ARTICLES ON RELATIONSHIPS
DATE:  2nd December 2001
SPEAKER:  Pastor Tayo Adeyemi
TITLE:  Understanding the Law of Connection II - The Anatomy of a Broken Connection
TEXT:
Psalm 68:6, Psalm 92:12-15

God did not intend for anyone to succeed alone. There is no such thing as a self-made person. Everyone is assigned to be connected to specific people. Our God-assigned connections are not optional - they are an integral part of our destiny.
When you truncate your God-connections, you, at least in part abort your destiny.
The account in Luke 15:11-24 is the story of the prodigal son. We will look at each verse in detail.
Verse 12
A lot of people blame this young man for asking for his inheritance. That was not the problem, it was okay to do that in Hebrew culture as shown in Gal 4:1,2 and I King 1: 32-35.
The problem was not the fact that he asked, the problem was the spirit and attitude that underlined his asking - a "give me" spirit.
Many believers go through their Christian journey with a "give me" spirit. There is nothing wrong with claiming your inheritance - after all, it is your Father's house and you are entitled to an inheritance.
God wants you to have a "make me" spirit; not a "give me" spirit. This is God's order - first become, then possess. Matthew 6:33.
Don't be so hung up on what you can get out of church, rather focus on who you can become. Who you become eventually determines what you get.
Whenever you have to choose between "give me" and "make me", always choose "make me". What you get can be exhausted but what you become stays with you forever. When we get saved, we receive "the power to become" - John 1:10-12.
Remember, who you are always determines what you get; not the other way round. So, you can always have more than you've got, because you can always become more than you are.
Verse 13
Even though the father realised that his son was making a big mistake, he did not try to stop him. Sometimes, you have to let people go so they can make their own mistakes and learn their own lessons.
When people left Jesus, He did not go after them, begging them to stay. He did not go making house calls. John 6: 13,14, 24-31, 48-51, 60,66. These were the "give me" crowd. When Jesus started preaching a "make me" message, they couldn't handle it. Jesus let them go!

In fact, Jesus turned to the twelve and asked them if they wanted to leave too. John 6:67-69 Peter spoke up and said "Jesus we can't do that because we are connected". You need to let people go who don't want to stay. People don't always say, "I am leaving" by packing their bags, their attitude says it all!

In Luke 22:54, before Peter denied Jesus, he "followed at a distance".
When this young man left home, the father did not become worse off for it, the boy did. Yes, the father missed him, but that was an emotional thing.
When you disconnect from Christ you lose. When you disconnect from the body of Christ you lose.
Verse 14
Notice that things did not take a turn for the worse immediately. The devil waits until you are completely isolated and your resources are depleted before he strikes.
Verse 15
He went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. When you disconnect yourself from your God-ordained connection, you will have to settle for something less. Those who won't serve God will be compelled to serve something less than God.
Verse 16
No one gave him anything to eat. It didn't have to be so! When there is a crisis in your life and there is no one around to help, ask yourself "what relationship did I make the mistake of disconnecting from?"
If you are on your own in your time of greatest need, retrace your steps and find out where you disconnected.
Verse 17
He came to his senses. When you're not thinking straight you take a lot of things for granted. People do not really realise what they have until they have lost it.
Verses 18 &19
When you have blown it, be humble enough to go back and reconnect. When you go back and say " I'm sorry" it doesn't make you smaller, it makes you bigger. At least you are back home.
Verses 22-24
You cannot really help or restore someone until they are willing to re- connect. Those who, out of pride and trying to save face refuse to re-connect never really make it out of their "pig-pen". They may get by, they may be sustained, but they never really fulfil destiny.
JEALOUSLY PROTECT YOUR GOD-ORDAINED CONNECTIONS!
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