I Shall Not Give My Enemies The Inheritance

I SHALL NOT GIVE MY ENEMIES THE INHERITANCE

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

The first thing I want you to do is to tell the Lord that you want to

experience His raw power, the kind of raw power that Elijah and the apostles experienced. Say, “O Lord, let me experience Your raw power, in the name of Jesus.”

The title of our message for this week is taken from I Kings 21. If you can open up your mind as you read this message, the Lord will do some deep works in your life. I Kings 21:1-3 says, “And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.”

Here was Naboth, he had a vineyard, which was beside the king’s palace. King Ahab was already a wizard because he married Jezebel who was a witch and it was his witch wife that was controlling all his activities. In fact, the havoc that Jezebel did to Israel can still be felt today. She was the woman that moved in 850 prophets of Baal and Balim. She was the one that threatened Elijah and he ran away. She manipulated the life of Ahab and got him to a terrible level. Ahab was an Israelite, the king of Israel who knew very well that it was against the law to give out the inheritance of your forefathers nevertheless, he went to Naboth and requested for his vineyard, which he had inherited from his forefathers. Naboth said, “No, I might be poor, there may be no money but God forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers. Even if you are the highest king in the land, God forbid that I should hand it over to you.”

Beloved, apart from your life, the most priced gift that you have is your salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself, put Himself in a ridiculous position in order to redeem us and show us the way of life. The people whom He came to save, arrested Him like a common criminal. They came with sticks, clubs and lantern to locate the man that had come to help them. They arrested Him, bound Him up and scourged Him. They gave Him 39 strokes of the cane. They took the King of kings, stripped Him naked and mocked Him. They said to Him, “You trust in God, let Him come and deliver you. If He delights in you, let Him deliver you now. They laughed Him to scorn. When He said Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani?” they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” They spat on His face, slapped Him and pulled His beard. You try and pull out one strand of hair from your head and you will see how painful it is then, you can understand what it is to pluck out hairs from a man’s beard. They tied His hands and pressed a crown of thorns upon His head. As they did that, the sharp things entered His skull and blood poured out on His face. They divided His garments amongst themselves and condemned Him as an unjust man. They ridiculed His mission, drove spiles into His body, hands and legs. Terrible things they did to the Master.

The life of Jesus could be divided into three sections:

1. His birth.

2. His death.

3. His resurrection.

When Jesus was born, a handful of shepherds witnessed it. The birth of Jesus, which divided our calendar into two - AD and BC had more of animals as witnesses than human beings. The Bible did not even bother to call the names of the shepherds. Angels came down and the glory shone around. The same angels predicted that Jesus was to be born, they announced His birth, protected Him as a child, and even ministered to Him in the wilderness. They also ministered to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, rolled away the stone at His sepulchre and announced His resurrection. On His resurrection day, a couple of witnesses stood by. But on the day that He was going to die on the cross, the angels completely avoided the cross; they stayed away on that day. God the Father Himself turned His back. They ridiculed him: “You saved others now save yourself." A large crowd gathered to watch His trial, verdict, crucifixion and death. Unlike when He was born, only a few people were there. Jesus Himself shouted, “My Father my Father, why hast thou forsaken me.”