Isaiah 54:17 (KJV) No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
Sola liked to quote Isaiah 54:17 because he understood too well what demonic weapons were and what they could do. His mother became mysteriously sick and almost died, and it was later revealed that his stepmother was the one who sent a demonic arrow against her. These kinds of arrows made people mysteriously ill and die. Some of such arrows could make a student become so forgetful that he would practically be incapable of doing well academically, no matter how much he studies. Sadly, Sola was still a victim of curses(tongues or utterances made against him in judgment) and many demonic arrows(weapons), even though he liked to pray and quote promises like Isaiah 54:17.
Perturbed and worried, he asked his campus pastor why he was so afflicted even though he prayed and quoted God’s promises. It was later discovered that the promises Sola loved to quote did not apply to him because he did not meet the conditions of the promises as outlined in scripture.
Many of God’s promises in Scripture are based on conditions, and if you meet them, you can be sure God will fulfill them because He cannot lie. There is a general condition for all of God’s promises in scripture, and there are specific conditions for specific promises found in scripture. 2 Corinthians 1:20 reveals the general condition. It says that in Christ, all of God’s promises are “yes”, and through Him, the Amen is spoken by us to God’s glory. As long as you abide in Christ, all of God’s promises are “yes” for you. The general condition for God’s promises to apply to a person today is that they must abide in Christ. That is the “yes” requirement for God’s promise to find fruition in our lives. But remember, there is also the “Amen” requirement, as revealed in 2 Corinthians 1:20.
For a promise like the one in today’s Bible verse, the specific condition for that promise to be “Amen” for a believer is that they must be servants of God. The reason why Sola could not appropriate those promises was that he was not a servant of God but a user of God. There was no record of anything he ever did in service to God. All the things he did were motivated by self-centeredness.
Being a servant of God does not mean you are a pastor or church preacher. It means there must be things in your life that you can identify as things you do in service to God. It could be as “common” as cleaning the church, or as “complex” as preaching to the lost.
When you see a promise in scripture, look out for the conditions. If you meet the requirements, you can be sure that the promise will be yours through faith. Some promises only require our faith and confessions for them to be appropriated, as long as we abide in Christ.
Go into today thanking God for His great and precious promises. See 2 Peter 1:4
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