…wherever we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”‘”
Genesis 20:13
There is always a ‘strong man’ that works against spiritual liberation in every family, bloodline, and even community. It was sweet lies in the lineage of Abraham. Abraham, a great man of God, lied to Abimelech that Sarah was not his wife but his sister. He had covenanted with her to be a partner in lies because of the fear he entertained that Abimelech, the king of Gerar, and his men might kill him and take his wife. He practically gave his wife to prostitution but for God’s intervention. There is no level that the strong man in your family will not get to in order to disgrace you.
Isaac was not present when his father lied to Abimelech about Sarah, yet, when faced with a similar scenario many years later, he lied about his wife, Rebekah, exactly in the same words of his father’s (Genesis 26:7). From lies, the ‘strong man’ in Abraham’s lineage matured and grew to accommodate other features when it entered into the second generation in Jacob. It became a perversion to craftiness and outright fraudulence. Jacob was a cheat, usurper and trickster. It took God’s love and intervention to save him.
In Noah, the ‘strong man’ in the bloodline was drunkenness. In Moses it was anger. In Samson it was the excessively blinding and deafening love for a woman, Delilah. Behind every great destiny, there is a strong man. It is not your uncle or any physical being that lives in the family, but a force by which the enemy seeks to undermine your destiny as an individual, family, community or nation. In Israel, it was idolatry. In Nazareth, it was disdain for any great destiny in their midst. Can you identify your ‘strong man’ today and ask God to deliver you? Unless you deal with the ‘strong man’ in your bloodline, you cannot enjoy total liberation in your spiritual and physical endeavours.
Liberation Thought: I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus
Further Reading: Acts 5:1-10
Prayer:
Power that swallow up power, O Lord release it into my life.
Every strong man of my father’s house and my mother’s household, holding me back in bondage DIE shameful death in Jesus name
Father accelerate and quicken my liberation from the power of the strong man that’s fighting against me
Amen. I wonder what is my strong man…