Barrier Breaker

UV 995/10,000 Barrier Breaker I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. Isaiah 45 v 2 A hundred and fifty years before King Cyrus the Medo-Persian king (c 539 BC) came on the scene, the prophet Isaiah prophesied that the Lord had anointed him to subdue the nations like the empire of Babylon. In this uni-verse, the Lord promised to remove the obstacles in His way. When his armies reached the gates of ancient Babylon, they found the bronze gates that led into the streets of Babylon had been left open. When they reached the palace, the iron gates were opened by the guards to ascertain the cause of the noise. Cyrus was chosen by the Lord even though he did not know Him to re-build the temple at Jerusalem that the Babylonians had destroyed. The Lord goes before us wherever we go and He prepares the way for us. It might not be a smooth path but He promises to level the mountains, remove the barriers to our spiritual, intellectual and personal progress. He promises to make the crooked places straight. We are bound to encounter a lot of crooked people and crooked ways in our lives. We need not compete with them and become more crooked than them so that we are not outwitted. We need not conform to their crooked ways in order to gain acceptance. The Lord undertakes to make the crooked ways straight. Before an army troop passes into potential minefields, they send a minesweeper ahead to clear the path. Similarly, the Lord sends His angels to clear the way before us. Cyrus was named by God to fulfil His mission long before he was born though He did not know or acknowledge Him as God. How much more will the Lord anoint us who know Him and acknowledge Him as Lord and Saviour! He calls us by our name even from our mother’s womb. Under the new covenant of the blood of Jesus, each believer is chosen and anointed like King Cyrus to rebuild the temple of God in the spirits of mankind. Like King Cyrus ruled over the realms, we are ordained to rule over the spiritual realms and subdue powers and principalities of darkness that rule in this world. The Lord promises to remove the impediments, the hindrances that hamper our growth, our progress. Some of the most significant and persistent obstacles to our growth, progress and fulfilment lie deep within our own minds and spirits- our inner being and our attitudes. The Holy Spirit does a deep work within us to remove these. The persons, forces and factors that prevent us from realizing our God –given vision and mission are all put on notice. The doors or opportunities He has opened for us will stay open, come what may. In my personal experience, I have found that when I am undertaking something for the Lord, He miraculously removes seemingly insurmountable barriers. Bronze is an alloy and it is a symbol of spiritual forces combining with human forces to create obstacles in our work life or personal life. We have this wonderful promise that the Lord will defeat their designs and clear the path before us. Iron is a symbol of earthly power. Even as the iron is being separated from its ore, the Lord knows what weapons are forged from it. He ordains that no weapon is formed against us, whether sword or firearm or the stroke of the pen. No earthly power can obstruct us in any aspect of our lives, work, family or ministry. Prateep V Philip