Broken Down Walls

Greetings my dear friends! Welcome to this amazing new day. I hope that you are constantly working on yourself every passing day, you are working on your own character, you are working on your own lifestyle, your habits, your way of interactions with the people around you. You are constantly allowing the Lord to convict you and correct you and change things about you that are no godly, that doesn’t represent the lifestyle and the personality of Jesus. The more that we allow the Lord to correct us, the more that we allow the Lord to edify us, to change us, the easier it becomes for us to be now used by the Lord and we will be malleable clay, like moulding clay in his hands. It is necessary that we have a willing and adjustable spirit.

Proverbs 25:28 A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls. It is talking about a characteristic here, which is one of the fruits of the spirit. In Galatians Chapter 5 Paul says that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

That is what the writer of this proverb is referring to. It says that a person that doesn’t have self-control, that kind of a person is like a city that doesn’t have any defence system, that doesn’t have any walls built around him. You can imagine how pathetic a state it would be if you live in a home without walls or any protection. Anybody can come in and attack you and take anything that you have and just ruin your life. It doesn’t matter how much you earn, it doesn’t matter how good your relationships are, it doesn’t matter how happy you may look on the outside. Until the time that you don’t have walls that surround you and protect you and cover you it is going to be of no use that you are successful or that you are wealthy; because the more money you have the more you will lose, the more relationships you have, the more you will lose because there are no walls around the house, or there are no walls around the city and you are vulnerable. So, your lack of self-control can make you vulnerable to the attack of the enemy, it can make you vulnerable to losing what you have. It can make you vulnerable to be stolen from, it can make you vulnerable to be destroyed. We know the story of the fall of Jericho. All that it took was the walls to come down, the walls around the city were its protection. As soon as the walls came tumbling down, as soon as its defence mechanism was taken away, the entire city; was a great city that had its own governance, its own military, it had its own resources, money, wealth, everything that it needed it had. But, as soon as the walls around the city came crumbling down this city was now in the hands of the Israelites. That is exactly how your life and my life can become food to our enemies the moment we lack and fail in self-control.

I like how the NKJV bible says and uses the word “self-control.” It says whoever has no rule over his own spirit. It says that if you want to have self-control, then you need to learn how to rule your own spirit. How many of you know that we have a body, we have a soul and we have a spirit. Self-control begins in the spirit realm. When our spirit is governed by God’s spirit, if our spirit is controlled by the Holy Spirit, if our spirit is restrained, limited, and surrounded by God’s spirit, that becomes the wall around our lives. So many times we look at the limitations that God puts around us and we may feel limited and put into a box and not given the right, appropriate freedom. Whereas, when God is putting us into that box when God is restraining us, he is in fact protecting us like the walls protect a city, a home, nation. This morning, the Lord is giving you self control. The Lord is allowing his spirit to now control your spirit, to now rule over your spirit so that your finances can be protected, so that your relationships, your marriage can be protected, so that your ministry can be protected, so that the enemy doesn’t have access into your life – to come and steal from you, manipulate you, control you and deceive or distract you. The Lord wants to not allow the enemy access into your life.

Lack of self-control leaves the door wide open for the enemy to come in whenever he wants. The lack of self-control invites an attack of the enemy into our homes and into our lives. But this morning, we are reversing things in the spirit. Not just in the body, not just in your mind but in the spirit. Because the Lord says “I am going to now rule your spirit.” The fruit of the Holy Spirit will now begin to manifest in your spirit. The self-control that is supposed to be a characteristic of the Holy Spirit will now be evidenced in your lifestyle. Now, you are going to be a city with walls, with protection, with the correct defence mechanism, the correct defence system that will continue to be a protection and a provision for you all the days of your life.