absolute necessity of prayer: “Deliver us from evil.”

We need deliverance from:

The power of evil, the planners of evil, the penalty of evil, the persons of evil, the proclivity to do evil, the person of evil, the purveyors of evil, the providers of evil, the presence of evil, the practice of evil, the plans of evil.

The Devastation of evil, the humiliation of evil, the domination of evil, the contamination of evil, the ruination of evil, and the indoctrination to do evil.

The injustice of evil, the instructors of evil, and the influence of evil. Deliver us from evil, should ever be our prayer. Today I am going to minister on, deliverance from the penalty of sins past, so you can break through the barriers of your blessings.

Some will say, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. While that is true, some penalties remain for now. Thorns and weeds, increased pain in childbirth. In 2 Sam 12:13,14 we read that the prophet Nathan informs David that his sin (adultery & murder) is forgiven, but that the child that was conceived in that

situation would not live, but die. Even though David was forgiven their still was a penalty for what he had done. The prophet further informs him that their would be much suffering caused to and through David’s family as a consequence of that sin. Penalties can remain, and penalties can be removed.

I believe scripturally a family can have a curse on it. I believe if the right remediation is taken the curse can be removed and or turned into a blessing. The Levites were scattered in Israel by a curse, (Genesis 49) but became a blessing to Israel in that they became the priests and were then situated in every local

in the country. God turned the curse into a blessing!

2 Kings 2:21 And he went out to the spring of water, and threw salt in it and said, "Thus says the LORD, ’I have purified these waters; there shall not be from there death or unfruitfulness any longer.’"

We will be doing a prophetic act performed at the end of service. Taking handfuls of salt and casting them into a great pot of water while one of the pastors proclaims, “Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters....”

Setting the scene: Jericho was an awesome city that from every expectation should have been really prospering, but something very unusual was happening there: the crops were being aborted! It didn’t make sense because, "the situation of the city is pleasant".

The Calamity, the Cause, and its Cure

The Calamity

“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” (2 Kings 2:19).

(From A.W. Pink):

Herein God had evidenced His displeasure on that accursed rebuilding of Jericho by making its water unwholesome and the ground barren, or as the margin notes, “causing to miscarry.” The Jewish commentators understood this to mean that these waters caused the cattle to cast their young, the trees to shed their fruit before it was mature, and even the women to be incapable of bearing children.

The Hebrew word which is rendered “the water is naught” (“ra”) is a much stronger one than the English denotes. In the great majority of cases it is translated “evil” (as in Genesis 6:5; Proverbs 8:13), and “wicked” no less than thirty-one times. Its first occurrence is in “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9)! But it signifies not only evil but that which is harmful or injurious to

others, being translated “the hurtful sword” (Psalm 144:10).

Jericho then was a pleasant location, but there was no good water for its inhabitants or their flocks and herds. This was a serious matter, a vital consideration, for the Israelites were an essentially pastoral people. (Observe how often we find mention of the “wells” in their early history: Genesis 16:14; 21:25; 26:15, 22; 29:2; Numbers 21:16-18, etc.)

Jericho in spite of all its ideal qualities then lacked the one thing essential. How this reminds us of another and later incident in the career of Elisha: