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When we go down spiritually
1. WHEN WE GO DOWN
SPIRITUALLY….
Dr. Oyewole O. Sarumi
Pastoral Leadership Academy
E-mail: leadershipmgtservice@gmail.com
2. OPENING SCRIPTURES
• Gen 12:10-11
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went
down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe
in the land. NKJV
• Judg 14:1-2
Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman
in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. NKJV
3. • Ruth 1:1
Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that
there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of
Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he
and his wife and his two sons. NKJV
• Jonah 1:3
3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of
the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going
to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go
with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. NKJV
4. INTRODUCTION
• Why does Christian fall from grace?
• Fall starts from little-little foxes [sins] that we overlook or don’t
care about.
• They are gradual omissions which could be fatal.
• A plunge into a sinful adventure is calamitous.
• David’s own was when he looked at Bathsheba with lustfulness.
• King Saul’s own was honour of men rather than God
• What’s yours ma/sir?
5. WE GO DOWN SPIRITUALLY, WHEN…
• We allow our minds to roam freely and incubate strange ideas
• We despise the quiet restraining voice of the Holy Ghost
• We refuse to subject our human desires to the discernment of the Word
• We attempt to bend the sacred rules to accommodate our whims and
caprices.
• We refuse to own up to our inadequacies
6. • We begin to shift our principled position on the righteous demand of
holiness
• We permit our untamed self life to assert itself over and above the
divine imperatives for our lives
• We let the vision of our lives get supplanted by unprofitable earthly
desires. Col.3:1. Rev.2:4-5
• We erroneously regard the troubling circumstances of our lives as acts
of divine omissions that must be rectified by carnal methods. Gen.16:1-
4
7. GOING DOWN SPIRITUALLY MEANS….
• Downward lane of spiritual experience..
• Slipping off the path of divine approval..
• Embarking on downward spiritual trend…
• Climbing down the spiritual ladder…
• The process of backsliding on course..
• Leaping into spiritual low waters…
• A steady but certain spiritual decay setting in….
• A calamitous fall from grace….
8. 1. BEGIN RIGHT WITH GOD…
• When we begin right with God and continuing, we can hardly fall into
spiritual anomie.
• Have a clean break from our sinful past
• Do not seek help from Egypt no matter the attractions.
• No true help in Egypt – its full of compromise, lies deceit and failure.
• Famine will come, stay put with God – this famine sent Abram to Egypt
9. THE WAY OF EGYPT
• While in Egypt, Abram followed the way of Egypt:
• He falsified his identity
• His true marital status
• He brought back Hagar which is smearing God’s name till date
• Same famine and delayed blessings led Elimelech to move down
to Moab. There, he lost his posterity and name forever in Israel.
Ruth 1:1-6
10. THE DANGERS OF SPIRITUAL
PROSTITUTION
• The Word of God never came to Abram again until he left the way of
Egypt and returned to Canaan – Gen.13:1-14.
• In Gen. 38:1-26, we saw the odyssey of Judah as he went down from his
brethren and got entangled in marriage with the cannanite:
• Tragic marital crisis
• Lost his two sons in quick succession
• Had adulterous affairs with his very daughter in-law
11. • He traded away his signet [spiritual authority], his staff [ spirit of
presence], his bracelets [spiritual virtues]
• Got a big smear on his testimony
• NOTE: We can easily trade off our finest Christian virtues when
we get entangled in unwholesome relationships in:
• Marriage
• Business
• Ministry
12. UNNECESSARY SEPARATIST TENDENCIES
• Let’s be careful of unnecessary separatist tendencies.
• It may cut us off from godly admonitions of fellow brethren.
• Judah went down alone to Timnath and got hooked with harlot that
finished him
• Samson was a lone ranger and fell into the trap of prostitutes.
• We need to trust God to lead us into fruitful relationships that will
enlarge our spiritual horizons and help fulfil our ministries – Acts 9:11-
17, 9:27, 13:2, 18:2-5
13. BEWARE OF RESIDUAL ANOINTING
• Rom.11:29 says “for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”.
• Samson keep graduating from one level of immorality to another
demonstrating the Lord’s presence and power until it was finally
quenched on the laps of Delilah.
• You can’t continue in the place of God’s power once we still cherish
some secret sins.
• Be not deceived by the seemingly flow of anointing even when neck
deep in sinfulness
• It takes quite some considerable time for the anointing to finally dry up
14. • Eli was still blessing God’s people years after an irreversible judgement
had been passed on his ministry.
• King Saul reigned for 40years and brought many victories to Israel long
after he has been rejected by God.
• If you keep trusting in residual anointing, you are destroying your
testimony now and in eternity: I Tim.5:24
15. STOP MANIPULATION OF MINISTRY
• Many regards ministry as personal vocation to be manipulated at will.
• Many regard ministry as personal empire where their word is law.
• This is Diotrephes’ spirit which confers false eminence on mere mortals
at the expense of the Lord of the Church.
• It is a competitive spirit that sees other as threat to our well entrenched
position – III John 8-10
• Ministerial callings cannot be pigeon-holed to fit our petty expectations.
16. JONAH – THE MANIPULATOR
• Jonah – a real prophet that was entrusted with a special repentance
message for the people of Nineveh.
• In contradictions to God’s instructions, Jonah went down into a ship
heading towards Tarshish.
• He even went down in the ship to sleep off the task he was running
away from
• His disobedience brought waves of troubles, crisis and anguish to
innocent people on the ship.
• When we go down trying to evade our spiritual responsibilities we are
more likely to pull down others with us!
17. • Jonah’s ministry became a spring board of trouble and crisis and sorrow
to people rather that be a lifesaving mission.
• Don’t play pranks with your callings with God for anytime we go off
tangent, we are courting divine displeasure.
• When we don’t serve God cheerfully where He placed us is to invite
divine wrath Duet.28:47-48
