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Possessing the Family Mountain (part one)
Unknown to many today Satan’s greatest assault is against the family.Mother Theresa was asked how can we have world peace? Mother Theresa did not talk about United Nations or about the powerful armies of Europe, America, China or Korea.
Her answer was that to guarantee world peace we all should go back home and love our families.
The greatest any man can give his children is to love their mother. When children grow up in a secure environment they will carry the value of that home into their own houses.
Today we want to climb higher and possess the family mountain to enable us influence society from that vantage position. Inspite of your assessment and all that you have been exposed to, in the wisdom of God, He chose the family you would be born into. Therefore to condemn your family is to suggest that you are wiser than God. He knew the reasons He placed you there.
The Bible is filled with stories of dysfunctional families. Stories of brother raping sister, sibling rivalry leading to murder and a successful coup. The same could be said of the family of Abraham. He knew there would be crisis after his departure from this planet so he gathered his sons of the concubines, gave gifts to them, and sent them faraway from his son Isaac (Gal. 3:7-9)“You can see from this the real children of Abraham are all the men of faith who truly trust in God.
What’s more, the scriptures looked forward to this time when God would save the Gentiles also, through their faith. God told Abraham about this long ago when He said “I will bless those in every nation who trust in me as you do”. And so it is all who trust in Christ share the same blessing that Abraham received”. (Living Bible Edition).
The reason God allowed all that happened to happen is to separate those of faith from the rest. What family we are born into will not matter, those who are of faith will be called the sons of Abraham.
No family, no nation (families produce citizens and every citizen is an ambassador of his or her family).
The first mountain of influence, the devil successfully attacked and took over was the family mountain, when he succeeded in deceiving Eve who ate the forbidden fruit and gave to Adam. From that time till now Satan has mastered that the best way to attack society is to cause a breakdown in family life. Let us go into how to possess the family mountain. All other mountain originate from this mountain. Strong families will create strong nations. If we can succeed at laying a siege against the enemy and the pigs on the mountain of family we can take our nation back.
Climbing a mountain is not as easy as you may imagine. It is likely that on your first attempt you’ll need a guide to help you navigate the mountain.
Amongst the heroes of faith to help us climb to the top of this unique mountain we have the case of Gideon (Judges 6:1-4).In his day, the Medianites were a terror to Israel. They would lay in wait until the time of harvest when they would rake and rape the land, totally impoverishing Israel. God, knowing that a nation cannot be fixed until families are healed Zeroed in on Gideon and sent word to him that he was bringing to an end the oppression.
Because of the fear of the Medianites Gideon was threshing his wheat in a winepress!!While doing that an Angel from the Lord appeared to him and greeted him in an unusual manner “Thou mighty man of velour, the Lord is with you” Gideon’s response in (Judges 6:13) reveals to us his hesitation about what he was hearing. “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Medianites”.
Gideon resorted to generalizing what they (Israel) had been through. But God was not talking to all Israel. He was only talking to Gideon.
“And the Lord said to him surely I will be with you and you shall defeat the Medianites as one man” (Judges 6:16). Subsequently the discouragement of Gideon transformed into fear when he saw God face to face. “Alas, O Lord I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face”. Before we start our journey to the summit of the family mountain (Judges 6:22) there are certain truths we ought to intimate ourselves with so we do not fall as we climb. These will be examined in part II.