Our message this week is titled, “Don’t die before your time.”
A lot of people claim they cannot die until their time comes. But what does the Bible say? The Bible makes us to understand that we can lengthen or shorten our lives according to the way we live and the way we believe. That is why any enemy that is not afraid of dying is indeed a great enemy. The way you believe is very important.
The Bible says King Asa died before his time. Let us see why he died in 2 Chronicles 16:12: “And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.” (The Bible did not say it was a sin for him to seek the physicians but he did not bother to seek the Lord at all). Verses 13-14: “And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign. And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign. And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art: and they made a very great burning for him.”
King Asa died before his time. The Bible gave the answer in a very short sentence: “In his disease he sought not to the Lord,” but to the physicians and therefore he died.
Anyone that puts his total hope on a doctor and believes that the doctor is the alpha and omega and believes anything he says from his book is hundred percent correct on his life, such a person will die before his time.
The Bible says something very interesting in Ecclesiastes 8:13: “But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.”
The wicked will not be able to prolong his days because he does not fear God. Proverbs 10:27 also says, “The fear of the Lord prolongeth days. But the years of the wicked shall be shortened.”
King Asa committed the agenda of his life to the hands of the doctors and refused to pray. He did not know that there is no medical X-ray or device that can detect the arrow of witchcraft. He did not know that doctors themselves find some cases absolutely mysterious. Sometimes, some doctors who are honest own up that some cases are not medical problems. They advise people in such conditions to go and pray. There was the case of a sister that was menstruating maggots. Her doctor told her it was not a medical problem and counselled her to go and pray.
Jesus knows that men could die before their time. The fact that Jesus raised people from the dead and gave others powers to do so shows that many people die untimely.
The devil went to the meeting of the children of God and was roaming around there. When the Lord asked him what he was doing there, he said he was roaming around. Then the Lord said, “Have you seen my servant Job?” The devil said, "Yes, let me deal with him and he will deny you." The Lord said, “Go but do not touch his life.” Beloved, the enemy has power to shorten life and to kill.
All the people Jesus raised from the dead were young people. Lazarus was a young man and had not lived out his days when he died. It is very sad to note that nowadays, young people are dying at an alarming rate.
Sometime ago, at a crusade, a mother brought her 6 years old daughter who had high blood pressure. I was thoroughly taken aback. I asked her about herself and she said that she and her husband, the girl’s father, were fine.
The son of the widow of Nain in the Bible was a young man. He had not lived out his days. Jesus had to intervene. The daughter of Jairus that died, was a young lady. She had not lived out her life before she died. Jesus raised her to life so that she could live out her days and possess her possessions. Any power that does not want you alive by any method is not the kind of thing to joke with.
Peter called Dorcas back to life so that she would finish her assignment. The devil has come to steal, to kill and to destroy. Unfortunately, many people have been turned over to satan to die an early death. It was not the will of God for Korah, Dathan and Abiram to die in the wilderness but they stood in the way of the work of God. Those men and their family members died before their time. It was not the will of God for Ananias and Sapphira to fall down inside the church and die, but they told lies to the Holy Spirit and died before their time.
Let us consider the deep scripture in Deuteronomy 17:20: “That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.”
Jeremiah 21:8 says, “And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.” Two ways are laid down in that passage. The choice of where you follow becomes a personal decision. When God withdraws His blessing from people and they walk right into judgment, they die before their time. When there is no protection, satan kills them.
The Bible says, the angel of the Lord encamps roundabout those that fear Him to deliver them. So, if you do not fear the Lord, his angels will not surround you. Therefore, satan can kill you off. Thank God because He has kept millions from dying before their time. We can see that in Psalm 103 verse 3-5: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
As long as you walk straight with the Lord, you have nothing to fear. But when a person veers off to the right or to the left, His protection is taken away. Then the enemy can move in and kill the person.
Some people are following terrible traditions; they say it is God’s will when people die before their time. This is not true. Some people die because they rebel against the Lord. All those who died in the days of Noah died before their time. All those who died in the wilderness when Moses was taking them to the Promised Land died before their time. Certainly, the wife of Lot died before her time. When Christians do not obey God, they invite the enemies to shorten their days. The Lord does not want us to die before our time. Many people die before their time because their faith has been injured or killed. Unbelief can make people to die before their time.
Many times, pastors go to the cemetery and say, “The Lord has given and the Lord has taken, precious is the death of the saints in the sight of the Lord.” But unfortunately, most of the time, the people have died before their time. A good soldier is always a loss to the army when he dies an early death.
God is not a God of the dead but a God of the living. Many believers die before their time because they fail to take a divine insurance. The Bible says no evil shall befall you neither shall any plague come near your camp. When you have weapons and do not use them, anything can happen, you should make use of your divine insurance.
POWER OF THE TERMINATORS
There are some powers known as terminators. Their job is to terminate. If you do not arrest them, you will be terminated.
1. Power of sexual immorality. This is the first major terminator that has killed so many people prematurely. Anyone that gets involved in sexual immorality is writing a letter to Mr. Death and shifting the protection of the Almighty away from his life. Sometime ago, one man and his wife came for counselling. They wanted to know if they should take one boy of seventeen to court or not. They said they sent their daughter who was fifteen years old to school and instead of her to go to school and focus on her studies, she was busy keeping a boyfriend. Eventually, she got pregnant. And for some strange reasons, the boy went to a chemist and got syringes and the girl allowed herself to be injected by the boy who did not have any nursing or medical training. The girl could not tell her parents what she was going through until she was about to die, then she decided to tell her parents everything. So, the parents wanted to know whether they should take the boy to court or not? But taking him to court would not have brought their daughter back. She was dead unfortunately and had gone to hell fire. Many people who are playing at the edge of hell fire should stop it because they are writing a letter to hell fire. When you are writing an unchristian letter to anyone, you are looking for trouble. People must conduct themselves well so that they do not get into trouble. That is why the first advice to people when they get born again is to put away any boyfriend/girlfriend they may have. If they do not keep them off, they are looking for trouble. These days, there are so many terrible films in the streets, and they are ways of death.
2. Oppression. When something is oppressing you on a regular basis, in the dream or physically, make sure you pray until that oppression is lifted away. When something begins to press you down, know that the thing does not have a good agenda. You must quickly deal with it before it deals with you at a weak hour.
3. Infirmity. The devil is a good distributor of infirmity. The best prayer for infirmity is for it to go back to the sender because you did not initiate it. It is not your own, so it should go back to its sender.
4. The spirit of death and hell. This is the spirit that can envelope a person and snuff life out of the person.
5. Witchcraft power. This terminator has now become an institution all over the world. Witchcraft powers are responsible for a lot of strange and terrible things happening in our world today. There are a lot of terrible things happening now and we need to arrest them. Gone are those days when witches were only old people with gray hairs. These days, they are young, intelligent and focused. They are older than their parents. We need to understand that there are terminators around.
6. Evil pronouncement: Wrong use of the mouth will invite death. The Bible says that death and life are in the power of the tongue. When people make evil pronouncements against you and you accept them, you will soon be terminated.
7. Familiar spirits. Many people are possessed by familiar spirits unconsciously. They made covenants that involved when they would die without knowing. Some would make covenants that immediately after their wedding, they would die and it will happen that way. Some people sign covenants with the devil that they will die at 30 or 40. But the trouble is that some of these people do not know that such an agreement is in place. That is why it is good to pray that any unconscious covenant should be broken, in the name of Jesus.
8. The triangular powers. The triangular power is what is known as the sun, the moon and the stars. The Psalmist says the sun will not smite you by day or the moon by night. In some religions, all they do is to programme the moon, the sun and the stars to serve their purpose. Some people understand these things while many are very ignorant about them.
9. Fear and worry. These two things are the most silent and most horrible terminators, which go together. The minds of many people are so worried and stressed up, whereas the Bible says, “Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe in me also” (John14:1). Worry and fear are silent killers.
Worry is taking salary advance from the devil. Worry is believing that God is not on your side again. Immediately fear and worry move in, faith jumps out.
The Bible says, “Be careful for nothing.”
10. Tragedy activators: They are responsible for accidents, calamites etc.
11. Drinkers of blood and eaters of flesh: The Bible says, “When my enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell” (Psalm 27:2). There are some powers that eat flesh and drink blood.
Sometime ago in Canada, I came across a journal which featured the story of a certain man whose greatest ambition since he was 12 years old was to eat a whole human being and he had been trying to get somebody to eat. He even went to the mortuary but was driven away. So, he began to offer money to people who would not mind to be eaten up. One day, at the age of 39, he found a man who was fed up with life. This fellow collected the money, spent it and came back to be eaten. He quickly slaughtered the man and kept the corpse inside his big freezer and was eating it gradually. He used some for sandwich, some for barbecue until somebody reported him to the police.
There was also a 14 year old boy who believed that he would not die if he ate the heart of a man. One day, he invaded the house of one old woman with a knife when her grandchildren had gone out, killed her, cut out her heart and ate it.
12. Spirit of murder: We have this all over the place. This terrible spirit works through hired killers, armed robbers, etc.
13. The spirit of suicide. This is responsible for people killing themselves.
14. The curse of family destruction.
15. Evil covenants. Somebody can form a covenant with some powers consciously or unconsciously.
16. Evil summon. This is commonly used in our environment.
17. Bad food.
18. Personal curses: Many people curse themselves when they make terrible pronouncements about themselves.
19. Environmental wickedness.
20. Poison. It could be physical or spiritual poison.
21. Ancestral bondage. These are the powers of the terminators. Their job is not to steal. Their job is to kill.
HOW TO PROLONG YOUR LIFE
1. Repent of your sin and give your life to Jesus Christ.
2. Receive deliverance through prayer. That is pray to destroy the power of the terminator.
3. Receive deliverance through obedience
4. Receive deliverance through faith.
5. Receive deliverance through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
6. Receive deliverance by saying what God says. Do not say what the enemy is saying, or what your body is saying.
7. Receive deliverance through the atonement. Healing is in the atonement.
It is true that there is a law of gravity, but there is also a law of the spoken word. This power made the iron head to come up. Indeed there is a law of nature, but there is a law of faith which is stronger. The law of the spirit is stronger that any law. The stormy sea was real but faith was more powerful. Darkness is real but when the sun rises, darkness flees. The law of death is strong but the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is stronger.
8. Prolong your life through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Get guidance from God on anything you want to do. Do not do things that you are not supposed to do. I counsel you to memorise Psalm 91 if you have not done so and make sure you confess it everyday, especially before you leave home.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Any power operating against my life form any tree, your time is up, die, in the name of Jesus.
2. Any power that wants me to die before my time, what are you waiting for? Die, in the name of Jesus.
3. Angels of fire, pursue my pursuers, in the name of Jesus.
4. Thou power of the night flying for my sake, die, in the name of Jesus.
5. Every covenant of untimely death, break, in the name of Jesus.
6. Any witchdoctor consulting against me, I bury your power, in the name of Jesus.
7. I shall not die before my time. My testimonies must appear, in the name of Jesus.
8. Every terminator of my father’s house, die, in the name of Jesus.
9. I shall not de but live and declare the works of God. I take divine insurance against every attack of tragedy and every attack of the enemy. It shall be well with me. It shall be well with my life. It shall be well with my going out and coming in. The sun shall not smite me by day, nor the moon by night. Whenever I enter a place, darkness shall flee. Any child of the devil in my environment, your secrets shall no longer be covered, in the name of Jesus. Thank you Lord.
