Without Strength Before The Pursuer

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.