Moving in the Opposite Spirit

Graham Cooke's teaching on operating in the opposite spirit is powerful. Instead of trying to re-hash the concept, I'll briefly mention that Graham teaches that there are seasons when believers need to operate in the opposite spirit of the things coming against them, the enemies attacking them or the personal defects plaguing them.

The idea here is to allow the Holy Spirit to show you what the opposite blessing is for every curse thrown our way. Does fear plague you life? Maybe courage is the opposite spirit God wants to give you in its place. Tempted by lust? May God bless you with purity in its place.

Graham proposes that once God tells you He has promoted you to a new level it is not your responsibility to make yourself ready to attain everything that new level represents. Why? God has already established you in that new level, you just have to keep from moving out of the place in which He has established you.

Interestingly this teaching reminds me of how the Israelites were instructed to move into their promised land. Before they could fully occupy the land God had given them they had to drive out the enemy from those lands.

Personally, I am convinced with every passing day of this season of life that the Lord has promoted me and called me to enter into the "promised land" he has for my life. His favor and strength rest on me in a new way and the only responsibility I feel I have is this…stay close the heart of God and pursue his righteousness and kingdom so that sin disgusts me in the light of His love over me. May I walk closely to his heart so I'm aware of the things he's trying to accomplish on the earth so I can partner with Him in His agenda…not my own agenda.

Last night, after a long day of brainstorming and casting vision for my new software product, I was preparing for bed and reading a little bit of Exodus. While reading Exodus 1 and 2 I discovered two examples of how the enemy intended evil toward people but God turned that evil into blessings.

Israelite Population Explosion

You see, the first example has to do with the Israelites. Joseph and all of his brothers had passed away by now and a new Pharaoh, one who did not know Joseph, was alarmed concerning the large number of Israelites in his country. Pharaoh feared that during war the Israelites would either join Egypt's enemies and fight against him or simply walk away during the battle.

The key to noticing God's blessing in this scripture is to recognize that even though Joseph and his brothers had passed on, the Israelites were reproducing very well…to the point of experiencing a population explosion.

Pharaoh, in his fear, worked to find ways to "contain" the Israelites and prevent them from reproducing any further. The Egyptians decided the best way to contain the Israelites and stop the population growth was to burden the people with hard labor.

Now, this is where the blessing comes in because the bible states that as the Egyptians imposed this hard labor on God's people they only produced more children. The harder Pharaoh worked them the more children the Israelites produced.

The plan of the enemy here was obvious…"contain" the Israelites by distracting them with hard labor. Interestingly, the exact opposite happened. The more the enemy pressed God's people the more fertile they became and the more children were born.

Killing Baby Boy's

Pharaoh noticed his plan to contain the Israelite population wasn't working. After a failed attempt to have Hebrew midwives kill the baby boy's birthed by Israelite women Pharaoh took things to the next level and ordered all of his people to kill the baby boy's born to the Israelite women by drowning them in the river.

Obviously, this is where the birth of Moses occurs and after 3 months of hiding Moses his mother decides to place Moses into a water-proof basket in the Nile. You know the story from here; Pharaoh's wife finds the basket, pulls it out of the water and decides to raise the child.

Once again the clearly expressed plan of the enemy was to kill all of the male children. True to the opposite spirit, not only did Moses survive but his mother was paid by Pharaoh's wife to raise her own child. What the enemy meant for evil, God turned for good.

Insult to Injury

Once again, Pharaoh's motivation here was to contain the Israelites because he feared there response during war-time. Now, God acting in the opposite spirit not only delivers Moses from certain death in the Nile but uses the Israelite child now raised in his very household as the instrument of fulfilling Pharaoh's fears.

May we be so lucky in our lives as to recognize the plans of our enemy against us so we can begin to expect the blessing God has designed to take its place. Maybe, just maybe, the plans of the enemy can be used to understand the blessing of God intended for our lives as we live our lives out each day.

RM