Today I was thinking about a scripture found in the book of Genesis. It says; But [the time shall come] when you will grow restive and break loose, and you shall tear his yoke from off your neck. Genesis 27:40
My daughter is an adult now, as most of you know. But when she was small, as with most children, I often found myself repeating things to her like “Breanne, don’t do that” – “Bre, don’t do that, honey.” Some days it seemed she pushed it a little too far. But we had this place, a place I discovered as a new mom, it was called the ‘no warning zone.’ In this place there was no more warning, if you stepped over the line of disobedience, punishment immediately ensued. If she was in the no warning zone and did what I had told her not to do, the next thing she felt was the sting of my hand, without warning. She picked up on this zone really quickly, as a matter of fact, it only took one time for her to understand completely the result of breaking the rules of the no warning zone.
Do you know the place I am talking about? That place where you have had enough, you have been pushed in the corner, you are about to come out fighting. Enough is enough and quite frankly you are tired of even talking about it. There was a person in my life once who had pushed me and pushed me and I kept walking in mercy and forgiveness toward them. My mom, who was just being a mom even though I was thirty years old, went to this person and said this; “Kim is a very forgiving person, you can push and push and she will continue to forgive, but there is a place for her where when you push her past that point there is no going back, she will walk away without a thought.”
Now, I am not saying it is a good thing, because we should be able to forgive endlessly, that’s what the word says. However, I feel that there is this place in us that once we are pushed there, we refuse to be pushed anymore. It happens with our children, our loved ones, our friends, right? Well, then it should happen with our enemy as well, don’t you think?
In this scripture in Genesis 27:40, we find that the time does come when you grow restive and break loose.
The Message Bible says it like this: You’ll live by your sword, hand-to-mouth, and you’ll serve your brother. But when you can’t take it any more you’ll break loose and run free. God, Himself, was saying ‘when you get to where you can’t take it anymore, you will break free. I love that.
What does that mean? It means there comes a time when you have had all you are going to sit and take and you are not going to take it anymore. What happens? You realize your dominion and you stand up and say ‘devil, I’m not taking it anymore, loose me and let me go.’
Many times we are passive. We allow things, we allow the enemy to steal a little of our money, we allow him to bring in a little strife into our home, we allow him to cause a little flu here and there. But there comes a time, or it should come, when you are mad and you are not going to take it anymore. There is something in us, like our maternal instinct, it kicks in and attacks. When it does it is often like waking a sleeping giant.
You may think, ‘how is it that I can remove the yoke, cast off the enemies yoke from my neck?’ Well, I am glad you asked. In Isaiah 10:27, the Bible teaches us that the yoke was legally removed at the cross. That’s good news. So, has his yoke been removed or not? Yes definitely and completely. Then why is it still there?
Let me explain it like this; let’s say someone has been harassing you, abusing you, and you go to the local court system and get an order of protection. Well, they are now legally bound by law, they can no longer harass you without going to jail. If they come around again, you have a legal right to have them bound and taken to jail.
It’s the same with the devil, at the cross you were handed letters of protection, sealed in the blood of Jesus, legal and binding. When the enemy comes around now to harass you, all you have to do is hold up your papers (Bible) and say ‘hold on there, you have no place here, take your yoke and go somewhere else, I know my rights, you have to go, now GO!’
But it’s your choice. You can choose to let the devil harass you and reek havoc in your family if you want to or you can stand up and say ‘the buck stops here, I am not taking it anymore.’ That’s what happens when we become restive – we will become angry and cast him off.
Galatians 5:1 tells us that we are not to be entangled again. This tells me that we were once tangled and have been set free. We were set free at the cross, don’t allow the enemy to tangle you up again, no, cast him off.
Get mad, allow holy indignation to rise up on the inside of you and remind the enemy that you have read the book, you know who wins and it isn’t him. Stand up in your dominion and authority and enforce your blood bought rights. I believe when we stand up in our authority and tell the enemy that we refuse what he is bringing to us because of the blood of Jesus, I believe that makes Jesus say ‘it was worth it all.’
Don’t make the cross of no effect. Take the power of the cross and cast off the enemies yoke, once and for all. How long are you going to sit and take what the enemy is dishing out? He has no power over you, it was broken at the cross. You have all power and dominion over him – it’s near you – it’s in your mouth. Let it out! It is time to become restive and break loose! You have the power! You have the legal right and you have the authority, break loose!
