Introduction
Likewise, I have seen many people go through several experiences that did not work out well for them, and it was heart-wrenching watching their pain. I know how it feels to have an unmet need or lose a battle with life or health. The moment I learned from my experiences that you can fight back and win, I decided to share what I learned during these periods with others.
I learnt to contend by faith for children when medically challenged not to conceive, I prayed for my husband to live until his spirit came back into his body when the doctors concluded there was nothing more to be done, I decreed in faith for my brother to live when his organs shut down. Today, looking back in faith in Christ Jesus, I can only be thankful for the outcomes.
After the near-death experience of my husband, a dear lady whose husband passed on a few years before came to me and said that maybe her husband would still be alive today if she had known and applied some of the things I shared. I felt her pain!
Therefore, I am on a mission to share everything I have learned in my journey with the hope that it can help someone else. Situations will be unique to every individual, but the principles of faith are the same.
Spiritual Intelligence
Some groundwork to understand what is involved in applying spiritual solutions to physical challenges:
The application of Faith is greatly enhanced with spiritual intelligence. Just like military intelligence, it is more or less advanced information that helps you understand and approach situations better, prepared to win.
Spiritual Intelligence is discernment and revelation knowledge all rolled into one. Here, an individual has spiritual hindsight, insight, and foresight. It is about knowing the ‘what’ and, most importantly, the ‘why’. When you operate with spiritual intelligence, you receive background knowledge and behind-the-scenes sneak previews. You know when the situation is a set-up, a test, or a direct attack from the devil. How you fight depends on what you know.
Case Study
We will look deeper into the concept of hindsight, insight, and foresight.
Let’s illustrate the concept of spiritual intelligence from the book of Daniel, chapter 6.
The intrigues and plots against Belteshazzar, better known as Daniel, who was taken into exile in 617 B.C., by his colleagues were calculated and vicious. They were able to manipulate the King so well that he unwittingly made a decree that sent Daniel into the lion’s den. However, against all odds, God came through for him, and the mouths of the lions were stopped. On this day, he enjoyed great respect and consideration in the land because the superiority of his God had once more been established.
Yet, despite the goodwill he now enjoyed, his greatest desire was to return to his land of birth – Israel. He had been in captivity for many years, and he understood the place of prophetic pronouncements in the life of men and made it his duty to get information from the scriptures on when their captivity in the land of Babylon would be over.
He knew that Israel’s trajectory was pre-determined by the word of God, and if he wanted to understand the season Israel was in at a particular time, he would have to familiarize himself with what the scripture said about them.
From scriptures, he learnt they were to be in captivity for sixty-nine years, and by his calculation, the time was almost up. He did not want to remain a day longer than necessary and therefore sought the face of God to ensure his nation did not scuttle their release through ungodly actions.
While praying and fasting, the Lord decides to give Daniel a peek into the “behind-the-scenes” activities of the spiritual, which, though unseen, propel the actions of humanity. He opened Daniel’s eyes to the future, unveiling things to come, which he as yet did not understand. God showed him that the story of humanity had already been written, that mankind was merely acting out a script that was written and programmed in the spiritual. He provided Daniel with the spiritual intelligence necessary to better understand the current events of his time in Daniel, chapter 7.
Daniel was made to understand that certain things needed to occur in a particular way in time, for other future events to fall in place. For instance, he received clear visions that explained to him the political and social transitions that would come to pass on earth through the rise and fall of kingdoms, including Babylon, where he lived. Through open visions, he received revelations concerning four great beasts, representing kingdoms that would come and go.
The first was the Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar, of which he was a part. Second was the Medo-Persian Empire, which came after Babylon. Third was the Grecian empire of Alexander the Great, which did not last too long because he died early at thirty-six and his four Generals succeeded him. Then the fourth beast, representing the best-known Roman Empire, symbolized ten kings. Daniel was also shown the rise of Kings Darius and Cyrus, the defeat of the Medo-Persian Empire by Alexander the Great, and the eventual rise of Antiochus Epiphanes of Syria, one of the Generals who succeeded him.
This particular General magnified himself in his own eyes and profaned the temple of the living God – he symbolizes a type of the latter anti-Christ that is to come at the end of the age, as revealed in the book of Revelation.
Although Daniel never returned to Israel, he now understood why they were in Babylon. He realized that captivity was the only way he would have ended up in Babylon, as he would never have taken the journey of his own accord.
Get Understanding To Apply Knowledge
We will look at how the concepts of hindsight, insight, and foresight apply to your life and your circumstances, and how they provide the backdrop for understanding your situation better. This information will greatly guide your response pattern to issues.
i. Hindsight
Hindsight is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as ‘understanding an event after it has happened. How many times have you looked back at something that happened in your life, and you somehow begin to understand it?
A realization seems to gradually dawn on you, clarifying why it happened. At the time of its occurrence, the reason for that event is not immediately obvious, but with hindsight, the past event suddenly assumes a ‘purpose-driven’ objective. In many instances, you see that the outcome of that event seems to throw more light on present circumstances.
A story that aptly illustrates this is that of Joseph in the book of Genesis, who was sold into slavery by jealous brothers for his supposedly ‘annoying dream’ tales that portrayed them in a subservient position to him.
He ended up in Potiphar’s house where he was wrongly accused of attempting to rape the lady of the house, then was thrown into prison like a common criminal where he served his term until Pharaoh needed an interpreter of dreams. The story goes on to say that after satisfactorily interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams, courtesy of the Chief Butler who remembered him two years later than he should have, Joseph was installed as the Prime Minister of Egypt.
In this position, he presided over the food security strategies of Egypt during the famine and sold grain to his brothers. His father was eventually brought to live with him in Egypt, and the whole family was reunited and forgiveness shared.
With hindsight, Joseph, who groaned under the pains of injustice, betrayal, and incarceration, was able to say that God orchestrated it all to preserve Israel. The same goes for the birth, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ.
At the time of His death, there was so much sorrow amongst his disciples because it looked like the whole message of ‘salvation’ had been truncated. Going to the cross to die like a common criminal seemed more of a failing rather than a success because people did not understand then that the liberation of mankind from sin was to be through His death, not survival. Today, with hindsight, we see the good of His dying and the power in His resurrection. Hence, the day Jesus was crucified is referred to in history as Good Friday, not Bad Friday.
Likewise, many seemingly adverse circumstances in the past, when viewed under the light of the present, might provide the basis for understanding the past better.
ii. Insight
Insight is defined by the same dictionary as ‘the power, act or result of seeing into a situation’. How many times have you ever felt at peace in a challenge because you knew what it was all about, and you knew where everything was headed? Your perception of what was going on guided your response to it. Your response pattern to situations is greatly influenced by what you know about that circumstance.
An illustration that aptly explains this is the story of the Prophet Elisha and his servant in 2 Kings, chapter 6:8-33.
When the King of Syria started a war with Israel, he took certain steps to entrap the King of Israel to kill him. However, every plan he made either fell through or was foiled before he could entrap the King. In frustration, he decided to look inwards into his camp for the ‘mole’ he felt was responsible for leaking information to the Israelites. His interrogations only made him discover that there was a prophet in Israel, who could, in the words of his servant, “hear even the words he spoke in his bedchamber”. This led him to call for the arrest of Elisha. In their bid to arrest Elisha, the Syrian soldiers surrounded the city with their horses and chariots. This siege put fear in the hearts of the Israelites who witnessed it. Naturally, Elisha’s servant was petrified, and he cried aloud to his master, saying, “What shall we do?” But Elisha had insight. He knew what they didn’t know and therefore requested that his servant’s eyes be opened. Behold, Elisha’s servant saw his master surrounded by horses and chariots of fire. The Lord was present all the time the Syrians lay siege on God’s Anointed. So Elisha had no fear and instead asked that the soldiers be smitten with blindness. He then led them, blind and groping, to the King of Israel in Samaria. There, he encouraged the King to treat them to a banquet, which on their return, they were to report back to their master, the King of Syria.
Elisha was in control of the situation because he already knew God was there. The soldiers sent to arrest him assumed he was alone and probably defenseless, just like his servant wrongly assumed, and maybe you assume too that you are alone in your circumstances. Meanwhile, the God of the heavens and the earth is waiting patiently for you to invite Him into your life and circumstances by accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior to start living a life of power by faith. And when you do, you have the legal right in the spiritual (will explain this concept later) to start decreeing that circumstances change in your favor.
iii. Foresight
Fore-sight is also defined by Merriam-Webster as ‘the art or power of foreseeing; the act of looking forward, making provision for the future’. With hindsight and insight, one is expected to have foresight. Looking back at the various events that have happened in the past and the understanding gained from events happening in the present, a person should be able to predict the likely flow of events in the future and prepare for it.
A good illustration is looking at patterns in the bible concerning how the history of God with man has evolved over the years, the happenings of old, the effect of these happenings on life as you know it today, and its likely influence on what the bible says of the future. All of these taken together can enable you to foresee the future and guide you in making preparations for it while still in the present. When you take all the happenings of the bible within the context of each other, you begin to see that the happenings in the world are not a haphazard occurrence but an unfolding story.
There is a possibility that you will begin to understand where the happenings in your personal life fit into the big picture. So, like I mentioned earlier, the stakes are much higher than we think. In many instances, most of the battles being fought with you are not actually about you, even though the battle is with you.
The Concept of Stakes: Understanding Its Significance to Your Life
Stakes in this context, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, means “The prize in a contest”. Many of us think that the ‘prize’ to the aggressor – Satan, is the obvious personal, material, financial, relational, or emotional loss you suffer. Well… that too, but then in many instances it is usually more than that.
The stakes are usually what can be gained or lost as a result of that circumstance occurring. The ‘loss’ to one party might equate ‘gain to the other, and each of the parties could be fighting for different reasons and different outcomes. The value of what is gained or lost is determined by what is important to the individual warring parties. The value you place on what is at risk determines how you fight.
The following analogy will illustrate what I mean.
When baby Jesus was born, wise men came from the east to worship Him. When Herod learnt of his existence, he sought to kill Him because the birth of another King meant his kingship was under threat. In the physical realm, it seemed that Herod was protecting his throne, but in the spiritual realm, it was actually the devil plotting and working through Herod’s pride to kill Jesus at infancy with the hope that His salvation plan for mankind would be thwarted.
They reasoned in hell that if he was killed in infancy, He would not grow big enough to become a ‘terror’ to the kingdom of darkness. To ensure this plan worked, Herod killed virtually all the children he could find below the age of two. But God was ready. He preserved Jesus in Egypt until Herod was killed by God for his prideful stance and blasphemous comments. Our Lord, Jesus, grew to become ‘much more’ than the devil and his demons feared. So the plan against His life never really stopped as the High Priest and his ‘gang’ tried time after time to take him in.
The devil knew what he was after. It wasn’t just the physical death of Jesus… although that worked for him, too. The devil knew Jesus’ mission and wanted to stop him. An important event was the temptations Jesus had to undergo to start His ministry. The devil asked Him to bow down and worship him in exchange for the world. He knew Jesus symbolized mankind, and anything He did would affect the whole of humanity.
Just as in the case of Adam and Eve, Satan wanted their seed – mankind, therefore, he corrupted them so they would end up in hell. As such, Jesus’ plan for salvation was not welcome. What the Devil, however, did not bargain for was that the key to the salvation of mankind was in Jesus’ death and not in His survival. Although at the appointed time, Satan eventually had his way, or so he thought, working through his human system and agents.
Yet, looking back, the bible says, “Had the devil and his cohorts known, they would not have crucified the King of Glory” (1 Corinthians 2:6-8). His battle with Jesus was, in reality, a battle for the souls of men.
The same goes for Moses, who would have been killed at birth at the instance of Pharaoh, but instead was unknowingly brought up by him in the palace. Pharaoh’s actions looked in the physical realm as if he were preserving the integrity of the Egyptian nation by controlling the population growth of the Jewish people. Yet, the enemy planned to truncate the deliverance of Israel from the house of bondage.
The freedom of Israel was necessary so that God’s plan for the salvation of mankind would come to fruition. Remember, without Israel… there is no Christianity. The Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Disciples, and the Savior Himself … all came from Jewish descent.
Likewise, the adversities you experienced in your life could have been to distract, occupy, or frustrate you so that you would not fulfill your destiny.
Conclusion
Your destiny involves helping someone in one way or the other and fulfilling the greater purpose of God for your life. The battle is usually about the souls of the many people, who will, as a result of you fulfilling your destiny, come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And in so doing… fulfilling their destinies and leading others to Christ. We are to collectively establish the will of God on earth, push back the forces of evil, and make the world a better place. In one way or the other, everyone’s personal life is plugged into the big picture.
Many destinies are attached to yours, as yours is attached to someone else doing his or her work to bring Christ into your life. It is like a complex chain network, where everyone's part is an input into another person's part. You are like a relay runner running his portion of the race and then handing the baton to the next runner waiting in line to take off. Imagine any runner not running will cause the team to lose. Even if Usain Bolt is on that team, if no one else runs, the team loses because the rule of the sport requires the participation of all.
The Lord Jesus is our Champion and has handed over the baton for the next phase of the race before He returns. The baton is your calling and assignment. Satan fights you, so you drop the baton or, better still, fall sick or die. Satan's mission is to steal, kill, and destroy, while Jesus came to give you a rich and abundant life (John 10:10). Your work is to resist the devil so he flees (James 4:7), destroy every work of darkness, and hand over the baton. Don't drop yours.
What you know about your circumstance determines how you respond to it. Have you ever encountered a problem bigger than you? Please, share.
Please share this message widely with others you know will benefit.
Do you have questions, need counseling, or would you like prayers? Please let me know in the comments section below.
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