“These then are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you” - Titus 2:15 (NIV).
When soldiers go out to battle one thing they dare not question are orders. This is of course necessary since in a war situation you can easily lose ground if you opened up orders to debate while under enemy fire. A good officer always expects his orders to be executed at once.
Just as today, so was it with the Roman army which at the turn of the first millennium controlled much of Europe and Northern Africa. Roman soldiers were feared for their might, discipline and ability to conquer any territory at ease.
Once a Roman soldier met Jesus with a servant who lay sick at home. He had heard about the power of Jesus. “Lord, he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly” (Mat 8:6). When Jesus said “Shall I come and heal him” (verse 7), the trained soldier would have none of that. “Lord, I do not deserve you come under my roof. But just say the word and my servant will be healed” (verse 8). Jesus was startled by his faith. “Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go let it be done just as you believed it would. And his servant was healed” (verse 13).
This passage of faith reminds us of the authority and power believers have in the mighty name of Jesus to speak to any situation troubling them. That authority is not about begging for Jesus has left it in our hands. “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you” (Luke 10:19).
Today, whatever situation we may be facing, let us remember the faith of the Roman soldier and bodily speak to it, arrest it, for we have that power Jesus left with us!
Prayer for today: Lord Father in heaven, today I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that any situation oppressing me is now silenced, in the power of His name.
Related upcoming events
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19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
