Focus: Enemies to Success (Pt.4)

Text: 2Chron.26:5

"And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper."

For the Christian with all his divine privileges and empowerment, failure is not an option. Nothing short of success is God's design for him. No alternative to him being successful. Every time failure occurs, it's never final, but a temporal detour.

For the Christian, failure is only an obstacle to overcome. 

That brings us to the final enemy of our success, which is the devil.

God wants you to succeed, but Satan doesn't. Our success, as believers in Christ, is a threat to Satan. Satan is troubled when Christ's people succeed in whatever they do.

Satan by his name means an adversary. He is totally opposed to everything you stand for in Christ. He hates your guts, your smiles, your laughter, your happiness or joy, your peace, your victory, your success. He deals on lies and deceit. He is the accuser of God's people.

Jesus Christ says that the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, and that perfectly describes Satan's evil activity.

He is the number one sadist in the universe. Whatever makes us happy makes him sad. He hates to see us happy. He doesn't delight in our wholeness and wellness.

Satan is the author of failure. He uses people to fail us. He even uses us to make us fail ourselves, others, and God. He pushed Eve into making a wrong choice in the Garden of Eden, a choice that has affected all of humanity till date. From that moment humanity has known failure, defeat, evil, trouble, sorrow, suffering, pain, despair and death. Nothing good comes from the devil. The devil is evil; he is totally evil - D-evil, and totally opposed to everything good in God's good world.

Satan wants you buried in the pit of failure and falsehood. His kind of success is a lie. His kind of success leaves you so empty and so devoid of eternal significance and satisfaction. He makes failure look like success in order to deceive.

Let me reiterate that God wants us to succeed in this life, regardless of every obstacle that comes our way.

Stand firm and conquer every obstacle in front of you. Beyond every obstacle is the success you pursue. At every curve of change you meet with crisis. Be assured that God created you for glory, not for shame. It's not over yet until you succeed. 

Be determined to conquer yourself, others, circumstances, and the devil. You need faith and courage to prevail. Every enemy you face is conquerable. None of them is invincible. They are all beatable. With intensity of desire to succeed and do well by God, immensity of guts, and tenacity of purpose you will surely succeed. Christ in you is the hope of glory.

Whatever failure you might have experienced up to this moment, it is only meant to pass, not last. I see you ultimately succeeding by the enabling grace of God.

Bishop Moses E. Peter