PUSH BUTTONS
The Weapon Called Disregard
One of my favourite scriptures is 2 Corinthians 4:8, where Apostle Paul distinguishes between the assault happening on the external and the defiant response of the internal to such an assault.
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, we are persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:8–10)
According to Apostle Paul, the defiant response is underpinned by the constant reminder of the import of the death of Christ and that reminder and alignment with the death of Christ constantly injects the life of Jesus Christ into their lives and their situations. There’s a level of association with the death of Christ and that makes us practically, make confessions and even experience situations that are immune to the barrage of assaults against us in the external.
One can stretch this further to say that if a believer cowers in the face of external pressure, the problem is not really with the magnitude of the pressure. There’s a kink in the level of identification with the death of the Lord Jesus, which shunts the lease of life that such believer should experience. This is not in a bid to trivialise trials that people go through but Apostle Paul emphasised that the Spirit of God always furnishes us with the right level of fortitude to withstand any external pressure.
The Spirit of God will never cry ‘yepa or mogbe’ (cries of helplessness) in the face of contrary situations. It may look like it’s the empathetic thing to do but the testimony of the Spirit will always be different because of what He knows. That ability is available in the faculty of the Spirit, the question is whether, as believers, we will cower in our confessions, or agree with what the Spirit is saying in these times.
One of the things that gets the enemy excited is watching God’s sons and daughters act contrary to the covenant in response to negative situations. So also, one of the things that gets him angry is when he sees staunch men and women adopt, to the tee, the response the Bible recommends to tumultuous situations.
I have found that one of such responses the Holy Spirit furnishes in our hearts is a disregarding disposition to the enemy. It shows we know the place of the enemy, how far we know He is from us and we are willing to constantly remind him of where he is ranked in the scheme of things — under our feet.
To disregard something is to treat something as unworthy of regard, attention, or notice. It is to ascribe so little significance to an event or situation. Typically, people disregard things depending on the scale of the external event or effect and their threshold of awareness. So once the external feature tips off your threshold, you then regard it. You may disregard an ant charging at you, lightly disregard a chicken running fiercely towards you, but you cannot disregard a dog/ a lion adopting that same disposition, yet for some people, their threshold is tipped by a flying cockroach. But imagine for a moment, that in your mind’s eye, a lion is an ant, the same disposition you have for an ant is what you apply to the lion. When we disregard something, we reduce the level of influence it has on our internal stability.
In my study through scripture, I have found a disregarding disposition to be one of the most powerful dispositions a believer can adopt. It is a weapon fueled by the whispers of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s ear, telling him about the richness of his heritage, his place, and his abilities in Christ in heavenly places.
I’d like to share 4 tools I have found so far in the artillery of disregard
- Sleeping / A State of Rest as a response to tumultuous situations — In Matthew 8:23–27, the disciples were crossing over to the other side of the lake. The Passion Translation rightly puts it as
Jesus, being exhausted, fell asleep, but suddenly a violent storm developed, with waves so high the boat was about to be swamped.
Yet Jesus continued to sleep soundly. When the disciples woke him up, accosting Him for not saving them, the question Jesus asked was, “Why are you gripped with fear? Where is your faith?” Faith is seen in a restful and sleeping disposition and our refusal to rest or sleep in the face of tumultuous situations that want to make us run helter-skelter is a sign that we are not listening to the whispers of the Spirit.
2. Laughter in response to adversarial intentions — In Psalms 2, the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against Jehovah, and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us. Yet He that sits in the heavens will laugh, the Lord will have them in derision. Sometimes this assault comes from dire economic situations. However, if we are assured that we sit in heaven with God then we must laugh with Him. The laugh of a believer with God is a fear queller and a victory launcher. It derides the enemy and defuses his devices.
3. Sowing in response to famine — In Genesis 26, Isaac motioned to travel to Egypt in the famine and received instruction to stay in Gerar, accompanied by a promise from God. Yet Isaac sowed in the same land that economic analysts and industry leaders of their day had dubbed plagued with famine and reaped a 100-fold return.
The natural response from every farmer would be to hold on to their seeds, seeing as the land is barren, but not to disregard Isaac. Sowing in the face of dearth is a derisive jab at the enemy. What ideas has God placed in your heart? Don’t wait for a turn in the economy, if you have a word, go ahead and sow. Give that gift, submit that proposal, launch that project, and plan that wedding. Don’t hold your seed in your hand, sow it into the ground.
4. Continuing in the face of threatening situations—Daniel. In Daniel 6, a decree was passed that in the whole of Babylon, nobody should worship or petition any other god except Darius for 30 days, yet when Daniel knew the decree had been signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.
Continuing in worship, in service, and in faith in the face of threatening situations that seek to draw us away from Who we have believed is a poke at the enemy and external situations.
One of the things you quickly realise across these four tools is that because they are underpinned by a richness of revelation, they are sufficient as acts to command victory in our situations. I encourage you to launch one of these weapons this week and cash in on the testimony that awaits you on the other side of this experience.
Have a blessed week ahead.
For His Glory and His renown,
Olayinka Adebayo
IG/Twitter: layinkadebayo
Push Buttons is a weekly devotional of The Powerpoint Tribe.
