MOUNTAIN OF FIRE AND MIRACLES MINISTRIES
International Headquarters, Lagos, Nigeria.
Wednesday Manna Water Service
January 18th, 2023.
Topic: DISCOURAGE YOUR DISCOURAGEMENT
Text: 1 Samuel 30:6-8, 3-4.
Ministering: Dr. D.K Olukoya (G.O. MFM Worldwide)
There is an evil entity that is very useful in the hands of the enemy. There is an evil tool that the enemy uses with specific accuracy. There is an instrument that has brought down so many mighty men and women.
There is a tool that the enemy has been using since the beginning of the Bible. And the enemy likes to use the tool because it finds it very effective. This tool of the enemy is called DISCOURAGEMENT.
Discouragement is one of the most devastating enemies of mankind. It is one of the greatest enemies of anything anyone is doing that is worthwhile. Discouragement can sit a man down and convince him that success is impossible. It has caused the failure of countless good endeavors.
Discouragement will create a high table for a person, put the person on the high table, and convince the person that he cannot succeed, and the person will just accept the status quo.
Discouragement can convince a man to expect failure before he has even started. And as believers, it is so easy to allow the pressures and burdens of life to overwhelm us and cause us to despair. That is why the Psalmist says, “I will not despair, for I have believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
SAY (3 times): I will not despair, for I have believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
So, it is so easy to allow pressure to overcome us as believers.
Discouragement is a clever and intelligent killer. It has caused so many people to drop out of prayer and going to church.
When discouragement sets in, doubt sets in, which will begin to see obstacles because, naturally, doubt sees obstacles and faith sees the way. And when you, as a believer, look at something good that you are supposed to do and say, “I cannot do it,” what you are saying is that God cannot do it.
Listen, if you feed your faith, your doubt will starve to death, but if you feed your doubt, your faith will starve to death.
Whether we like it or not, beloveth, the devil will fire the arrow of discouragement at everybody. Every man or woman, at one stage or another, will face the battle of discouragement. Your approach to managing that discouragement will distinguish whether you are a winner or a loser.
Your success in that battle in life is actually tied to how you handle or resolve your discouragement.
During discouragement, the mind and soul will be full of worry, and very soon, absentmindedness will set in, weariness will come in, indifference will come in, and a loss of interest in what will help you fulfil your goals will set in too. Negative thoughts will begin to come. Sometimes, even thoughts of suicide will begin to creep in because of discouragement.
I pray once again that any arrow of discouragement that has been fired into any life and that the enemy is using as a tool to steal from you, let the arrows gather themselves and go back to the senders, in the name of Jesus.
It is sad, but it is true that many of us actually wage war against ourselves. Imagine taking your car to a mechanic to have it repaired, and as you drive in, you find out that the mechanic starts complaining that he should have been a bricklayer because he does not like being a mechanic. You will also find out that people will start taking their vehicles away from him. Or you go to a hospital, and the surgeon who is supposed to do the surgery is complaining that he wishes he had been a mechanic.
Many of us constantly degrade ourselves, and many of us box ourselves into a corner in the absence of an enemy.
Whenever the devil wants to make you box yourself into a corner next time, discourage that discouragement by encouraging yourself in the Lord.
When you say “discourage,” you mean to take your courage away. It is just like saying “disease”βit is lack of ease; “discourage” is lack of courage.
Discouraged people do not normally hear from God. The devil knows that discouraged people can hardly commune properly or hear from God. The Bible says, “In His presence, there is fullness of joy.” He did not say, “In his presence, there is a fullness of sadness, thinking, and melancholy.”
Encouragement causes hope, and discouragement brings hopelessness and despair.
What it takes to discourage you is an indication of the size of your faith. So, it is easy to know the size of a personβs faith by observing how much it takes to discourage you. David prayed in confidence, but he would never have heard God if he had chosen to remain discouraged.
Discouragement, beloveth, is a decision just like happiness is a decision. You could decide to be discouraged.
You may say, “Man of God, I am tired of begging this person,” but keep begging. You may say, “Man of God, I am tired of greeting this person, and the man is not even responding,” but keep greeting. “I have prayed this prayer; I have prayed that one.” Keep at the prayers. “I am tired of laying hands on the same spot every time they say we should lay hands,” you should keep doing it because the next time you lay hands, you might crack the mountains completely.
“O, I have been paying my tithes but there has been no breakthrough yet,” then give even more violently so that the enemy that has been holding back your breakthrough will say, “Ah! This person we are binding to move forward is even giving more.” They will then release your breakthroughs to you.
Many of us, beloveth, need deliverance from what is known as the grasshopper spirit. What is the grasshopper spirit? It is the spirit of the ten spies who came back from the promised land and said, “We are not able to take the land; they are just there.”
You need to stand against that giant of discouragement. You need to stand against every spirit of evil expectation. You may be in your own Gethsemane right now, experiencing your own arrows of discouragement and depression, and wondering whether God has abandoned you, decided to leave you alone, or is on vacation.
The situation is very straightforward. If you want to discourage your discouragement, there are four keys. I will describe the four keys to you before we begin to pray.
1. Cry out to God and tell Him your troubles. The Psalmist says, “In the days that I cry, then shall my enemies turn back; this I know that God is with me.”
2. Give God your anxiety. Do what that hymn writer was saying: “Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there; drop it at His feet and leave it there.” “For it is written that I know in Whom I believe, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which is committed to His care against that day.” Do what the Bible saysβbe careful for nothing.
3. Apply the greatest medicine for discouragement, which is what the Bible calls peace. Ask Him for peace. Isaiah 26:3. Peace means calm happiness. Peace is more quiet and lasting than joy. Peace means resting in the Lord. It means divine calmness and quietness. It means that in the face of all kinds of adversity, you look to the Lord and praise Him. Peace means tranquillity of the mind. It means a perpetually calm disposition. Pray and ask the Lord for peace. Lack of strength disappears when peace is in your life.
4. Wage war against the spirit of discouragement.
And this is where we will start praying now. A lot of people have made terrible mistakes by allowing the arrows, the spirit, and the bondage of discouragement to find them. Some people have given up hope on the day of breakthrough. Some stopped praying when the angel was about to hand over what they wanted.
Some have lived fifty years serving the devil, but have just served the Lord for one year and want His blessings. Some have been praying, but they have cancelled their prayers, saying that they do not know why they are not receiving answers. When you make that kind of statement, you can cancel your previous prayers and start from stage one.
Whereas prayer is like somebody taking a hammer and knocking at something. It may seem as if nothing is happening on the outside, but inside the weakness created by your hammering, it has started. It is like a termite getting into a wooden structure; while the termite has eaten the inside, you still see the wooden structure until the day that a termite takes the last bite.
Are you here and you are tired of coming to the house of God, or are you even contemplating killing yourself or going back to the enemy or sin? If you go back to the enemy now that you have been serving Jesus, the enemy will ensure that you do not go back to Him again. They will also press you down. The Bible says that if you lay your hands on the plough and look back, the person is not fit for the kingdom of God.
This message is coming out this day to assist so many who are going through a hard time, and they think heaven has gone on vacation. I have a message for you from heaven: Heaven has not gone on holiday, and that problem will eventually become your promotion.
PRAYER POINTS
[Before Message]
1. Doors that will move me forward, open by fire, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every power, questioning my breakthrough, you are a liar, die in the name of Jesus.
3. Every agreement against me at witchcraft covens, scatter by fire, in the name of Jesus.
[After Message]
1. My days of greatness, begin by fire, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every problem mocking me, die in the name of Jesus.
3. Problems assigned to bury my destiny, die in the name of Jesus.
4. Every wind of satanic storm, fired against me, backfire in the name of Jesus.
5. Power of the emptiers, I am not your candidate, die in the name of Jesus.
6. Power of the wasters, I am not your candidate, die in the name of Jesus.
7. Power of failure, I am not your candidate, die in the name of Jesus.
God bless youπ