Thou art my battle axe
and weapons of war ; for with thee will I break In pieces the nations, and with
thee will I destroy kingdoms;21 And with thee will break in pieces the I horse
and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider
;22 With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I
break in pieces old and young ; and with thee will I break in pieces the young
man and the maid; 23 I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his
flock ;and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen
;and with thee will I brake in pieces captains and rulers. Jer.51vs20-23.
1. GOD CHOICE OF AN AXE: Thou art my battle axe
and weapons of war, Vs 20. When someone goes to purchase an axe, there maybe
thousands of axes in the market available to him for purchase; nevertheless he
goes home with just one or two axes. It is never the axe he chose that beckoned
on him to chose them; it is solely the responsibility of the axe user to
determine which of the axes to use . Jesus said:
Ye have not chosen me but, I have chosen you..... What a privilege. John15Vs16.
The greatest privilege a man can enjoy in
life is the privilege to become God’s instrument. Moses queried the sons of Levi ......see meth it but a small thing unto
you, that the God of Israel hath
separated you from the congregation of
Israel, to bring you near to himself to
do the service of the tabernacle of the
LORD, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them? Num.16:8-9
Paul did not take this privilege lightly, for he said ..... I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful putting me into
the ministry; 1Tim1:12.
A
man called Stephanas and his entire household became the first converts in the
city of Achaia .The Bible recorded that to appreciate God for this unusual privilege of being chosen by God from among the entire
inhabitants of the city they addicted themselves to the ministry”, Cor.16:15 .
To be addicted means to be very enthusiastic and interested in a particular
thing and devoting a lot of time to it .this is one sure way of demonstrating
that we appreciate God for His unusual favour for us to be choosing as His
battle axe and weapons of war. I hear people say that the happiest moment in their lives was the day they
married or the day they bought a new car or moved into a personal house .But I
will always recall that my greatest moment of joy has always been when I saw
myself in the Bible college among other pastors in total surrender to the call
of God into full time ministry. The joy of this realization rather than
diminish grows by day.
When
the standard Oil Company was looking for a representative in the far east, they
approached a missionary and offered him $10,000, he turned down the offer. They
raised it to $25,000, and he turned it down again. They raised it to $50,000, and he rejected it once more. “What’s wrong? They asked. He replied,
your price is all right, but the job is too small .God has called me to be a
missionary. You see, I will continue to let you know that the call of God is a
call that you must allow to swallow every other calling in your life .We have
seen medical doctors, business moguls, engineers, scientists, and many other
highly regarded worldly professionals abandon their cherished professions to
submit to God’s call upon their lives
.They realized that no material sacrifice is too much when it comes to
responding to God’s choice of man as instrument. Calvin Coolidge, 30th American president (1923-1929) offered John Motto,
the great missionary, the ambassadorship
position to Japan . In n response John Mott
said : Mr. President, since God called me as a student to be an
ambassador of his, my ears have been
deaf to all other calls.”
When
Gospel ministers give themselves to the ministry it is always seen as frivolous
and unnecessary .but those of us like ....our beloved Barnabas and Paul ,men that have hazarded their lives for
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ , know that ministry deserves even more
commitment and devotion. It is the highest employment. It is the greatest privilege
that can be bestowed upon any mortal by
the infinite hand that rules the universe .
2.THE QUALITY OR THE NATURE OF GOD’S
BATTLE AXE: The Axe Must Be Sharp Enough: If the iron
{axe} be blunt, and he do not wet the edge,
then must he put more strength :but wisdom is profitable to direct .Ec.10 vs.
10. If the axe is blunt or have lost its edge, and is not sharpened, the owner
must apply more strength to make it cut. To spare his strength and achieve more
within a short period of time that axe need to be sharpened.
A
sharp axe is likened to a man of knowledge while a blunt axe is compared to a
foolish and ignorant person.
God can
use a blunt axe .He can use anything or anybody to achieve whatever He desires
to achieve .In His omnipotence He can employ the meanest ,the commonest and the
most illiterate of the society to execute His commands. The scripture is full
of stories of God using the basest things of life to [including animals and
inanimate objects] to achieve His desires. Yet the scripture is also full of
examples of clear situations where God condemns ignorance and foolishness and
praised the beauty of wisdom, knowledge and excellence. The fact that God can
use anything or anybody, does not mean that He puts premium on ignorance or
institutionalises human deficiencies. If God can use a blunt axe, a sharpened
axe will save Him some strength . If the
iron [axe] be blunt, and he do not wet the edge, then must he put to more strength.
If God can use a dumb person to preach, certainly an eloquent man will prove a
better instrument in His hand. Hence Solomon said: that wisdom excellent folly,
as far as light excellent darkness.” Ecc. 2 vs. 13.
Then
said he unto them, therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a householder, which beignet forth out of his treasure
things new and old. Matt.13 vs 52.
In the new testament Jesus used the analogy of instructed and
un-instructed scribe to illustrate the
blunt and sharpened axe .He made us to understand that there is a clear
difference in the performance of instructed and un-instructed scribe when
compared. Unlike the un-instructed, the instructed scribe brunet forth out of
his treasure things new and old. The emphasis here is on ‘things new and old” Yes,
we live in a world that is old but at the same time new. Human being is dynamic
in nature; situations are always changing; there are always obvious cultural
and psychological challenges; the people prophets and apostles preached to live
in a different and cultural setting than we do today. Their messages as
recorded in the Bible were written to a people who lived thousands of years ago
.Their language and cultural background which gave meaning to the scripture
have changed with time. To present this old truth to a man living in 21st
century, therefore, the scribe or modern preacher needs to be equipped with
things new and old. He must be ready to read and understand the old truth
within the old cultural setting in which it was written, and then be able to
encapsulate and contextualise it to the situation and understanding of the
modern man .Otherwise he will be like a blunt axe .exerting more energy on the
user .For the priest’s lip’s should keep knowledge, and they should seek the
law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of host. Malachi 2vs
7. The
reason why peter failed in the book of John 5 vs. was because he using
old fishing methodology for modern fish . “And Jesus said to him put your net
dipper and when he did, he caught a great a great number of fish. John 5
vs
3. GOD’S BATTLE AXE MUST NOT BE ABORROWED
AXE:
but as one was felling a beam , the axe head fell into the water : and he cried
,and said, alas master for it was
borrowed. 2 king 6vs5. You see ,
something is wrong with borrowed items .When you are driving a borrowed car
,for instance ,your mind is not at rest, you wouldn’t want to bash it or have
any damage done to it in the course of use .What are you going to tell the
owner if something bad happens to it ? This kind of thought restricts your use
of the car .Again if the car has any manageable fault, which the real owner has
mastered, it will prove difficult for the borrower because he lacks knowledge
of how to maneuver with those faults. You see a borrowed axe has the
characteristic of rebelling from the user; the axe head will always tend to
fling off maybe at the time the borrower just needs one heavy cut to strike his
target.
The Pharisees were religious leaders of the people; yet one day Jesus
pointed at them and said : ye are of your father the devil .......John 8vs44.
God was using them to teach and lead the people yet they were the property of
Satan the devil. God was only using them as borrowed instruments not as a
bonofide property that belongs to Him. God
himself must have been limited in so many ways using these Pharisees.
You see, when we talk about God’s battle axe we want you to observe the
possessive case involved. The axe must be “God’s axe, not any other’s .If we
must be used by God we must belong to Him entirely. We cannot be like Judas who
was chosen by Christ yet was called a devil .Jesus answered them ,Have not I
chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil ?....He that committeth sin is of
the devil; for the devil sinnet from the beginning. For this purpose the son of
GOD was manifested ,that he might
destroy the works of the devil .In this the children of God are manifested, and the
children of the devil :whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God . Jon .
6vs 70, 1st John 3vs 10. 
4. GOD’S BATTLE AXE IS NOT MORE
IMPORTANT THAN THE OWNER:
Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Or shall the saw magnify itself against him
that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it
up, or as if the staff should lift up itself , as if it were no wood: The Bible asked a question :shall
the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? The answer is no .But
ironically it is often yes .Many preachers consciously or unconsciously magnify
themselves against God. One of the possibilities of the Gospel ministry is the
tendency for the preacher to unconsciously detach himself from God when his
profile begins to rise .We have seen ,in
our days ,preachers who arrogate to themselves certain glory that only God can
claim ;We see it happen all over the place where the congregation has exalted and
defy God’s mere instruments. The mistake of Herod is repeated daily by modern
day preachers :And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel ,sat upon his
throne ,and made an oration unto them .And the people gave a shout, saying , It
is the voice of a god ,and not a man .23And immediately the angel of the Lord
smote him, because he gave not God the glory :and he was eaten of worms ,and
gave up the ghost .Acts 12 vs 21-23. We are nothing , except what God by His
grace makes us to be .For us to be useful to God we have to lose every sense of
our personal worth and dignity . 
5. THE LORD’S AXE IS A BATTLE AXE:
if it is not, it is a useless axe! Thou art my battle axe....for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with
thee will I destroy kingdoms. Jer. 51 vs
20 . Battle is a large-scale drawn-out conflict between armed adversaries; it
is a violent encounter between individual people, groups , nations or kingdoms.
Battle is a total confrontation in which opposing forces try to take advantage
of land, sea and air bases to defeat or do physical harm to the other God.
Does
not seem to have sleepless night thinking about devil or his demons as most of
us do. Nevertheless , He does not want us to completely ignore Satan in our
ministries and destiny pursuit! He wants us to
always consider that as early as Genesis chapter 3, the activities of
Satan to thwart His programs for humanity have already begun. Hence all through
the Bible we see Satan oppose every step
God makes. Starting with Adam he opposed every man or woman that has something
to offer his generation . The word
battle itself suggests that the opposition is strong enough to dare the
opponent to a combat. For God to use the word battle, fight, warfare and
related concept to describe His relationship with the host of satanic adversaries
means that He is very much aware of the daily damage they do to His soul wining
business.
The
devil have demons and evil human agents for his ever-ready battle mission against
God. Surely it will be disastrous to completely ignore the existence of such a
determined foe . Hence God said: Thou art my battle axe. Any axe unwilling to do battle is useless. Someone said that he who looks on when the
battle of life rages is either a traitor or a coward. The kingdom of God does
not accept mid-fielders .You are either against Christ or for Him :He that is
not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.....No
man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one ,and love the other ; or else he will hold to the
one, and despise the other. LK.11:23; MT 6 vs 24. Since the primary reason for selecting the
axe is for battle ,any axe therefore,
unwilling to do battle is useless .
You
see many Christians are not battle conscious. They try to be appealing to
everybody .They are very conscious of offending people; they try to be
conventional in their approach to social issues; they don’t like to be labelled
as fanatics or religious bigots. But a man conscious of the fact that he is
only a battle axe in the hands of the
master does not care if his method is offensive ; he is very conscious of his
mandate from God :he respects age and authority but not intimidated by any of
these .Such a person has totally lost the consciousness of personal ego :he is disentangled completely
from the tyranny of public opinion.
6. THE LORD’S AXE IS A WEAPON AXE: Thou
art my ....... weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the
nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms , Jer.51vs. 20. Weapon is a device designed to injure or
kill; it is designed to inflict injury or death on an opponent. Anything used as
a way of getting an advantage, especially in a combat situation, is called
weapon. If the Lord cannot make use of you in war times, you are a useless axe,
not a weapon ! Many Christians today are cosmetic Christian; they are too
polished to affect the devil in any significant way .But the most deadly
weapons are rough and rugged !To be rugged is to be furrowed; to
be mentally and physically strong enough to endure harsh conditions. A rugged
man is strong in strength and character . Thou therefore endure hardness, as a
good soldier of Jesus Christ . 2TiMOTHY
Some
weapons are less injurious while some are very deadly and can cause
overwhelming devastation and loss. During the Nigeria-Biafra war a device was
manufactured by Biafra engineers called Ogbunigwe (mass killer).Whenever or
wherever Ogbunigwe was used ,victory was always decisive ;the destruction was
total and visible in the in the camp of the enemy .The level of our
effectiveness as weapons of war in the hands of God depends on the amount of
damage done to the enemy by our deployment. What does Satan fear most about
your existence as a Christian? What damage has the kingdom of darkness suffered
or continues to suffer as a result of your activities as a weapon of war in the
Hands of God ? You see, your answer to these questions determine whether you
are a weapon or a war casualty in the hands of God.
7.HE LORD’S AXE IS A DESTRUCTIVE AXE:....
for with thee will I break in pieces the nations ,and with thee will I destroy
kingdoms. “kingdoms and nations” here speaks about evil kingdoms and nations
that promote the activities of Satan. Jer.51vs 20.
Axe
is mentioned about 11 times in our king
James Bible . in all these references it
is almost entirely in connection with destructive purposes. Thus axe is
basically a destructive instrument .You don’t employ the services of an axe when
you think of smoothing out an object or setting up a new building. The axe usually comes into
play when you are not satisfied with the existing structure and you are
thinking of bringing down such offensive structure. David said : I have pursued
mine enemies, and overtaken them :neither did I turn again till they were
consumed. vs 38. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are
fallen under my feet.....Ps.18 vs 38 – 42. A child of God is not only a threat
to the satanic kingdoms but highly destructive to them ....for with thee will I
break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms. Today many
Islamic nations and kingdoms sponsor terrorism and mass killings of innocent
people, ending their lives suddenly and sending them to hell without the
opportunity to hear the gospel. In the past most heathen kingdoms, in what
became Nigeria, killed twins and practiced degrading inhuman traditions. Today the physical
kingdoms survives but the real kingdom of evil with its attendant satanic
practices have been destroyed. The weapons God used were men and women like us
who were willing to say: here I am, use me. The activities of only four young
men in Babylon prompted the king to make a decree that only the God of Daniel
was worthy of honour. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said,....vs29 . Therefore
I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything
amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in
pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because
there no other God that can deliver after this sort .Dan6vs25-27.
Then
king Darius wrote unto all people,
nations, and language. That dwell in all the earth: peace be multiplied
unto you. I make a decree. That in
every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God Daniel: for
he is he living God and stedfast
for ever ,and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed ,and his dominion
shall be even unto the end. vs 27. He delivered Daniel from the lions. Dan.
3vs28-29.
Suggested
prayers
1) Jesus I thank you for making me your choice instrument
2) I refuse
to be a borrowed axe in the hands of God
3) I recover myself from the captivity of the evil
one .
4) I bind myself to the eternal covenant of new
Testament
priesthood.
5)
Dear Holy Spirit , make me a threat and destructive to every
satanic kingdom around me.
6)
Holy Spirit I refuse to remain a weak instrument in your
hands .
7) I declare myself strong
and healthy to
carry out God’s agenda
for my Life
8) Holy Spirit I reconnect my spirit to your voice
and spiritual
network.
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