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[Zechariah 1:16-21 KJV] “Therefore thus saith the Lord ; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. [17] Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem”.
[18] “Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. [19] And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. [20] And the Lord shewed me four carpenters. [21] Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it”.
HighCity! This is your time and your season. The Lord is returning to build us again. We shall spread through prosperity, says the word of the Lord. But that notwithstanding, there are horns and barriers that are trying to stop you from rising and spreading through prosperity. If we are really determined to spread through prosperity, then we must arise and break down those barriers.
Therefore, I want to speak to you today about breaking those barriers. This is because many of us are not advancing or moving forward or developing because of barriers. There are so many things stopping us from reaching our full potential both in society and in the church and in career. We, therefore, want to understand how to break these barriers and advance to the next level.
A barrier is anything that restricts or prevents movement. It could prevent people from doing something or limit what they can do. Barriers include, but not limited to;
- Economic and financial barriers
- Psycho-social barriers
- Cultural and systemic barriers
- Knowledge gaps
- Environmental barriers
- Spiritual barriers
1. Economic and financial barriers.
There are many of us who have a desire to rise to the next level but are unable because of financial bottlenecks. Poverty and inadequate supply of resources have stopped more people in many parts of the world than devils.
2. Psycho-social barriers:
These include barriers which take the forme of mindsets, attitudes, language, norms and beliefs, or customs and policies. We know that “as a man thinks in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). The mind is one of the major barriers stopping many people. As a matter of fact, the easiest way to help and transform a person is to change the way he or she thinks.
Sometimes, people think devils are stopping them, when in actual fact what is stopping them is their own mouths, attitudes, mindsets, habits, and beliefs. Our understanding, speech and thought patterns play a key role in how far we can reach in life. The man at the pool of Bethesda laid there for so long because of his faulty mindset. Naaman nearly lost his miracle because of his mindset. I pray that you will renew your mind and think more soberly.
3. Cultural and systemic barrier.
There are times when what is stopping you is in the environment. This is when the very system under which you are operating does not encourage innovation and advancement. One major thing Christianity has brought to our nations is to demolish these systemic and cultural barriers.
The doctrine of Christ specifically destroys the traditions of men that burden people. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Christ came for the liberation of mankind, to undo the heavy burdens imposed on us by the traditions and customs of men.
Some classes of people that the gospel came to liberate are women, gentiles, slaves, and minorities. Before the Christ doctrine, such groups like women, gentiles, and slaves did not have any rights and privileges. It is the doctrine of Christ that taught us on equality and rights of workmen and women.
4. Knowledge gaps:
For the lack of knowledge, even the people selected by God perish. What we don’t know keeps us in perpetual captivity. We must be desirous of knowledge. Apostle Paul told Timothy that “till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine”. Knowledge is the power that leads to exploits. What you dont know and refuse to learn is your undoing! We must strive to learn. Many of us are not doing well because of what we don’t know.
5. Environmental barriers.
There are times when many of us are not advancing because of the lack of infrastructure. Many disabled people cannot attend many schools because we have not considered them in our school culture and teaching system.
The lack of roads and access, the absence of the right structures limit how far many of us can go. This is one of the barriers we must be committed to breaking if we really want to advance faster.
The truth is until we arise to build our own environment, we will always travel outside to build other nations. Remember, the grass is not greener on the other side; the grass is greener where it is watered. Arise and let us build our own homes and churches.
Governments in Africa complain about brain drain, and the citizenry complains about bad systems. The real problem is that we are not building our nations. We are rather travelling abroad to build foreign nations. I pray that we shall arise to build our environment to enable us to retain the young people that grow in the church.
6. Spiritual barriers:
The last but not the least is spiritual barriers. I mention this last because we are all well aware of this barrier. Satan hinders and sets up barriers to restrict many. Many of us are not spreading through prosperity because the devil is stopping us with spiritual barriers.
I pray that you shall arise with me and we shall advance to demolish and break these barriers. We shall spread as a church through prosperity. I pray that the Lord shall prosper you and cause you to advance and spread out. Let us pray, plan, prepare, and step out to fulfil our divine purposes.
Be blessed, I love you!
Kofi Simpe
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