FOOD FOR TEENS: OPPRESSION

Hello beloved teen. I greet you in the matchless name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I will be admonishing you on what is turning into a norm in the life of so many believers 'OPPRESSION'.

If I were to ask you to list 5 things you hated the most in life I know oppression would be somewhere on your list. Most people hate been oppressed and would do anything to stop it from happening to them but will it shock you if I told you most Christians are oppressed. I know you are wondering how? I will tell but before I do, let us define oppression. It is the state of being kept down by unjust use of force or authority. As believers every time we experience poverty, sickness, diseases and failure for an extended period of time and we do everything we could to change the situation and nothing seems to change and we take it like it is part of life, we are allowing ourselves to be oppressed? Jesus Christ has made us free, we need not be oppressed, He has paid the price for our redemption, we are no longer slaves to sin. Colossians 1:14 says, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” We have been redeemed (bought back) from the shackles of sin and death, as with every slave and master relationship a certain level of force and cruelty is used to keep the slaves in check by the masters, just like the Egyptians did the children of Israel, but once you are redeemed and declared free, one ought not to be under bondage anymore.

Why are we still subject to the things we were redeemed from? If the blood of Jesus has given us salvation over sin and death, why are we still been oppressed by the devil? The answer is; the Children of Israel were redeemed from the hands of Pharaoh which represents the devil in the life of believers but do you know that long after they crossed the red Sea and were delivered from the hands of the Egyptians they were still subject to the Egyptians in their minds, which was why at the slightest test they failed. Their best solution was always to go back to Egypt. They were in chains in their minds and they never took off the shackles, they still saw themselves as defeated which was why they saw themselves as grasshoppers before their adversaries. While they were in Egypt their oppressors made them fetchers of water and hewers of wood and they never could see themselves beyond that, which was why God couldn't do anything meaningful with them because they never renewed their minds. Every time God through Moses would try to make them renew their minds, they failed and they all perished in the wilderness except for Caleb and Joshua.

Even so many believers today who have been brought out of Egypt have refused to renew their minds, they still believe that to be broke and poor is normal, to live in sickness and diseases is part of life, therefore they remain subject to the devil in their minds and the power of God is limited in their lives. The devil knows he doesn't have the legal right to oppress a believer anymore so he uses deception, that is why most people who are oppressed do not even know they are oppressed because if they do they would revolt. So, when things do not work the way they ought, the devil gives the impression that the solution is always to focus on the problem instead of focusing on the solution which is God's word. The Holy Spirit gave me clarity recently in this area, He told me that when you are trying to change any situation in your life, the strongest tool you have for that problem is the word of God. So pray and study the word of God until the Lord will reveal His will to you concerning that situation in His word, hold on to that word, continuously look into it and speak it inspite of the problem. That is where the solution truly lies, but the way the devil keeps people oppressed is to make them disregard the word and place it secondary and go about looking for other forms of solutions that are really not solutions thereby forsaking their mercies. 

Beloved, learn to have God's promises for every aspect of your life, no matter how much you are in a hurry everyday, speak those word over your life with Thanksgiving unto the father and watch him take you out of that difficult situation, don't run after the problems that is how the devil keeps believers oppressed by deception, free yourself by the truth and be free indeed. God bless you