I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places ~ Isaiah 45:2-3
Introductions:
Becoming familiar with the spiritual nature of life’s obstacles to progress is a wise thing to do if we hope to get onto the paths of meaningful breakthroughs. One wise man rightly said: “if stagnation goes unexamined, breakthrough pays the price”.
Obstacles naturally litter the pathways to a good life, and it is in their nature to fence off or obstruct progress. Hence, often and again, we combat obstacles in order to get repose and find rest in life. Until all obstacles are eliminated, our paths to the throne never become even.
At this stage, in order to enjoy a fuller grasp of this subject, we must ask ourselves a basic pertinent question: why is everybody not as rich as the richest man on earth?
On earth today, some people are very comfortable and several others are disgustingly distressed. Some lead decent lives and celebrate many noble achievements, while some others live and die wretched, without attaining any of their major goals in life. But why is this so? Why?
Conventional view has it that the disparity is because ‘not all fingers are equal’. However, such a view cannot stand the test of scriptures. The Creator God made no man inferior to any other man, either dead or alive. He created every man on earth as replicas of divinity: “So God created man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27).
What then is responsible for the glaring inequalities we commonly observe among men? It is the total productivity factors, resulting in the individual outputs, which are being constantly rebased in varying ways by the invisible roadblocks, difficulties, drawbacks, handicaps, hindrances and many other variants of barriers that humanity experiences. And, I venture to suggest that this is a major reason why fortunes of peoples and nations equally vary from place to place.
Please get this right: except for the barriers on your way, your life could have been better, sweeter and much more successful. And, no matter how fulfilled you think you are, you are still many shades lower than what you are supposed to be. Indeed, God’s best man has not yet shown up!
What is a Barrier?
Ordinarily, a barrier is a material structure, such as a fence, built to block a passage or an access. When barriers stand in the way of a thing, they hold up its progress, and redefine its growth and development. Meanwhile, in the context of this message, we are concerned about the dimensions of invisible barriers.
Invisible barriers are immaterial structures that obstruct, impede or arrest human progress. They are capable of preventing positive actions in human endeavors, and hence slow down progress in the journeys of destiny.
To further assist our understanding, let’s keep in mind that “bar” is a root word for “barriers”. Bars provide the sustaining strength of gates; hence, directly or indirectly, they control or define access.
Similarly, spiritual bars and barriers denote strong fortifications and powerful impediments against human progress, breakthroughs and expansion. They are means by which “access doors” are bolted against achievements in life. No wonder then that “barren” individuals are never known to be productive until something extraordinary is done about the situation.
A list of invisible barriers that Satan regularly uses to afflict humanity today includes the following: mental barriers due to ignorance and lack of productive imaginations, financial barriers, emotional barriers, social barriers, geographical barriers, gender barriers, age and time barriers, health barriers and educational limitations. Others are: behavioral barriers, generational/family barriers and circumstantial barriers.
Where allowed to stand, barriers are capable of separating even born stars from starry achievements in life. They can steal great reputations and recognitions from men and women of famous backgrounds.
Barriers result in stagnation, retardation and frustration and could be so strong as to resist even well calculated strides. They could barricade people away from productivity and, hence, rendering them barren in life no matter how hard they labour.
Breaking, burning, dismantling and destroying invisible barriers should be very crucial to men and women with the Bible dreams of reaching lofty heights. We all should opt to determine to crush barriers in all their manifestations.
Crushing the Stubborn Barriers of Life
As hinted earlier, there are many invisible barriers to breakthroughs, excellence and magnificence on the journeys of life. They could be behavioral, incidental or circumstantial in nature, and they could be very stubborn and clumsy until we gain mastery over them by rightly engaging the power of God.
In her teething days, Israel went through many roadblocks. She started out as a nation in captivity, and was oppressed, afflicted, intimidated and enslaved in Egypt. Even after their exodus, and on their memorable journey to Canaan, the people of Israel saw great difficulties at the Red Sea, the River Jordan and by the Wall of Jericho.
They experienced great delays and distractions, and tasted the bitterness of evil reports, rebellion, murmuring and disobedience. They saw stress and fatigues due to internal wrangling, external invasions and wars.
They even felt the terrible frown of God at a point because of an Achan in their camp. In fact, as a result of these impediments, not all of them who witnessed the great exodus eventually got to the Promised Land.
Paul and Silas too, though they had a clear-cut mission assignment from God, suffered great difficulties, and even imprisonment until God sent an angel to release them.
God is able to pull down all barriers, but you will also require wisdom, openness and sincerity to know the nature of the barrier. The paradigms of your life as well as the habits of your mind go a long way in determining the extent to which barriers hold you down on your journeys in life. Your habits and belief systems do govern your life-space.
Where barriers are due to our bad personal conducts and behaviors, we must accept responsibility and quickly make room for necessary changes rather than engaging in blame-games with the devil. Blaming the devil when we should accept responsibility can only make him more devilish.
However, in cases where barriers are incidental or circumstantial, or where they are supernatural in nature and are, therefore beyond us, we should humble ourselves, like David did, in order to enlist the help of God (Psalm 121:1-2).
Friends and brethren, obstacles are not to be tolerated but tackled by the power of God through prayers of faith. As you effectively walk in the light of divine/Biblical revelations, you will receive unfailing barrier-crushers for boundless breakthroughs, obstacles will crumble as a helpless pack of cards, and your full liberation from stagnation shall show forth for your world to see, in Jesus Name (2 Corinthians 4:6). Walking with Jesus Christ is walking in abundant freedom. Happy Sunday!
Rhema Christian Church,
Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.
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