Hit the Nail on the Head

UV 913/10,000 Hit the Nail on the Head She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. Judges 5 v 26 When the enemy of the Israelites, the king Sisera asked Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite to give him shelter and to hide him, she did so. When he asked for water, she gave him milk and butter. She covered him with a sheet. When he slept, she took a nail and drove it with a hammer through his temples and he lay dead at her feet. This is not a direction to do likewise but the Lord told us in a time of prayer that like Jael, we too should drive the nail of the Word of God through our own heads so that the old man in us with his impure thoughts and desires would die like Sisera. As an experiment yesterday, I asked the vicar of the church where I shared the Word a few months back if he remembered anything that I spoke on that day. I then asked the Vice President of the church the same question. Neither of them remembered any word from my message. Only a Sunday School teacher who had made diligent notes mentioned that I had illustrated the message with a story about a “ dangry” or dangerously angry pig. She alone had the nail driven through her head and the Word would produce fruit in her life. Deborah declared Jael blessed over the women in the tents for her resourcefulness. Those who have the life-giving nail of the Word driven through our minds would be even more blessed. We would do exploits for the Lord far greater than Jael. We need to nail the old man to the cross and die to all vestiges of the old man with his insecurity, covetousness, lusts, pride and selfishness. Every day we should identify some aspect of our character and habits that the Lord shows us and put a definitive end to it. We can use the hammer of God’s authority and power to drive in the nail. When we do this we are literally hitting the nail on the head: our image is becoming more exactly like that of the new man who lives forever, Christ Jesus. We can then say with St Paul, “ It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” Christ does not want a peaceful co-existence between the old man and the new man. He said, “ I come not to bring peace but to drive a sword into the hearts of men.” In the past, we might have fed milk and butter to the old man but now we need to starve him. The old man should not only die but should be buried deep. There can be no resurrection without death. Some people spread the foolish heresy that Christ did not die but he was only unconscious and was later removed from the cross and declared “resurrected.” To disprove such foolish theories, every drop of blood was drained from His body through His gaping wounds. We now experience the Resurrection power of Christ in all domains of our lives. Prateep V Philip