Serving God is the highest calling. We are saved so that we may serve God. No other job apart from serving God has eternal rewards (1 Corinthians 9:25).
As such, Satan fights God’s work more than any other work we
do. He does so by releasing a lot of demon spirits meant to hinder and destroy
God’s work.
Part of the spirits that he sends is the spirit Of Pharaoh. The
spirit of Pharaoh is an anti-progress spirit that works hard to limit or stop
church growth. Many churches have fallen victim to this spirit.
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| Overcoming The Spirit of Pharaoh – Keys for Church Growth |
Pharaoh is a “type” of Satan. Egypt is a “type” of the world
and Israel is a “type” of God's people.
Pharaoh afflicted God's people with hard labor and made them
build his cities. This clearly depicts secular work today. People labor hard in
their secular jobs but give little or no service at all to the house of God. We
spent almost all our energy at things that has nothing to do God’s work without
realizing that we are indirectly working for Pharaoh (Exodus 1:8-13).
A serious battle emerged when Moses requested that the
people of Israel be set free so that they could serve the Lord. In the same
way, the spirit of Pharaoh will not let us go without a fight.
We must overcome this spirit lest we remain at the same
level or regress to the point of shutting down. To overcome this spirit, we will
have to go through four stages of escape.
Stage 1: Pharaoh does
not want you to leave his employment. “And
Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I
know not the Lord, NEITHER WILL I LET ISRAEL GO” (Exodus 5:2)
Pharaoh wants you to work for him until you are dead. He wants
you to live in sin all your life. He will tell you that you still got plenty of
time to repent and plenty of time to serve God.
Stage 2: Pharaoh will
allow you to serve God but wants you to remain with him. “And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron,
and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your (but remain) God IN THE LAND” (Exodus 8:25)
In this next stage, Pharaoh yields to some pressure. He
agrees that you should serve God but you must remain in Egypt building his pyramids.
Here, Satan allows you to serve God but only on your spare time, yet he makes
sure that you hardly find some. Pharaoh will prescribe when you can go to
church and when you cannot. That’s why it’s difficult to attend church any
other day save for Sundays.
Stage 3: Pharaoh does
not want you to go too far. “And
Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in
the wilderness; ONLY YE SHALL NOT GO VERY FAR away: intreat for me” (Exodus
8:28)
In this stage, you are warned not to go too far with God and
the ministry. You will be discouraged to give or serve above what is seen as
normal.
Stage 4: Pharaoh does
not want you to risk your finances in ministry. “And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; ONLY
LET YOUR FLOCKS AND YOUR HERDS BE STAYED: let your little ones also go with you”
(Exodus 10:24)
This is probably the hardest stage. People are ready to do
almost anything for the church as long as it doesn’t involve giving their
hard-earned money. That’s why the most disliked time in church is the time of
offerings and tithes. Satan knows that a bankrupt church is a stagnant church. He
will discourage church members from giving and fight the finances of those that
has a heart to sacrifice for the work of God.
May the Lord help you to overcome the spirit of Pharaoh
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