5 Hours Of Mercy Part 3 by Dr. Paul Enenche: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

God's Plan Is the High Place

God's plan for His people is the high place. Matthew 5:13-14 — you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world, a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. We are unraveling the factors that cause people to crash from the high places of life — especially God's people.

Things are more stable on the ground. But more carefulness is needed when you are dealing with heights. As God takes us up to heights, which is what He has in mind for us, more carefulness is needed. This is not to frighten us but to prepare us.

The Story of King Uzziah

One of the saddest stories in Scripture is the story of King Uzziah. 2 Chronicles 26. He was sixteen years old when he began to reign and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father did. He sought God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding in the visions of God. And as long as he sought God, God made him to prosper.

It is one thing to begin well, but the most important thing is to continue well and end well. Uzziah began well, continued a bit well, but it did not end well.

He went to war against the Philistines. The Ammonites gave gifts to him. His name spread abroad even to the entering of Egypt, for he strengthened himself exceedingly. He built towers, dug wells, raised an army of 307,500 soldiers. And he made engines in Jerusalem — war machines invented by cunning men to shoot arrows and hurl great stones. Uzziah was the first person to invent something resembling a modern armored personnel carrier. He was marvelously helped till he was strong.

But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. 2 Chronicles 26:16.

For he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar. He was not a priest. Azariah the priest went in after him with eighty valiant priests of the Lord. They withstood Uzziah and said, "It pertains not to you to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have transgressed." Then Uzziah was angry with them. And while he was in a rage with the priests, leprosy rose up on his forehead in the house of the Lord. King Uzziah was a leper till the day of his death, dwelling in a separate house, cut off from the house of the Lord.

When the Lord who was your helper becomes your hater, that is a disaster. When the God who was assisting you becomes your resistance — that was the end of Uzziah.

The Twelve Pitfalls of High Destiny

1. The Arrival Mentality

   When he was strong, he assumed he had arrived. Please understand that wherever you are today, there is more from where what you have came. Proverbs 4:18 — the path of the just is a shining light that shines more and more unto the perfect day. Until you see Jesus face to face, your journey continues. Never come to the point where you convince yourself you have succeeded.

2. Reliance on Personal Strength

   He relied on his personal strength. The time comes when people begin to rely on their strength, their resources, their giftings — on things they can achieve outside of God. Forgetting the source of help.

3. Forgetting the Source of Help

   He was marvelously helped. Scripture said it plainly. Some people come to a point where they actually forget the source of their help. The psalmist said, "I will lift up my eyes to the hills from where comes my help. My help comes from the Lord" — not from myself. Psalm 121:1-2.

4. The Spirit of Pride and Arrogance

   He was marvelously helped until he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up. You do not know the character of people until you give them money, until you give them power, until you give them position. There are many good Christians who were Christians until they entered a government office. A little anointing comes and you cannot reach them anymore.

   Lucifer became Satan because he was proud. God made him the head of the angels. It entered his head and crashed him from there. That position, that money, that level of influence — may it never enter your head.

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   Dr. Paul Enenche

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   What happened to Queen Vashti in Esther 1:9-12? King Ahasuerus called for her and she refused. "I am too beautiful. You cannot talk to me anyhow." That pride cost her the throne.

   Samuel said to Saul in 1 Samuel 15:17, "When you were little in your own eyes, were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king?" There was a time Saul was little in his own sight. But now that he had become big, God released him and replaced him.

   May we, no matter what God does with us, forever remain small in our own eyes.

5. Elevating Oneself to a Different Calling

   Uzziah was a king and he decided he must also be a priest. He arrogated to himself a calling that was not his own. Every calling in God is a high calling — whether business, political leadership, or full-time ministry. Those who know who they are do not chase callings that are not theirs. When Jacob was brought before Pharaoh, Jacob blessed Pharaoh. The lesser is blessed of the better. Jacob knew he was higher than Pharaoh even though Pharaoh had money, influence, and land. When people do not know who they are, they just mess themselves up in the name of chasing another platform.

   Everybody should face their call. David was a king, a priest, and a prophet — multiple mantles are possible, but they must be genuinely from God, not assumed because others have them or because you have been prophesied into them.

6. Disregard and Disrespect for the Oil of Priesthood

   King Uzziah was pursuing God under the ministry of Zechariah who had understanding in the visions of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 26:5. As he pursued God, God made him prosper. This same man now disregarded eighty priests who came to correct him. A tree that outgrows its root, a collapse is inevitable. When the house is bigger than its foundation, it must collapse.

   No matter how high God takes you, may you never devalue your priest and your prophet. May you never look down on the oil.

7. Lack of Value for Godly Counsel

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   Uzziah could not be advised anymore. He was too big for counsel. They said, "This is not your duty, this is not your assignment." He said, "Who are you to talk to me? Who is king here?" That lack of value for godly counsel cost him his destiny.

8. Forgetting the Covenant of Your God

   Uzziah forgot the God of his fathers. Solomon did not walk as his father David walked. He did not keep the covenant of his fathers. 1 Kings 3:14 — God said to Solomon, "If you will walk in my ways to keep my statutes and commandments as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days." Solomon did not.

   Samson was given a covenant — no fermented drink, no cutting of the hair. He trampled it. Your way in will be your way forward. What kind of fasting, prayer, and study of the Word brought you out of where you were? If you got in by a certain standard, how you got in is how you stay in and how you keep going.

9. Turning to the Worship and Service of Other Gods

   1 Kings 11:4-10 — when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods. He built one temple for God and built seven hundred shrines for his strange wives. The God who appeared to Solomon twice watched as Solomon built more altars for idols than for Him. The Lord was angry because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel who had appeared unto him twice.

   There are people who sit in the church with altars in their bedroom, patronizing divination, making calls to demonic agents. What is the use? If God is God, serve Him. If Baal is Baal, serve him. Trying to serve both and connecting the wires wrongly — spiritual electrocution is the result.

10. Surrendering to the Control of the Flesh

    Solomon surrendered his life to the control of his flesh. Seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. 1 Kings 11:3. It destroyed his life. Samson also surrendered himself to the control of his flesh — from Delilah to another, from war to war, with no time for prayer. The flesh rules and the crash follows. Judas was money. Gehazi was money. Those are the things the flesh wants, and they led each one to their crash.

11. No Functional Altar of Relationship with God

    When you come to a point like Samson — no prayer life, no study of the Word, no fasting. Matthew 6:33 — seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness is no longer the priority. Samson is never once recorded praying in the course of his mighty exploits. The only time he prayed was when he was dying of thirst, and then again when he was already in prison, blinded and chained.

    Activity without intimacy is calamity. Business activity, political activity, ministerial activity — you can be so busy that there is no time to fast, no time to pray, no time to study the Word for yourself. Show me a person that is busy and has no time with God — that person is a disaster headed somewhere to happen.

    The Bible says Samson went out as at other times, not knowing that the Spirit had departed. The Spirit left him. He was still acting. There are many whose activity continues long after the Lord has left since — and they are not even aware.

12. Failure to Learn from History

    Hebrews 6:12 — be followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Learn from those who went all the way with God. Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, William Wilberforce — God positioned them and they never dropped. If Solomon had learned from his father that there was an error that almost wiped him out, he would not have repeated it. But Solomon did not just repeat it — he multiplied it.

How to Survive from the Top

1. Continuous Reliance on the Mercy of God

   Romans 9:15-16 — He said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. The mercy of God will do for you even what your willpower cannot do.

2. Reliance on the Grace of God

   Romans 5:2 — by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. Grace makes us not to collapse, not to crumble. 1 Peter 5:12 — this is the true grace of God wherein you stand. Grace makes us say no to the things that would have crumbled us. Grace makes us to stand before those things that would have collapsed us.