The crippling sound of a familiar voice that lingers in your subconscious mind, that one that does not necessarily sound out the syllables of your name in a way that gives you hope; you hear it in your head when you have down times and when things are not going your way. When you hear it, you agree with it, that you were never going to be successful, that staying in a dark place is for you. There’s a sense that it does not get better, because even on days when you feel like you are at the top and are about to realise a break-through, the same voice shows up unannounced and it asks, “Who do you think you are? It tells you, “There is no way you can crack it.” Again, you find yourself in the same dark place, chastising yourself for daring to believe. I know that many of us go through this roller coaster of life, it’s both debilitating and derailing.
It is so hard to control our intrusive and obsessive thoughts because the voices just go round and round in our heads, one encouraging and the other, landing you close to nowhere. The mind is a powerful organ and can trick you into all sorts of feelings and thoughts that can easily run away with you and throw you into a place where you end up not knowing whether you’re coming or going. Many therapists propose steps of coming out of this roller coaster. The idea of going to therapy and having a sit down with someone who will give you tools to manage these voices, is noble but still, there is the very same voice that fights with you when you attempt to take control of your life. Here is a personal example; as many of you following this blog may know about the relationship (or the lack thereof) I had with my father (may his soul rest in peace). I really never thought his absence in my life would have an effect in my life at some point, given that we had no relationship at all. So when I was at Grad School, struggling with one of my courses, a voice from nowhere creeps in to say, “If you do not make it in this course, you will be like your father.” And mind you, at that point, I had no reference to my dad in terms of his education and his life, therefore, this shouldn’t have bothered me, right? But I spent that night battling with a voice that was telling me about failure. I really had a choice of ignoring it and continuing with my life, but it bothered me so much, that I resorted to spending time in prayer making sure that I lay myself bare in the presence of the Lord.
In my spirit I was led to Isaiah 54:17; “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” I am sure you are wondering, weapon formed against? What does a weapon have anything to do with the issue at hand? Let me explain. Did you see the promises in the scripture, and it says they are our heritage. They are our entitlement, those promises.
Note:
- No weapon formed against you will prosper
- Every tongue that rises against you in judgment, YOU SHALL CONDEMN. That means you shall cancel, you shall refute and you shall render useless. You have been given the power to do so. It is your heritage to condemn tongues that speak against you and heaven will back your cancellation.
The scripture did not say every tongue that rises against you in judgment (to pass false judgment against you) God will condemn for you. It said YOU SHALL CONDEMN. God is not coming to do it for you. It is your duty to do so.
What awakened my thinking in this scripture is the obligation that the Prophet Isaiah attached to the one who is hearing the voices that rise in judgment, he says that I have the power to cancel, refute and render them useless. But the challenge this poses, is that not many of us have the boldness to confront voices or even tongues, as the scripture says. It seems we are locked up in jail, we are timid and do not have tools to identify these voices and let alone the tools to address them to condemnation.
The reason I am writing about this is that I am seeing effects in my life of things that did not happen, experiences I missed, and things that I believe I should have experienced to make me what I believe is a complete human being, especially in the area of family and relationships. The other day there was an error in my life, which after going through it, I started saying to myself if only someone had told me I would go through this, I would have avoided or known how to deal with it.
Something else to ponder on as you deal with these foreign voices is that God did not say that there will be NO weapons. He said that THEY WILL NOT PROSPER. None of them will. The negative feels and voices will be there but God says that they will not succeed. This is true and good for it means, the negative voices will not win. You will overcome them, control them, shut them down and walk into your most splendid destiny.
As I conclude this I want to encourage someone and say that we can silence voices or condemnation that have an effect on us today. What is critical is to be able to identify them and their effect on your life. The moment you can identify that annoyingly and crippling voice in your life, you are in a better position to deal with it decisively. A friend of mine said to me, “We have learned to live with these voices.” But some of us are deeply traumatized by the voices such that our lives are at a standstill, therefore it is necessary to summon the authoritative voice within and hold on to the promises of God. You will nullify the negative. You will move up and ahead.
The Platform 