admincripple our passion for today and the future. Through the life of one man who had a terrible past but managed to get over it, I will share with you how to deal with a recurring and stubborn past. If unmonitored and dealt with, marriages can crumble, companies dwindle while nations go into turmoil. Shake it off!
Having begun a journey to Italy, Paul by that time a prisoner for the sake of Christ was put in a ship with other prisoners, Acts 27:1. However, before they sailed Paul warned of bad weather which the sailors ignored and later got shipwrecked. Each time we reject the counsel of God’s Word and teaching we set ourselves up for a “shipwreck”.
It can be a financial shipwreck, marital, business or even physical – 2013 is a good year, great revelations, mighty manifestations shall take place to those that shall hearken to the voice of God and walk in obedience.
With the help and counsel of the Apostle Paul again, all the people on board survived and landed on an island, Malta. What do we learn here? Despite the shipwrecks, mistakes and wrong turns you may have taken in life, you can still make up your mind and do the right thing in life. You can still be saved. Have you done wrong and wonder if
God can accept you and bring you back? Yes He can. You can even make yourself right with God, now. Say out this prayer with all of your heart, “Lord Jesus come into my life, be the Lord of my life. Forgive me all my sins and wrongs. I confess that you died for me and rose on the third day. I am saved, I am forgiven, thank you Lord, Amen.” If you have prayed this prayer and you meant it from your heart, God has heard you, begin to live afresh and to live for God.
At the island another tragedy happened, which appeared to be worse than the shipwreck. Here is how it happened; “And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer; whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire.” Acts28:3-5.
In his past before being born again, Paul surely was a murderer, for he killed many Christians, persecuting them. After being bitten by a dangerous viper, worse still having been shipwrecked before, the people of the island saw Paul as a man whom fate did not want to live. Without Paul having told them his past, they with their superstition began to talk of his past. Ever been in a place where when something goes wrong and all seem to point to your past? Ever wanted to move forward and yet the pieces and remains of yesterday’s failures keep popping up?
Almost getting a contract but the old cloud of misfortune seem to hang strong even on prospective tenders? I have a good word for you, the past is the past. Let yesterday be buried with its issues, reach forth for a new day and a new season in Jesus name, for if any man be in Christ behold he is a new creation, all things have passed away.
Paul could have been affected by their words and even his personal thoughts and feelings but he stood his ground for the same man declared in his second letter to the Corinthian church: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new” 2 Cor 5:17. It is the Word of God and his being in Christ that sustained him and kept him from the torments of the past. Have you made huge blunders and mistakes and wonder how you can move on in life?
Like Paul, stand on the Word of God and hide in Christ.
The devil will use all he can to wield your past against you. He could have begun to cry and say “O this is the avenging spirits of the people I killed that are now haunting me” but No, no, no, no. The man was bold and knew his God. He knew the Word and stood on it. The only covering for you from the past is the Word. Friend, do not stand on your own strength, neither stand on charms or words of man, stand on the Word of God. However, what did Paul do with the dangerous viper that bit his hand and fastened itself to it?
And he shook off the beast into the fire! Whatever is haunting you from the past and trying to pin your marriage, business, children and health down, Shake it off! Take action against negative thoughts and negative circumstances. Don’t just be told “your uncle died with this disease you also have been diagnosed of it, so prepare to die?” No, No, No.
Whoever died from my past died. I will not die but live to declare the goodness of the Lord! That disease or curse, that follows the bloodline and all evil things from where you came from, violently resist and shake them off. You were not meant to be dictated things by life but to rule. You are a creature of dominion, shake yourself and say to yourself, “I was created to rule!”) You are a man or woman of authority. Shake off every devil from hell trying to cause havoc your life and shipwreck your destiny. Fight and shake it off.
I leave one word for you this day, with regards to whatever you have been going through, shake it off.
The following are upcoming events; Dunamis Convention – a powerful Conference where lives are imparted transformed and equipped for a fruitful life.
Dates: 26-31 March
Venue: Cathedral of Faith, Opposite City Sports Centre
- This is a message from the sermons by Bishop B Manjoro, who is the President & founder of Faith World Ministries and Bible College. Come hear these life changing messages every Sunday at the Cathedral of Faith opposite city sports centre at 10.00hrs and every day for lunch hour services 1-2pm at Manica House, Corner First and Robert Mugabe.
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