A weekly Devotional by Gbile Akanni

FEAR: THE DEVIL'S WEAPON OF OPPRESSION

One critical weapon the devil uses to oppress men is the fear of death. Many people will never become what God wants them to be because they are afraid they will die. Those lepers began to reason with themselves: “If we say we will enter into the city, the famine is in the city, we shall die there.” Maybe you are sitting in a wrong place even where you are now. God had wanted you to move long ago, but because where God is asking you to move to is an unfamiliar ground, you have not been able to move. Instead, you keep asking yourself, “What if I go and die there? What if my business dies there? What if my reputation dies there?” That is why you are unable to move to the next stage of God's plan for your life. Everyone that has done something tangible for God in his lifetime is someone that says, “If I die, I die.” Until you can look at death in the face, and tell death, “if I die, I die” you will never move.

“And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.” 2 Kings 7:3-4 KJV

If you are afraid of death, when will you not die? These lepers took a decision. Their first decision was to deal with death. They first removed the sting of death. They said,.....

“If we say we will enter into the city, the famine is there and we shall die there, and if we sit still here we will die also.” So it is not the matter of “I do not want to die.” They said, “Now therefore come let us fall unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live, and if they kill us, we shall but die.”

I thank God for their victory. They had victory over death. Victory over death is not when somebody dies but rather, when a man is able to overcome the terror of death. Death is a spirit. This spirit of death goes about with terror, the terror of death. The biggest thing that has kept men in bondage is what is called the fear of death. But for a believer, death is nothing but a step unto higher ground.

Actually, those that live long are not necessarily the people that are afraid of death. People that prevailed over death were people that saw death and said, “if I die, I die but I must do what God called me to do in my lifetime.” Death does not quickly kill such people. The first thing these lepers overcame in their lives was the fear of death. They just resolved that if it was death that was making them sit there “…let's rise up, let's go and die. We are not waiting for death to come to us; we are going to meet death now.” They stood up by faith and went to face what they thought was death.

The same conflict seemed to face Esther at a time Mordecai and all the nation of Israel were about to perish. Even though she knew that going to the king without invitation meant loss of position and probably death, she rose up with a determination and went. She conquered the fear of death, thus she could say, “If I perish, I perish!”

As she stood up after praying and fasting in the presence of God, she went, even though the king did not invite her, and she did not die.( Esther 4:16)

It was Julius Caesar who said that cowards die many times before their death. If you will not trust God, actually, you will die many times before you will actually die. You will never be able to take a step of faith. Consider all the men that God used. Each of them overcame the fear of death before they could be useful. How did Moses step out of Pharaoh's house? The Bible says that he did not fear the wrath of the king, because he esteemed the reproach of Christ better riches than all the treasures of Egypt. Heb 11:26).

He chose to die; that was how he broke through. Remember the widow of Zarephath too. She feared for her son and herself. But the man of God said, “Go and make for me first.” The man of God seemed to be telling her to agree to die. But as she obeyed God, she did not die after all. (I Kings 17:13-16)

There are decisions you have postponed and procrastinated in your life because you were afraid of dying; dying physically, dying in terms of your relationship and your prominence. And that is why you are where you are, making no progress. Why sit you there till you die?

Those lepers said, “Look if they save us alive, fine, we shall live! If they decide to kill us we shall but die.” The Bible says, “whosoever loses his life for my sake shall save it and keep it to eternal life.”

For you to progress in your life, death must lose its sting over your life. For you to step out into the call of God on your life, you must be able to look at death in the face and say, “if I die of hunger let me die.” And you will not die. All that laid down their certificates for the sake of preaching the gospel had the pertinent question of what to eat if there is no job. But as they stood up and said, “if I die, let me die.” They never died.

Even for those in either business or Government, when the Holy Spirit says, “You must give this portion of your money to God,” it has not been easy. The fear is, “If I should take such a big amount, and give it to God, that is not business; it is like throwing away money. What will happen to my business? It will die or fold up.”

Since you did not want the business to die, you then applied common sense. That is why you have remained where you are. For these lepers to break through into prosperity, they were ready to die. They told death, “We are going to come to your hand now, kill us.” But just when they were ready to die, death had no power to kill them. Death only has terror; it has no power.