FIGHTING FOR YOUR RIGHTS
Some years ago I was on a flight from one city to another in the company of my senior Pastor. It was an evengelistic trip and also my first flight ever. I was hungry before we boarded the flight but I had no time to get anything to bite for two reasons--one, I did not have any money on me and preferred not to ask my pastor. Two, there was no time since we had to rush to board immediately we got to the airport.
Just few minutes into the flight a flight attendant approached my seat with some delicious snacks. She asked which one was my preference. Looking up with a gentleman’s smile I waived her off indicating that I was not interested in any. She passed me by. I looked behind me to see my Pasotor picking some with a cold drink to "flush" it down!! I was furious. Alighting from the flight I asked him why he didn’t order the snack for me knowing well that I didn’t have money on me and was hungry. He was shocked but realizing my ignorance, he laughed and said, "Bro. Dave, the snack is free on board. Our air fare included both the transportation and the refreshment"
I nearly went back into the plane!
From that day forward, especially that I also know that you can ask for "extra", I go for my right on every flight except when I am fasting!!
Ignorance kills. It makes a man with all the food go hungry. It is a disease that denies a man his rights.
This messgae is to open your eyes to the great opportunities and blessings available to you in Christ Jesus. By the process of creation, and of course, recreation, we have inalienable rights because of our joint-heirship with Christ. If the enemy has denied you of these, you’ve got to fight back and claim your rights.
Long time ago, Bob Marley wrote the following lyrics:
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don’t give up the fight!
I disagree with the rest of the music which relates his own little understanding of God’s plan for mankind but the refrain above is accurate and valid.
According to the scriptures, you have inalienable rights that were not intended to be negotiated with anyone. And just like any other rights of a man can be violated and denied but can also be defended and maintained depending on the attitude of such a man, our God-given rights are subject to the same fate.
Genesis 1: 26-28 opens up the code of your rights as a child of God. Yes, the treason in the garden rubbished it but God in Christ Jesus has given you and me the opportunity to lay hold on these rights again.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Gen 1:26-28
What are these rights you must not give up the fight for?
1. The right to be like your Father in Heaven. V.26, 27. The right to be sub-ordinate to no one, no other authority except His. Gen.1: 26-28; Jn.3: 31; Dt.28: 1, 13.
2. The Right to be blessed. V.28. Whatever blessing defines to mean
--Good life. Jn.10: 10; Ps.144: 11-15; Dt. 6: 10-11; 8: 7-10
--Good health. Dt. 7: 15; Ex. 23: 25
--Abundance. Dt. 8: 18; 28: 11-12
3. The Right to be fruitful. Gen.1: 28. God is against any form of barrenness in your life—physical, mental or spiritual.
4. Right to multiply. V.28. Companionship is the order of creation. Every living thing is to reproduce itself. God perfected that order by creating a woman to complement man. Whatever negates this order in your life is under divine sentence. “Let Reuben live and not die. Let not his men be few.” Dt.33: 6
5. Right to replenish the earth. To Relenish means to restore, refill, restock, replace used item. The earth has lost God-consciousness, peace, hope, health, decency and order. You are to replenish them. No wonder, “the whole creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Rom. 8: 19-22.
6. The Right to subdue the earth. V.28. To subdue means to bring under forcible control, to soften or to repress. You are to align the earth to the purpose of its creation. You are to enforce the divine order, to release abundance where there is scarcity, life where death reigns. To bring hope where it is absent and peace where there is chaos. This is your right and your assignment. That’s why you can’t afford to be in bondage or under the dominion of any evil force. Your assignment is great, your responsibility is enormous.
7. The Right to have dominion. V.28. You have a ruling power, unsurpassed influence over creation. Hurricanes should not terrorize you. You have the right to stop the sun, calm the raging seas of life and soar to the skies above without a crash.
8. Right to an abundant, secured and long life. Ex. 23: 25-27.
We live in a world of uncertainty nowadays. Scarceness is the order of the day. The economists and world leaders seem to have no solution in sight. However it is part of the covenant mandate for you to enjoy unlimited resources of God’s provisions.
WHERE DO THE FIGHT START FROM?
I. FULL RECOGNITION OF YOUR COVENANT RIGHTS
If you are born again these rights are yours by design. You need to recognize and understand them. You have been blessed with them by your Father.
Eph.1: 3."Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
II. BEING ON ACTIVE DUTY FOR THE KINGDOM.
You don’t want to be an unserviceable unit of God’s Kingdom outfit. You remember the unprofitable servant who buried his talent? What of the fig tree that the owner took good care of but which failed to produce fruit? "Cut it down..." the owner istructed. Lk. 13: 7 But remember what Jesus says about the branch that produces fruit. The Father punes it so it may produce more fruits. Jn.15: 2. (Application): The more serviceable and productive you are, the more your rights are secured for you.
Exo 23:25 "And ye shall SERVE the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee."
III. RECOGNIZING YOUR POSITIONAL ADVANTAGE OVER THE ENEMY.
Yes, great havoc was done by Adam’s sell-out in Eden but through Christ we are redeemed and have been taken back to our original position before the fall. Here we can exercise our rights through Chris’s authority and have dominion as specified by the covenant. Eph.1: 19-23; 2: 5,6.
WHY DO WE NEED TO FIGHT?
1. To recover, restore and retain.1 Sam.30: 1-19
These rights were lost and need to be recovered and restored. Through felony in the garden of Eden man lost these rights but in Christ and through Him, they can be restored. However the enemy will contend and resist. The principle and promise of restoration nevertheless spell out victory for us. Gen.3: 15
2. We are in constant warfare.
Just for the reason that we are favored by God with
these rights, the enemy is constantly challenging and confronting us to weary us to the point we don’t enjoy their full benefits.. We are to fight to ensure his defeat all the time. Eph.6: 10-13; 1Pet.5: 8-9; 2Cor.10: 3-5.
3. Our benefits are held in place in heaven.
They come “…down from above…”
They therefore pass through the heavenlies. We must fight to ensure their unhindered passage to us. Jam. 1: 17; Eph.1: 3 Matt. 6: 10; Dan. 10: 3-14
4. Those who had gone before us fought.Matt.11: 12.
David fought. Moses was a fighter. Jacob, Joseph, Joshua, Hannah—these were all combatants of faith who laid hold on their inheritance by not giving up and not conceding to the enemy. Jesus warned every winner in the battle of life, “…from the time of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of God suffers violence. The violent takes it by force”.
Believer, how desperate are you? Do you know your rights? Are you walking in them? Are you maintaining them? Remember, this world has never been favorable or fair to the complacent. It is an arena of war that encourages the survival of the fittest. The fittest however are ‘they that do know their God…” Dan.11: 32
It is well
Shalom.
