Yet another benefit of opposition is that it keeps you on your toes so
that you are constantly in a state of spiritual, mental, physical, marital,
parental, financial alertness; God’s protective mechanism to shield you from
complacency and its many dangers which include stagnation, retrogression,
spiritual backsliding and spiritual death. God therefore allows some opposition
to either keep you on your toes or wake you up from slumber (Psalm 13 verses 3
to 4). Spiritual, mental and physical alertness capacitates and strengthens
(Isaiah Chapter 52 verses 1 to 2).
The fierce opposition experienced by the early Church manifested in very determined persecution and murder of the leaders of the early Church kept the Church spiritually, mentally and physically alert. They prayed without ceasing (1st Thessalonians Chapter 5 verse 17). The leaders prayed for themselves and the members while the members also prayed for themselves and the leaders, each soliciting prayer support for each other (Ephesians Chapter 6 verses 18 to 20, Colossians Chapter 4 verses 2 to 4, Philemon 22, Romans Chapter 15 verses 30 to 33). The result was the sporadic growth of the Church, strengthening of the faith of the members and outstanding miracles that brought in more members to the Church.
Nehemiah and the men who worked on the wall learnt to multi task – they
worked on the wall, they prayed and were also battle ready to fight the
opposition should they spring any surprise attack on them. The result was that
the opposition was silenced and the wall was completed.
The Apostle Paul was a one man prayer house who prayed without ceasing.
He survived many spiritual, physical and intellectual attacks as his enemies
who often left him for dead heard about his new successes in other towns,
cities and regions.
Severally, God allowed opposition and oppression by the enemies of Israel
to wake them up from spiritual inertia and near death manifested in idolatry.
The numerous accounts in the book of Judges as well as other books of the Old
Testament, particularly the oppression by Midian to impoverish Israel for seven
years make interesting case studies. So also are the series of accounts which
culminated in exile in Babylon. Opposition and oppression by the enemy brought
them back to their senses and back to God. In Isaiah Chapter 32 verses 9 to 20,
God spoke through the Prophet Isaiah to the complacent women of Israel to arise
from complacency for famine was on the way. The Prophet Isaiah makes another
wake up call in Isaiah Chapter 52 verses 1 to 6, calling the Israelis to a
right relationship with God and total freedom from their oppressors.
True leadership eludes you when you are complacent as complacency limits
your true leadership potentials which remain latent until you awaken out of the
stupor of complacency, the annoying self satisfaction with average, mediocrity,
obscurity and probably just enough to get by spiritually, mentally, physically,
intellectually, maritally, parentally, financially etc. Complacency is what
makes a millionaire a poor man, a billionaire a person with just enough to get
by and a trillionaire a millionaire. Complacency is what makes a genius a
cheerleader and not the inventor, scholar, award winning intellectual, Nobel
Laureate that s/he ought to be. Complacency limits and effectively so if a
person never wakes out of the stupor.
God’s clarion call to you and me to overcome oppositions is to awake to
righteousness. The spiritual alertness of the complacent women was what would
stop or avert the famine and to get to the point of spiritual alertness, they
required the fullness of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah Chapter 32 verse 15, Romans
Chapter 8 verses 26 to 27, 1st Corinthians Chapter 2 verses 1 to 16,
Ephesians Chapter 6 verse 18, John Chapters 14 verses 16 to 18, 26; 15 verses
26; 16 verses 7 to 15).
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