The Battle At House Number 1099 - Part 5 - MVK

Have you ever stood your ground even in the face of obvious failure? One day I preached about this in our Church. The content of this sermon was made up manly of the many lessons I gained at house number 1099. I once heard someone say ‘when you are with your back against the wall, the only direction to go is forward” it sounded good and very practical as a word of encouragement but could it be done? One thing that I have learnt in life was how valuable some things are if you don’t just hear them, but when you listen carefully when they are said. Here is the difference between the things you hear and those you listen to; as you read this article you are somehow listening to what I’m saying but in the back round you hear a lot of other noises, including conversations that are not directed to you. Hearing is a gift from God but listening is a skill developed by some people. The importance of listening is that whatever you listened to can not be taken away from you when on the other hand I can’t remember how many sounds I heard today. Check this out; should you hear music played in the middle of the night when all other noises are absent it sticks with you whether it is good or bad music. The art of listening is developed through eradicating all other voices or messages and picking out just that line that will save your life later.


The other sad thing about being in trouble and not knowing what to do or say is simply caused by not forgetting what you listened to but by being unsure if what you heard works or not. If you are ever going to win your battles against the devil you have to be a good student. A good student is not afraid to put into practice what the teacher said. I want you to read the following facts and hear what I have to say later


• The first electric light was made in 1800 by Humphry Davy, an English scientist. He experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. When he connected wires to his battery and a piece of carbon, the carbon glowed, producing light. This is called an electric arc.
• Much later, in 1860, the English physicist Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914) was determined to devise a practical, long-lasting electric light. He found that a carbon paper filament worked well, but burned up quickly. In 1878, he demonstrated his new electric lamps in Newcastle, England.
• In 1877, the American Charles Francis Brush manufactured some carbon arcs to light a public square in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. These arcs were used on a few streets, in a few large office buildings, and even some stores. Electric lights were only used by a few people.
• The inventor Thomas Alva Edison (in the USA) experimented with thousands of different filaments to find just the right materials to glow well and be long-lasting. In 1879, Edison discovered that a carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb glowed but did not burn up for 40 hours. Edison eventually produced a bulb that could glow for over 1500 hours.
• Lewis Howard Latimer (1848-1928) improved the bulb by inventing a carbon filament (patented in 1881); Latimer was a member of Edison's research team, which was called "Edison's Pioneers." In 1882, Latimer developed and patented a method of manufacturing his carbon filaments.
• In 1903, Willis R. Whitney invented a treatment for the filament so that it wouldn't darken the inside of the bulb as it glowed.
• In 1910, William David Coolidge (1873-1975) invented a tungsten filament which lasted even longer than the older filaments. The incandescent bulb revolutionized the world


Can you see how masters and students work? Inventors and innovators work pretty much the same way? What started in the heart of one man in the year 1800 took 110 years to become the modern day light bulb. Now ask yourself what would have happened if no one listened to the first inventor and just heard about what he did. You are right we would still be sitting here with the electric arc produced by connecting wires to a battery. That would not light up our homes, not even to mention the many lights we see over our cities at night. Now here is the lesson behind these facts: the power behind what Jesus started can only become modern day reality when an army of “innovative students” keep using it and applying it to different situations. “God’s power is not powerful without it being directed towards objects that need to be overpowered” MVK


Now when we got to live at house number 1099 we were constantly required to read the bible and ‘try out” what it said about the situations we were facing. And we discovered that there was not a single scripture that promised power against the devil and demons that was not real. They all worked for us. When I come across people who say the Bible is not practical I see them in the light of the above facts. They just heard they never listened. There is no demon on this planet that can threaten me I know my rights! And thank god that He allowed my family and I to ‘walk through the valley of the shadow of death” and we were never defeated in all those confrontations.
I had a very real experience one day whilst I was asleep. I dreamt that I was coming out of our bedroom in the morning and just as I opened the bedroom door there were flies falling from the ceiling in the passage. These flies were so many that they impaired my vision and I could only see a few meters away from where I was standing. Whilst these flies came falling from the ceiling they laid eggs in mid air and these eggs would hatch and become more flies, and by the time they finally hit the ground these circle would have repeated quite a few times and the whole passage was packed with flies. In the dream I just stood there at the door not sure about what to do when an inaudible voice urged me to go out of the bedroom. I walked out and something strange happened; as I walked what seemed like an invisible umbrella was upon me and the flies were still falling and laying eggs and their eggs turning to more flies, but none was falling on me. As I was walking in the passage towards the lounge I noticed that everywhere I would step that exact sport would be clean and there would be no flies on it. But after I had passed the spot would be filled with flies. I walked all the way to the lounge without a single fly falling on me or stepping on any. I woke up and I was glad that it was just a dream. But when you live in the middle of a battle ground nothing is “just a dream” there could be some reality behind it all. I shared this experience with Joyce and she reminded me of what the Bible says in Matthew 12:24. In this scripture there is a character called Beelzebub who is identified as the prince of demons and he is symbolized by the fly. The following reference from the Wikipedia should help you.


Ba‘al Zəbûb literally means "Lord of the Flies" (ba‘al being Hebrew for "lord, master, owner" and zəbûb being a Hebrew collective noun[citation needed] for "fly"). In Arabic the name is retained as Ba‘al Azabab (بعل ألذباب), literally "Lord of the Flies". Biblical scholar Thomas Kelly Cheyne suggested that it might be a derogatory corruption of Ba‘al Zəbûl, "Lord of the High Place" (i.e., Heaven) or "High Lord".[2] The Septuagint renders the name as Baalzebub (βααλζεβούβ) and as Baal muian (βααλ μυιαν, "Baal of flies"), but Symmachus the Ebionite may have reflected a tradition of its offensive ancient name when he rendered it as Beelzeboul.[3]
The source for the name Ba‘al Zebûb / Beelzebub is in 2 Kings 1:2-3, 6, 16 where King Ahaziah of Israel, after seriously injuring himself in a fall, sends messengers to inquire of Ba‘al Zebûb, the god of the Philistine city of Ekron, to learn if he will recover.


After Joyce reminded me of this it became obvious that this was a sign of impending battle she suggested that we get into ‘the fighting mode’ right away as we did not know when the enemy shall decide to attack. By this time we had already bought a bottle of olive oil and prayed over it and used it as the anointing oil. We used it to anoint the door post and the doors just like the Israelites did during the Passover in Egypt. We also used this oil to anoint our kids.
As the kids were in the bathroom one morning we heard them screaming and we got there and they showed us a number maggots in the bathtub. We cleaned the maggots out and encouraged the kids to continue bathing. We left the bathroom but soon the maggots were there again. We noticed that these creatures were falling from the bathroom ceiling and the strangest thing was that there were no holes at all in the ceiling, they just came from nowhere and it went on for the next two to three days. The kids boycotted their bathroom and I went on to use it just to show the devil that I was not going to back off. To be continued. MVK

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 . You can leave a response and follow any responses to this entry through the Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) .

5 comments

Anonymous  

It is true Pastor that most of us do not know the difference between hearing and listening. If we understand what listening means,we should be able to listen to God and trust in Him with all that we have. Because listening to the Word of God gives us the understanding that God will never forsake us.God will never allow us to go through challenges that we cannot overcome.

Through the experiences that you share with us , we are able to get confirmation that God is always here. We just have to reach out to Him.

desdes  

It is encouraging.
what are realized latter is even in the church we dont "relax", is war. we canot just say the battle is the lord and "relax".
thanks Pastor

Wow, Pastoor. What you are writting is so encourancing, I learnt to be a good student of the word. Not just hearing it but listen with the intention to try/apply the word in all situations. I must say your style of writing shows that you are a reader indeed and this puts a lot of challenge to me. Thank, much appreciated. Waiting for another 1099 lesson. Ta!

Thank you guys for your comments and Yes sir Arthur We live in a generation of readers therefore we need to be as relevant as we possibly can. MVK

Sir.

eish it is very true that we have settled to hearing rather than to listern. we have heard and field our minds with alot of theories and sadly enough with scriptures as well yet we have failed to put to practice. The knowledge that we have has become useless since we have not tried it out and see if it works. I decide today to try it out and be like the 4 leprous men in the 2 Kings 4 and say 'what if i breakthrough.' Like most succesful people, they tried things out and it worked.
Thank you for your dedication to challenge us to be better, just like JESUS did, challenging HIS disciples to be like HIM.
I than GOD for a teacher like you. May HE enable you even more to do more.

Tee.M