Lamentation 1:6 says, “And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.”
What a tragic lamentation. The runner is in big trouble because he is being pursued but has no strength. Somebody that is pursued cannot relax. If he has no strength then he is already a prey, a casualty. A runner that has no strength is as good as being in prison because it is only a matter of time before he or she is caught. When a person that is pursued has no strength before the pursuer, it means he or she is running in vain, he or she is engaged in a useless exercise. Somebody who has no strength before the pursuer is as good as gone. Unfortunately, this is the situation of many people. They have accumulated enemies from their fathers’ houses, mothers’ houses, their inlaws and their places of work. They have accumulated these arrays of pursuers but then they have no strength.
Beloved, are the things pursuing you catching up with you? Are you pursued by anger, lust, fear, evil dream, familiar spirits, witches, bad luck, poverty, lukewarmness, backsliding, worldliness, immorality, and unseriousness, and are they catching up with you? Think about it. Are those things that were never close to you dominating you now? You need to pray. Are the old sicknesses that went away when you surrendered your life to Jesus coming back now? There is a spiritual rule that does not change. It says, if you go back to your old sin, your old problem will come back. Jesus said to the man by the pool of Bethesda, “Sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you.” So old sin, old problem.
The truth is that as a Christian, you ought to be the pursuer and not the pursued. Have you started to lose stamina in prayer? Were you the kind of person who could fast for three or seven days and nobody would know you were fasting? But now you are losing stamina? Have you started to faint in your resistance to satan? Are the kind of sin and thoughts that never use to cross your mind now staging a throne in your heart? Then you are becoming powerless before the pursuer. The powerlessness of our present generation of Christians is alarming and terrible. It is time to decide that you must take your rightful position, that is being the pursuer and not the pursued. So, you need power to contend with and to subdue the powers of darkness. Nowadays, men and women are going deeply into the occult to receive power. Unless Christians are able to contend with their power, there will be problem.
There is a rule in the spirit world which does not change.It says, when a greater power comes across a lesser power, as a matter of necessity, the lesser power must bow. If you are without strength before a strong pursuer then there is trouble.
HOW TO PURSUE THE PURSUER
There is only one key to pursue the pursuer and it is found in Psalm 51:17 which says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” This key is a broken and a contrite heart. There is no way God will reject the cry of those who have a broken spirit and a contrite heart. It means there are people that God despises. That is why the Bible says, “They will call upon me but I will not answer” (Proverbs 1:28). "They will call upon me when they need help and I will turn my face away!" But if you have a broken spirit, God will not despise your cry. In Psalm 34:18, we can see those that God is close to; those who are the friends of God. You can be the friend of your pastor or General Overseer but if you are not a friend of God, you are wasting your time.
Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and seeth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Many people are talking what they do not practise. Many carry the Bible but the Bible is not in their heart. And the enemy can see all the hypocrisy and acting. The enemy has powerful X-ray and scan machines through which he can see Christians who are serious and those who are not serious. If you are being pursued by an enemy that is stronger than you, you are already a prey. The Bible says, “Finally, my brethren be strong in the Lord...” (Ephesians 6:10). It did not say be strong in gossiping, be strong in backbiting or be strong in pride.” It says, “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” because our enemy is strong. It is this enemy the Bible refers to as the strongman. That strongman is not of God, it is a negative strongman.
Our lives must demonstrate the power of God, and for that to happen, we must be broken. The Lord is close to those who are broken. They are the kind of people He wants. If you are not broken then you will be without strength before the pursuer. But if you are of a broken heart, the Lord will be close to you and His power will be following you around. The people of darkness will see it and run away. When God is with you, they will run away from you. No demon can come and be pressing you down on your bed when God is close to you. Spirit spouse, witches, familiar spirits and household wickedness cannot harm somebody that is broken because God is with the person. When God is with you, wherever you go, He goes. Where you sit down, He sits down because He is always close to those that are broken.
WHAT IS BROKENNESS?
Brokenness is the taming of the soul. When a soul is tamed by God, it is said to be broken. Many souls are not tamed that is why you see many people talking carelessly. That is why many people are getting angry and fighting. When your soul is not tamed, you will be cursing people and your tongue will be very acidic. Brokenness is giving abundant room to the Holy Spirit to operate in your life. It is complete submission and obedience to God.
Brokenness is for you to die and for Christ to live in you. And you become like a small Jesus moving about. Brokenness is inner transformation by God. Brokenness is total elimination of the flesh in your life and complete enthronement of God in your heart. Brokenness is to allow God to make you what He wants. The Lord is nigh unto those that are of a broken heart. He is glued to them.
When you are broken, there are things you do not do, and there are things that do not happen to you. A broken person does not act in anger. The fact that you lose your cool means you are still without strength before the pursuer. The fact that you get into sin quite easily and jump out again to repent shows that you are without strength. The power of a broken life cannot be contested. Any unbroken area of a life is enough to make the enemy come in easily. You cannot fight an enemy that is stronger than you. If you can allow God to break you down, and all the activities and powers of the flesh die in your life, you will find life a lot easier. And you will begin to pursue the powers that have been pursuing you.
FACTS ABOUT SPIRITUAL WARFARE
1. You must deal with the devil and his cohorts.
2. You must take control of your mind. It is not every battle that is with the devil and his cohorts alone. You must establish a solid immigration control at the door of your mind. And anyone or anything that approaches that door of your mind without the appropriate documents is sent back to the sender. All the terrible evil thoughts must be sent out. It is part of warfare.
3. You must crucify the flesh. The big truth is that satanic attack cannot prosper in a life that does not cooperate with it. If your flesh cooperates with the devil, the devil will attack you. If you are dead to sin, the enemy will run away from you. Dead men do not respond to temptation. Dead men do not commit fornication. Dead men do not abuse people. Dead men are not capable of responding to somebody who is abusing them or who is talking rubbish to them.
Herein lies the power of a broken man. When we live a life of brokenness, no weapon formed against us can prosper. All the prayer against the devil will be to no avail, if one is not broken. In such cases, the devil is not the real enemy, the enemy is the flesh which many people have refused to surrender to the Holy Spirit.
When you are living a broken life, there is no wizard or witch that can eat your flesh. You will cease to become raw material for satanic attack. When you are living a broken life, you will know the secret of God. He will talk to you. When you are living a broken life, you become immune to satanic arrows. When you are living a broken life, you will permanently trample upon serpents and scorpions. You become a terror to demonic forces. And when you go home to be with the Lord, the demonic forces will be rejoicing that you have gone. When you live a broken life, you will offer no cooperation to the devil. You will reject sin in all its ramifications. When you are broken, you will offer no protection to the enemy. The power in a broken life is tremendous. Therefore, you do your spiritual life a lot of havoc if you are not broken. When you are broken, you will survive and record testimonies every time. You must cry out to the Lord, that the serpent of sin must die so that brokenness will manifest in your life.
Once you are living in any known sin, be assured that you are an enemy of the cross. If you are living in any known sin, you are without strength before the pursuer, no matter how hard you pray. You need to be broken.
SIGNS OF UNBROKENNESS
1. If you are stubborn, unteachable and close-minded, you are unbroken.
2. When your bad behaviour does not prick your conscience anymore, you are unbroken.
3. When you do not have godly sorrow for the sins you commit and do not break down and cry or feel sorry, you are unbroken.
4. When you are not sensitive to your own spiritual weakness and you are not sensitive to the fact that you are not praying enough or reading your Bible enough, and you are not doing what the Lord wants you to do, you are not broken.
5. If your heart is so hard that the word of God cannot penetrate it, you are unbroken and will be powerless before the pursuer.
6. If you consciously disobey God, you are unbroken.
7. If you are a hypocrite, you are unbroken.
8. If you are not humble, you are unbroken. If you are proud and think you are very important, remember that nobody is indispensable to God. If you are never deeply sincere with what you say, or you are even a Jezebel pursuing people to make them fall, you are unbroken. If you exhibit a lot of unloving characteristics, you are not broken.
9. When you keep friends who are not godly, then you are not broken.
The kind of friends you keep, the very manner in which you speak, the way you spend your leisure time, the way you use your money, the things you wear, the kind of music you listen to, the kind of things you talk about, the kind of books your read and the way you make your money, show whether you are broken or not.
WHAT DOES THE LORD WANT YOU TO DO?
He wants you to get broken so that you can be what He wants you to become. A certain man of God changed his own country. He noticed that whenever he saw sinners in the street, he did not get worried whether they were saved or not. So, he knew that something was wrong with him. He went to the mountain and prayed one prayer point for seven days. The prayer point was: “O Lord, break me!” By the time he prayed this for seven days, something happened. He became a changed man. When he rose up and began to minister, things began to happen. We need to call ourselves to order. Pride must go. All kinds of evil speaking must go. All unloving characteristics must go. If you say things to other people and later begin to regret it, then you are not broken. You will be without strength before the pursuer.
Unfortunately, there are many unbroken pastors, unbroken ushers, unbroken choristers and unbroken workers in the church. A man is nothing without God. You must allow the Lord to lay you out on His stretcher, take you to His operating theatre and carry out a surgical operation on your life.
Samson was a child of promise, a child whose birth was prophesied by angels. He was destined to be a winner even before he was born. But because of the unbroken area of his life, he lost everything. He became blind. The strongman that the Philistines feared became somebody who was grinding pepper in the midst of the Philistines. Eventually, he died with his enemies. Although, he killed more enemies at his death he died with them.
Beloved, you need to cry to heavens to deliver you from unbrokenness so that you will fulfill your divine destiny.
PRAYER POINTS
1. O Lord, break me, in the name of Jesus.
2. My Father, help me, I do not want to be a negative example. in the name of Jesus.
3. Thou power of failure at the edge of success, your time is up, die, in the name of Jesus.
4. Thou power of poor finishing, die, in the name of Jesus.
5. Heavenly fire, arise, attack poverty in my life, in the name of Jesus.
6. Thou strongman troubling my life, die, in the name of Jesus.
7. Every habitation of wickedness in my dwelling place, scatter, in the name of Jesus.
8. Mirror of darkness fashioned against me, explode in the face of your owner, in the name of Jesus.
9. Thunder of God, lightning of God, arise in your anger, scatter every witchcraft gathering troubling me, in the name of Jesus.
10. All round success, pursue me and locate me, in the name of Jesus.
11. My Father, make my life a success story, in the name of Jesus.
12. Every satanic decree against my advancement, die, in the name of Jesus.
13. I, (mention your name) will fulfill my destiny at the appointed time, in the name of Jesus.
14. Every uncompleted good project in my life, be completed by fire, in the name of Jesus.
15. I shall walk, I shall run, I shall fly as an eagle this year, in the name of Jesus.
16. My spiritual legs, hear the word of the Lord, move me forward by fire, in the name of Jesus.
