years ago my wife and I met a young couple who'd been married for a few years this couple was from South Africa and they shared with us an incredible story and testimony about family betrayal the breaking of curses and God's power here's their story We Got Married pretty young and we were very much excited about starting our lives together one thing that we agreed on pretty early was that we wanted children right away so we started trying for kids but as time went by we began to realize that something was wrong 2 years of trying
and still no child we had various tests done and the doctors found nothing out of the ordinary but we simply could not get pregnant at this point we decided to involve the church and ask them to stand with us in prayer one day our Pastor said something interesting he said perhaps this is a spiritual problem rather than a physical one I didn't know what to make of it a short time passed and we invited him over to our home on a Friday night for an alln night prayer he accepted and told us he would bring
some of his own prayer Partners to join there was one man who came who was a missionary traveling all around the world ministering to people this man curiously asked for a tour of our home and so so we gave him one as we walked through a certain Corridor my wife has a table where she has flowers and some ornaments on it he stopped there and picked up one particular statue it was a traditional African sculpture of a mother with children he began to examine it and flipped it upside down so that we could see the
bottom now at the bottom there was some small writing carved out as we all read it it became clear it was a curse being pronounced upon the keeper of the sculpture saying they will not bear a child when we were asked who gave this to us we knew it was my wife's aunt she gave it to us as a wedding gift and it was in our home since the very beginning that night we prayed against that curse and for seven days we all joined together in prayer and fasting so that the power of that thing
would be broken on the seventh day he destroyed the sculpture 3 months later my wife was pregnant with our first child learn this be careful concerning the gifts people give you not everyone is happy when you're blessed not everyone wishes you well even though they smile to your face always pray and speak the blood of Jesus to bind and break any and every evil spirit in your life or in your home a man went on a trip with a group of friends and during the course of that trip they met a local man who gave
each of them souvenirs now this particular guy took these souvenirs without knowing that those items were part of ceremonial practice that was evil and occultic in nature when he got back from his travels he placed these ornaments in his home that very night things started to change and things started to happen he had opened a spiritual door WI open for the devil to walk straight into his home he started to experience unusual things there was unrest in his heart he felt weighed down oppressed even like there was a massive weight on his shoulders the sleepless
nights and Nightmares started he became a man filled with fear he became fearful of everything and anything he started to experience all sorts of things that were not from the Lord simply because of a lack of knowledge and a lack of vigilance a combination that left him spiritually open so he confided in his father who brought the pastor around to his home during the conversation with this pastor and his father the ornaments caught the pastor's eye where did those come from he explained they were a gift from a local while he was on his travels
did you ask what those items were he shook his head do you know anything about the man who gave you these he shook his head again the pastor now took the items and said we need to burn these things this is the cause for all the unrest you have been experiencing you my son have been under spiritual attack so they started a fire and threw the items in 10 minutes passed 20 minutes passed and these items were not burning they added a bit more fuel and gave it another 10 minutes nothing no sign of those
things burning so both the pastor and father began to pray and praise the name of the Lord they started to call on the name of Jesus they started to speak the blood they started to speak the word of God and those things began to melt and burn the lesson here is that you should be careful regarding any items or things you accept as gifts now there's an interesting biblical story that teaches us about the potential spiritual consequences of taking in objects and things in Joshua 7 the story of a man named aen here's how it
unfolded Joshua sent some of his men from Jericho to spy out the town of I when they returned they told Joshua there's no need for all of us to go up there it won't take more than 2 or 3,000 men to attack I since there are so few of them don't make all our people struggle to go up there so approximately 3,000 warriors were sent but they were soundly defeated the men of I chased the Israelites from the Town Gate as far as the quaries and they killed about 30 six who were retreating down the
slope the Israelites were paralyzed with fear at this turn of events and their courage melted away Joshua and the Elders of Israel tore their clothing in dismay threw dust on their heads and bowed face down to the ground before the Ark of the Lord until evening then Joshua cried out oh Sovereign Lord why did you bring us across the Jordan River if you are going to let the amorites kill us Joshua knew that something had gone badly wrong they had just brought down the walls of Jericho and besides that God had promised to be with
them wherever they went but somehow they had seemingly lost their way at this point in the story only God knows the true explanation now after Joshua prayed here's what God answered saying getet up why are you lying on your face like this Israel has sinned and broken my Covenant they have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me and they have not only stolen them but have lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings that is why the Israelites are running from their enemies in defeat for
now Israel itself has been set apart for Destruction I will not remain with you any longer unless you destroy the things among you that were set apart for Destruction get up command the people to purify themselves in preparation for tomorrow for this is what the Lord the god of Israel says hidden among you oh Israel are things set apart for the Lord you will never defeat your enemies until you remove these things from among you in the morning you must present yourselves by tribes and the Lord will point out the tribe to which the guilty
man belongs that tribe must come forward with its Clans and the Lord will point out the guilty clan that Clan will then come forward and the Lord will point out the guilty family finally each member of the guilty family must come forward one by one the one who has stolen and what was set apart for Destruction will himself be burned with fire along with everything he has for he has broken the Covenant of the Lord and has done a horrible thing in Israel now when morning came it was revealed that aan had stolen a beautiful
robe and 200 silver coins and a bar of gold weighing more than a pound aan was one of the soldiers from the tribe of Judah who took part in the Battle of Jericho aan took a few things for himself even though Joshua had commanded every one to stay away from anything belonging to Jericho all of it was a cursed A's greed led to Israel's defeat at I the story of aan then ends tragically because Joshua and all the Israelites took aen the silver the robe the bar of gold his sons daughters cattle donkeys sheep goats
tent and everything he had and they brought them to the valley of acre and stoned them the Bible tells us that they piled a great heap of stones over aen which remains to this day that is why the place has been called the valley of trouble ever since so the Lord was no longer angry from this story we must be aware that aan took items that were cursed and this resulted in devastating consequences God's judgment fell on the nation because of aan sin verses 2 to 5 describe the battle and Israel's defeat nearly 36 Israelite
soldiers lost their lives needlessly in what should have been an easy battle but became a bitter defeat the Bible says my people perish because of a lack of knowledge do not be in the category of people who perish because of a lack of knowledge a lack of knowledge that if you give the devil an inch he will take a mile a lack of knowledge that the devil will dress himself up as something harmless there couldn't possibly be anything wrong with a souvenir there's nothing wrong with me accepting a gift from someone while I'm traveling the
world be vigilant man of God be vigilant woman of God do you know where that object that souvenir has really come from do you know what Spirit What atmosphere or what you're inviting into your home when you're watching that film Deuteronomy 6: 6-9 says these Commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts impress them on your children talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road when you lie down and when you get up tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your
foreheads write them on the door frames of your houses and on your Gates In this passage God instructs the children of Israel to keep the word of God in a prominent role in the household now the home plays an integral part in the life of the believer as Christians our homes should be they need to be homes where the name of God the presence of God is always resident the home should be a San uary a holy place it should be a place of Peace Serenity and joy it should be a place where God's word
is elevated and lived out now that's all good and well for me to say but in a practical sense if the home is indeed a sanctuary if our home is a place where God's presence should abide then we should just not allow certain activities practices and forms of entertainment in the home I submit to you that we should be more Vigilant about the things we allow in our homes we need to be aware that just as we close and lock the physical doors in our homes we need to do the same spiritually there's an old
saying when it rains it pours have you ever felt like that have you ever felt like there's something going on in your life and it's deeper than what your eyes can see have you ever felt like there's something going on in your family or in your household that doesn't seem seem natural like there's some other Force at work because it's one thing after another it's attack after attack it's battle after battle from another perspective have you ever felt like when things are going wrong at home they tend to carry over in other areas of life
it's like when something is going on with your kids at home and it affects your work or when something is going going on in your marriage and it affects your interaction with your kids or if something is going on at work and it affects all of the above it quickly becomes apparent that all of these things are interconnected and it also reminds us that if the devil can get a foothold in one area then he has gained the foothold in all of these areas the devil is trying in an unprecedented way to destroy families today
he wants to disrupt the family system and Order Satan knows that if the Christian family is intact if the Christian family is working in one Accord then it's one of the strongest weapons against his deceptions from the day that Satan spewed his lies to Eve he was in the process of disruption in in order to maximize his deception he approached Eve when she was alone he approached her when she was separated from the family unit and he did this because a divided family is easier to conquer the devil is in the business of sowing Discord
and Division in our homes he's in the business of causing senseless fights and conflicts the devil is in the business of causing husbands Hearts to stray away from their wives and vice versa he wants the hearts of wives to stray from their husbands the enemy is in the business of causing children to be rebellious and to have a complaining Spirit Satan wants to destroy our households because he knows that a spiritually weak home is the easiest way to take us away from God he's not new at this he's been at it for a long long
time the strategy of Satan is to attempt to divide and conquer the family immediately after that he instigates destruction between the same family members and the Bible is full of stories of dysfunctional families that fell to the disruption of the enemy if if Satan was able to disrupt the families of giants of Faith such as Abraham Jacob David and Solomon then we should be aware of the enemy's schemes and prepare to defend our homes now when it comes to guarding ourselves and our families against the deceptions and invasions of the enemy the first question is
how does the devil gain access to our homes and Minds how does he try to gain access to disrupt our families and our lives one of the biggest ways that the devil gains a foothold in our families today is through media music movies and social media are huge access points to our families music accesses our brains and bodies in a way that few other mediums do the messages in music today are ripe with sinful themes like lust sex violence Rebellion among other sinful things this is one of the easiest ways for Satan to gain access
to our minds and souls we listen to lyrics with this content and become desensitized to it before we know it we begin to think that these sinful themes are not so bad and lust fornication violence and Rebellion have taken root in our hearts and in our homes along these same lines movies and television are perfect Pathways for the enemy to take root in our homes we constantly watch things full of violence sex cursing and all kinds of other images that Lodge themselves in our brains and hearts Studies have shown that by fifth grade the average
child has seen 8,000 murders on television think about that think about how Satan might be using that to gain a foothold in our households not to mention all of the blatantly demonic content in TV and movies there are f movies and shows directly about demons spirits and evil spiritual forces that we readly let into our homes we are literally opening the door for Satan to come and dwell in our homes the same goes for social media which has all of these same elements but also has the added seduction of obsession with self image and other
people opinions the question for us now is how do we resist the Ws of the devil in our families how can we close the doors through which the enemy can enter first we can be much more Vigilant about the entertainment choices we allow in our households we need to monitor all the content in our homes in one way or another an additional strategy when it comes comes to safeguarding our homes and families is that we should cultivate regular family worship and devotional time together if a family is starting or ending their days in prayer worship
and bible study that makes it much more difficult for the devil to get a foothold in that family that family has girded themselves with the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness The Shield of faith the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit taking up this Armor of God in our families is what will guard them against the deceptions and temptations of the enemy let us put on the armor like spiritual Warriors let us guard our homes from the enemy let us resist the devil and he will flee from us amen now
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