Break the Roof
Dr. D.K. Olukoya
The main Bible text for this message is drawn from Mark chapter 2 verses 1-12: ''And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, in so much that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door; and he preached the word unto them. And they came unto Him, bringing one sick of the palsy which was home of four, and when they could not come nigh unto Him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was; and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee, (It follows therefore that a man could become paralyzed by sin.) But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your heart? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house. And immediately, he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all: in so much that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying we never saw it on this fashion."
I would like you to say this to yourself, "So shall be my lot, in Jesus" name. Men and women shall say unto me, they never saw it in this fashion." There are many lessons to learn from the passage in the foregoing. We shall diligently examine some of them.
1. Forgiveness of sin is accompanied by healing power: In other words, when people repent of their sins and give their lives to Jesus, they are born again to start a new life. A sister woke up one day to discover that there was an inscription similar to Arabic writings on her forehead. Prior to the discovery, she had been a terrible fornicator with many boyfriends. Although she had dismissed every gospel message preached to her, she was nonetheless perplexed about the strange writings that she began to look for a man of God to explain things to her. The man of God, whom she eventually met, told her that she would die on the 27th of September of that year and that the only solution was for her to repent and forsake her sinful ways. The lady was quite angry that the man of God refused to pray for her, but rather insisted that she must give her life to Christ. She left in anger and went in search of herbalists who could solve her problem. But to her surprise, the herbalists could not help her, rather they emphasized that nothing would stop her sudden death on that date. Since she was quite helpless, she had no option than to run back to the man of God, where she confessed her sins and gave her life to Jesus. By the time she finished saying the sinner 's prayer, the sign on her forehead disappeared. The blood of Jesus rubbed it off. Although the evil spirits came with determination to kill her on the 27th of September. Jesus nonetheless defeated them. So, we see that forgiveness of sin is accompanied with healing power. It follows therefore that if you go back to your old sins, the old sicknesses would also come back to you.
2. Only God can forgive sin: There is no where in the scriptures where a man was made a priest to others for the purpose of confessing their sins to him and asking for forgiveness. It is only God who can forgive sins; no human being can do it.
3, Jesus is God; He was God who manifested in the flesh. This is why Jesus Himself said; “I and my Father are one.” Just like the father, He too has the power to forgive sins. John chapter 1 verses 1-3 tell us that: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. "
4. Jesus is qualified to say, "I say unto you": All the servants of God and prophets in the Old Testament dispensation could only say. "Thus says the Lord..." But when Jesus came, He did not say, “Thus says the Lord,” because He was the very Lord. I pray that He will speak to you today, in Jesus' name.
5. There is power in the word of God: Even as you are reading this message, the power in the word of God can do wonders in your life. All those that believe the gospel understand what is called the power of God unto salvation, which is the power that can deliver from guilt and sin.
6. Sin has paralyzing power: Sin can convert a spiritual giant to a dwarf and it can also paralyze the spiritual legs of believers, and make it impossible for them to move again.
7. We must be evangelists: We must be able to bring other people unto salvation and deliverance, just like the four men that brought the invalid to Jesus.
8. The value of good friends: The four men took their friend to Jesus. I pray that you have good friends, in Jesus’ name. Some Christians would not be in trouble today, where it not for their friends who look them to where they should not have been.
9. Faith is now: The friends of the paralytic man did not believe his healing should be postponed any further. They took the man there with the hope that he would receive his miracle instantly. The Bible stresses that when Jesus saw their faith, the man became healed immediately.
10. When you come from the top, the door, which was hitherto closed, is opened automatically: They came in from the top because they could not pass through the crowd at the ground floor. When the paralytic man who was let down from the roof got healed, he carried his bed and went out through the door. What does it mean to come from the top? It means that when Jesus becomes your own legs, whatsoever is on earth and beneath it will be opened unto you.
11. When every door is closed against you, come from the top: Those people met all doors closed and resorted to come from the top. When you look around you and it seems like everywhere is blocked, then run to Jesus. The Bible says. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and is saved."
12. The obedience of faith: Jesus commanded the paralytic man thus: ''Arise, take up your bed and go home." Immediately the man heard the order, he forgot that his legs were dead, but rose up and started to walk. That is how faith works. A man once came to the temple with a withered hand where Jesus was teaching. As he fastened his eyes on Jesus, Jesus abandoned His message, turned to him, and said: "Son, stretch forth thine hand." The man forgot that his hand was withered, and stretched it forth. His faith helped him and he got healed instantly. That is exactly how faith operates. Take a step of faith and things will begin to work for you.
It is very important that you break your roof today so that your eagle that is already soaring at great height is not shot down. You are meant to be a high-flying eagle and not a low flying one. Eagles can see miles away, and their eyes are many times more powerful than those of human beings. That means, an eagle can see a hunter even before the hunter sees it. That is why the Bible says that God's people shall mount up with wings like eagles. It is in the valley that witches and familiar spirits operate. It is in the valley that people are attacked with charms. But when you break your roof and get to the mountaintop, certain things cannot happen to you anymore. Believers are not supposed to be choked or pressed by evil spirits in their sleep; neither should they be victims of nightmares. No, it should not happen. Believers should also not be noted for absorbing evil arrows shot at them. If an evil arrow is shot at a believer, it ought to bounce hack and return to the sender.
Beloved, I wish to ask you at this point whether or not you are ready to break your roof. If you are, then you must be set to pray seriously. But if you decide to be a dwarf, then the angel of God will leave you exactly where you are. However, if you decide that you don't want to continue with your present level, then you are on your way to your breakthrough. For example, if you still need to ask yourself questions like why is it that spirit husband is still after me at this level of my Christianity? Why is it that evil personalities are feeding me in my dreams at this my spiritual level? Why is it that at this spiritual stage, I pray for a sick person only to absorb the sickness? Why would I pray for somebody at the hospital and thereafter the spirit of death begins to haunt me? Then you need to sit up.
There is always room for improvement in the life of every child of God. The day you stop learning is perhaps the day your breath ceases or the day you are automatically enrolled in a new school known as the school of the foolish.
We have many names for the church in the Bible. The Bible calls it the pillar of truth, the bride of Christ, the ambassador of Christ and the army of God. The Bible goes further to say that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church of God. That is to say, that the devil will not be able to withstand the church. In the olden days when we first got born again there was a song we used to sing, which says: "We are able to go up and take the country, to possess the land from Jordan to the sea, though the giants may be on our way to hinder, God will surely give us victory. Move on to the righteous side." What is the song telling us? The song is an indirect warning that if you don't move from your low levels you cannot overcome any giant. When we sang the song at the initial stage of our conversion, fire got into our blood, particularly as we were taught that we were on the battlefield. Our disposition then to the things of Christ differs greatly from that of present-day born-again Christians, who only raise up their hands to sing. "Lord prepare me a sanctuary." without being ready to do battle for Jesus. But we were taught differently that the day a person declares for Jesus, is the day he or she declares war against satan’s camp. As such, there is no time to joke or play. When there was civil war in Nigeria, it was quite easy to know it, particularly as radio stations played war jingles and martial music at regular intervals of time. People therefore did not need to be told that war was going on. The battle we fight on a daily basis is much more serious than am civil war because our own type of battle is a matter of life and death, both at the physical and spiritual realms. One old British Christian woman used to pray one fire prayer point: ''Make me thy flame O God." What a powerful prayer? The old woman was determined to burn for Jesus anywhere she was. Another man prayed. "Make me a soldier O Lord." It is a pity that many present-day Christians are not willing to become soldiers for Christ. Rather they prefer to be like little lambs to be carried about. They refuse to learn to stand on their own; such people are easy to recognize in the church, as they are in the habit of looking for somebody to pray for them. It is high time Christian brothers and sisters submitted themselves to warfare training. If those enlisted for physical warfare undergo serious training, Christians who are spiritual soldiers should not run away from training. A pastor friend of mine once gave a free ride to a man. They chatted as they moved. But all of a sudden the man he was giving a ride to started to rain incantations, and ended it with an order that my friend should give his car key to him. If my friend was a Christian without fire, he would have acceded to the man's demand and sheepishly handed over the key to him, only to come around to the church the following day with a prayer request for the car to be recovered. However, the incantation had no effect on my friend because he was on fire. To the amazement of the man, my friend parked his car and ordered him out immediately. It lakes the fire of God to do that.
When you break your roof, the fire of the world will have no effect on you. People are burning in the fire of the world because it is a must for witches to suck human blood. But as a believer, you should move about freely amidst the blood drinkers. I want you to close your eyes and pray this prayer point with aggression: "Every evil fire prepared against me, quench, in the name of Jesus." What we are trying to say is that aggressive Christianity is missing today. The problem with the church these days is that there are too many "civilians” and very few "soldiers." As a result, the devil is succeeding at shutting people up. Believers can no longer win souls as soul winning has been abandoned to only evangelism teams. Many Christians no longer attack the Devil. Rather, they prefer to look for remedy after being attacked. If God in a position, the first reason why you are there is to evangelize. It is a disgrace if you claim to be a member of MFM and the first thing they notice in your office, as a woman is that you are covered with make-up all over. As a genuine member of this fellowship, you should have tracts on your table in the office, so that whenever people come to you, they are able to get things to read. Fire in the word magazine is a good thing to use for this purpose. Our evangelism should be done with God's wisdom. We should not be like the man who stood in the front of a mosque preaching and said to those religious worshippers, "All of you here are on your way to hell fire except you repent, etc." Then they came out and dealt blows on him, snatched his Bible from his hands and smashed it on his head. Thereafter he began to say. "I thank you Jesus because I am counted worthy to suffer for you." No, he did not suffer for Christ but for his foolishness. The truth is, there is no sermon or argument that can convert a moslem, except by the power of God. For us to achieve much, we must be strict with ourselves as believers and not with others outside of Christianity. We should be more aggressive than the enemy. These days, many will testify that the enemies are more aggressive than Christians. You ought to be like the biblical Caleb who told Joshua, "Give me this mountain." In spite of the fact that there were giants on the mountain, he insisted that he would face the mountain all the same. So, he refused to rest and relax unlike many people, who choose to settle down to rest. So, you are advised to sharpen your sword.
Break your roof by deciding to have spiritual breakthrough. When you do this, you will break through the barrier to your blessing. You need to break through the roof so that you can receive fresh fire from the Almighty. The Bible says in Mark 16 verse 20, "And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. "God was able to commit Himself to those who went out, not those who stayed at home idle. It is today you find Christians going to picnics and love feasts, where a lot of cows are slaughtered for people to eat. It is difficult to see how these activities would help their spiritual growth. If God opens the eyes of many to see demons operating in their families, villages, towns and the country as a whole, they will wake up from their spiritual slumber. Many are contented with sitting down in church to learn new choruses, whereas when the Lord Jesus Christ was here, He was fond of "causing trouble." I mean He went to the temple and created havoc amidst people that dragged Christianity in the mire. He took whips and sent all of them packing. He drove them out and overturned their tables. All the bureau de change in the church were thrown away and scattered by the
Lord. Are you stirring up trouble for Jesus? Otherwise you have not seen a challenge yet.
Soldiers are men and women who go out to fight for God. They are not those who sit down doing nothing. I am sure such people cannot win any war. A lot of believers try to make their beds softer in order to dream Jacob's dream. God started to train Jesus right from His birth. They took Him to many places because somebody wanted to destroy Him. He had a lot of trouble as the Son of God. But instead of people to take a cue from this, they resort to all sorts of complaints. They would say, "I do not know why all these are happening to me." They do not know that God wants to train them. There is no doubt that those who would last for God would undergo a hard training. Therefore, I would like you to pray until you are sure in your spirit that something has happened to you. Many people have giants roaming about their lands, and they need to chase them out. Aggression is needed to chase them out. There is no gentle method of chasing out and slaying giants. The method, which David used against Goliath, was not a gentle one. Goliath issued a curse on David to which David too responded with a counter curse in the name of the Lord. David's curse therefore overruled the curse of Goliath. David broke his roof by firing the stone and finishing Goliath. Jacob also broke his roof when he wrestled with an angel all night. His life was never the same again from that day. Bartimeaus too broke his roof when he cast aside his weight of physical blindness to shout unto Jesus for help. You too must break your roof today. Break your roof today and breakthroughs will bo your lot. If you do that today, heavens will open for you. Note that if you do not chase giants from the garden of your life, the Lord cannot possess your life. Your life cannot be the habitation of God. It is an insult for God to share the garden of your life with other things. Break your roof and you will never remain the same, in Jesus" name.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Every giant walking about in the garden of my life, be slain, in the name of Jesus.
2. I refuse to pick the wrong materials from the bank of life, in the name of Jesus.
3. Lord God of Elijah, empower me by fire, in the name of Jesus.
4. I withdraw every co-operation that I am giving to my enemies, in the name of Jesus.
5. I command an end to the activities of wicked forces in my life, in Jesus' name.
6. Father Lord, uphold me so that 1 will not fall, in the name of Jesus.
