Are You Maintaining Y in the Mist of Despair? Despair is a topic I must touch on do to all the catastrophic situations that arose this year. Many Christians and gentiles can agree that the ups and downs of uncertainty with our economy have caused people to do things that are unspeakable to survive. Many have just decided it’s better to take their own lives whether in church or out of the church. Pastors and leaders have committed suicide this year because they just could not take the pressure any longer. One would think if you know Christ how could this happen? Well like anyone else leaders go through more than the average Christian and the sad part is they have no one to talk to. Everyone looks to them to be strong and really who can they trust with their issues? They sometimes carry the burdens of their congregations on their shoulders though God says put them on him. Church folks will drain a leader, talk about a leader, back-stab a leader even after that leader has prayed them through their situations. Often times that spirit will use the church members to pressurize the leader thus they end up with an unexpected sad end. Sometimes doing things totally outside the will of God because they become distant from God thus carnally driven. This is why we hear so much adultery, fornication, and church drama in the body of Christ. The enemy wants to kill the saintly image of the church. The church has become desperate in some ways because it is in despair and the Jezebel spirit wants to blemish its squeaky clean image God so desires. Thus may saints just thought it best to die. Singles can’t take being single, married folks divorcing, men with men, women with women, fights among the body of Christ and people are just hopeless. People are tired and weary and have turned to their flesh. Joblessness, homicides and more have plagued our communities. The devil has really just had a field day with our society so what do we do? Well what does it actually mean to be despaired? Better yet how does one cope with this spirit when in the church? The dictionary denotes it as a state of hopelessness. It is a very unhealthy way of thinking that can lead to rash decision making which has nothing to do with God and always some type of repercussion. In the bible there were many great people who became so despaired that they asked God to either curse their life or take their life. Jeremiah and Elijah told God they wanted to die. Job’s wife told him to lose his integrity and curse God when he was in the midst of his trials. Abraham desperately slept with his wife’s hand-maiden when she forced him to out of her despair. But Joseph who really had reason to be despaired held on to his integrity, promise and dream from God knowing that he would deliver him. Joseph never allowed his atmosphere to dictate his disposition. He always held on to the hope God had instilled in him though his present state looked grim. Joseph even told his brothers after multiple trials initiated by them, that he was in the place God wanted him to be in. In other words, their attacks thrusting him into his destiny. God brought the despair on the brothers who tried to enslave him. Gene-sis 50:18-19 “We are your slaves,” they said. Vs 19 But Joseph Beyond Borders by Apostle Veryl Howard said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? How many of us could forgive the person the devil uses to tear you down knowing that God flip the script to honor your greatness? We are in an hour where the Jezebel spirit wants to kill and shut up God’s true spokespersons just as it tried in the book of 1st Kings 19 verse 2. The devil wants false prophecies to continue to trick and manipulate the people of God so that they are weakened and unable to stand against his wiles. This is why the truth is so watered down in the body of Christ today. True prophets and sanctified men and women of God have been under an attack that I call the “The Death Sentence”. Whether it is a sickness in the body, craziness in the home, loss of a job, chaos in the church, blocked in ministry the assignment was loosed on the body of Christ. Jezebel decreed in the bible that she would kill Elijah the true prophet and suffer her on life with her gods to do so. She intimidated him to the point of wanting to die and then hiding in a cave to abort his assignment. Fear can make anybody desperate if not prayerful. The enemy tries to put fear in the minds of the people of God. God will not have a pity party with you when you are anointed for an assignment. He told Elijah when fearful to get up continue to eat his bread and drink his living water because he still had work to do. People of God you have work to do. It’s the enemy’s motive to kill your joy, promises, praise, work, money, children, worship, marriage, ministry and your breakthroughs. But you cannot be like Elijah and speak death over your life! I had the opportunity to speak to Latice Crawford runner-up from “Sunday Best” season two. She is now a new artist on RCA records and has a single out called “There” which is charting. But despite all of that, I wanted to hear her perspective. I wanted to see how she main9 DEVINE GLORY MAGAZINE
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