His Flow

Mark 8:²⁶ “And He sent him away to his house, telling [him], Do not [even] enter the village or tell anyone there.” (AMPC)

For some of us, Bethsaida represents a place where people will not believe in you. Sometimes these people are your relatives or your childhood friends. Bethsaida represents a place where you are commonized and you cannot achieve your potential. Jesus had to struggle with these also when Jesus went to his own village. Matt.13:^57-58 “And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honoured everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family. And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.” So, Jesus could not thrive, as it were, in Nazareth so He had to leave. If Jesus had to leave Nazareth, going back to the village was going to restrict Jesus. Jesus went back there but He was restricted. We need to understand that everyone has a Bethsaida; do not go back there!

In church planting, I have experienced all sorts of things – territorial spirits, battling and dislodging principalities and powers to set up churches. We have gone to set up a church in a locality, and they said to us, ‘how come your church has grown this big?’ And it is because in that locality no church has been able to grow past eighty members, people just keep joining and leaving. But when we got there, by the grace of God, we broke and displaced it. Jesus, however, was not interested in displacing it and that is another thing you need to understand.

You need to go with God, you need to flow with God. Why didn’t Jesus displace the forces preventing this man from seeing in Bethsaida? Why did He have to take the man out of the village? Why didn’t He leave him in the village and displace the forces? It is because that was not the flow of the Spirit of God. If the Spirit of God does not want you to engage, you do not engage. But God has sent us to a place to plant a church. It is our duty to dislodge the spirit and that is what we do. But some years ago, I was going to one of the Caribbean islands to set up a church. I flew into Barbados and from Barbados to the particular island. You may be familiar with those islands and their carnivals; they were having one of such when I arrived.

As I was on the queue behind the immigration officer, I saw something I would call an Idol. It was the image of the carnival king or whatever it is was. As I saw it, it literally came alive, it was as if it blinked looking at me and I could see the spirit behind it. When I saw it, I wanted to engage it and immediately dislodge it in the Name of Jesus. And I felt the Holy Spirit says, ‘Do not do it!’ I did not ask why, there was no point. I ignored it, got to my passport stamped, went in, and had a very fruitful engagement. On my way out, I saw it again and then the Holy Spirit explained to me. He told me that if I had engaged that principality, I would not have been granted entry and would have been deported from that country.

Prayer: Father, help me not to go where You have not sent me or do the things You have not told me to do. Help me to flow with You consistently, in Jesus Name. Amen!