Until your faith wins you can’t
be declared a winner yet. Winning by faith could be a tough road but with great
patience and persistence you will arrive at your destination. Friends, it is
possible to get it the way you have desired it.
I want to tell you the story of
a woman and you will learn a great deal from her. Read Matthew
15:21-28. In verse 22, the bible calls her a woman of Canaan. This is
to let you know that she was a total stranger to the covenant of promise. She
was an outsider, she was not entitled to anything in the covenant.
This woman came crying for
mercy, “have mercy on me O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with a devil.”
The devil wanted to destroy her
daughter. Friends, yours may not be your literal daughter, but may be there is
something in your life that the enemy is aiming to destroy. Is it your
job, your home, your body, your career, your properties, your future, your
relationships, your womb or any other thing that is languishing in the jaws of
the destroyer? You also can tap into the abundance of His mercies available for
us today. It is called the sure mercies of David. (Acts 13:34) There is
no mercy cry in the entire Bible that was not responded to. God is full of
mercy, compassion, tender mercies, and loving kindness in so much that He
couldn’t and wouldn’t denounce a mercy cry. By a mercy cry, blind Bartimaeus
arrested divine attention to his case (Mark 10:49).
But there was something
different, unique and important about the woman that the Lord wanted to bring
out.
Do you know that after she
cried for mercy the Lord answered her not a word? (v23). That was snubbing her!
Can you imagine going to see a pastor with your eyes red and swollen with tears
begging to be ministered to and he wouldn’t just look at you? How would you
feel? Maybe you would get angry and leave. But it wasn’t so with this woman.
Let us see what happened next.
“and his
disciples came and besought Him, saying ‘send her away for she crieth after
us’”.
Imagine
this? Disciples, ushers and councilors that were supposed to bring men to
church were the ones encouraging the pastor to get rid of them. Can you imagine
a disciple like Peter, who was saved by grace, through divine intervention
after his fishing company had collapsed and his life threatened with poverty
and dryness (Luke 5), now blocking the way of a helpless woman?
Listen friends, men will always block you. The devil that blocks men’s ways are
usually men themselves. It takes a man to block a man, No devil in hell can do
so without a man. What a poor woman! What a pity! Could you have taken
that? Get out of here, you are a nuisance! What a rejection! How would you have
felt? Maybe I would feel like “oh let the ground open up and swallow me!” no
one loves public disgrace and humiliation let alone open rejection.
But not so with this woman.
There was something inside her that was more than the ordinary. She was still
there. And then the third blow came from the mouth of the Lord Himself. “…I am not sent but unto the lost
sheep of Israel.”(v24) Can you imagine hearing this from the
mouth of the Lord Himself in that pitiable condition? How would you feel? You
go to a service seeking a divine touch and then a word of prophesy comes out to
you from the mouth of the pastor himself. “Oh Robert, God has no plans to touch
you today.
You are not on today's agenda. You may kindly go home.” You
open your eyes to see who is talking. It is the anointed servant of God
himself. And you look around, you see countless number of eyes on you and then
you overhear a whisper, “…it is over with this man today. Who else will he run
to?” Folks, how would you feel? May we never experience what it means to be
rejected by God (Amen). The bible said of King Saul, “he hath also rejected thee from being
king” (1Samuel 15:23). The Bible also said the same
of Eliab in 1Samuel 16:7. The bible further shows us that a
time came when God refused to answer King Saul in distress.
1Samuel
28:6 “And when Saul enquired of the
LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by
prophets.”
May it never come to that
in your life in Jesus' name. Amen.
God resists the proud.
James
4:6 But he giveth more grace.
Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
He will laugh at the
calamity and destruction of a hardened and unrepentant sinner
Proverbs
1:24-28 Because
I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man
regarded; 25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and
would none of my reproof: 26I also will laugh at your
calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27When your fear
cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress
and anguish cometh upon you. 28Then shall they call upon me,
but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
He will snub the prayers
of the unrepentant.
Isaiah 1:15
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when
ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Friends, how would you
feel if He says He has no time for you? Maybe you will lose hope and forget
about life. So many have attempted or are contemplating suicide. Why? Because
they have lost all hope even in God. I remember the story of a Rwandan genocide
victim crying and saying, “God has forgotten all about us”.
Beloved, we have reasons to be
eternally grateful for the sacrifice of Christ. We can never be rejected by the
Father anymore. The wall of partition has been removed. We have made peace with
God. We are eternally accepted. (Eph. 2:15-16, 1:6) We have free access into
this mercy and grace.
But this woman not having this
privilege was still able to push through. After such a rejection, let us see
what she did next.
“Then
came she and worshipped Him” (v25)
Worship!! What a mysterious
woman! Something mysterious was working inside of her. We have got a lot to
learn from her. After all the rebuffs, the rejection, the insult and the
mocking, she could still worship. Where did she get the strength to worship?
There was something working inside of her. And I thought I heard somebody say
“After worship the coast will be cleared.” Oh no what a paradox! Unexplainable!
After worship then came the
fourth blow, again from the mouth of the Lord, “It is not meet to take thechildren’s
bread and to cast it to the dogs”. (v26) What does that mean?
Woman you are a dog. Ha! A dog! What do you think? I suppose like a natural
woman she should just get up, curse everybody – the pastor, the ushers, etc. and
leave the church in annoyance saying, “Hey, if you cannot heal me must you
insult me? It is my daughter that is sick, if she dies I will give birth to
another and if not I will enjoy my life!” But no she was not a natural
woman. She was a supernatural woman. She did not do that. Something kept
telling her within “daughter you will still get it”.
Then she resorted to
reasoning. “Truth Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their masters table.” There! At last she
broke through. She won. The Lord couldn’t hold back any longer. The heavens
stood up to applaud her. The store house began to open. A mystery had been
unraveled. And the Lord said to her, “O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even AS
THOU WILT” She got it as she willed. Her faith won at
last. She was a winner. Wow!!! She reasoned with the Lord. She finally got back
on words.
The Bible says we should bring
forth our strong reasons.
Child of God, get this. You
also can get it as you will. Your heart’s desire can be met. It takes a winning
faith. It takes patience and persistence; your sun will rise again. Beloved, if
a stranger can get what belongs to the children then why are the children
lacking? Friend, if rebuffs, rejection, mocking, insults, disgrace and whatever
else is stopping you, then you need a winning faith.
Winning faith says you
can hold the Father
to his word and promises by bringing forth your reasoning.
What does that mean? Get into the word of God and remind Him of His commitment
and promises.
Isaiah 43:26 Put me
in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be
justified.
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together,
saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Does God forget His promises?
Of course not. He wants to be sure you understand them
Friend, unless your
understanding of His word and His will is strong, then your faith is still a
second or third class faith.
This year you are understanding
your rights and privileges as a son of God from the scriptures and you are not
taking no for an answer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen
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