Divine Justice by Apostle Johnson Suleman: Sermon Notes

Text and Introduction

Judges 1:5-7 — they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek, and they fought against him. Adoni-bezek fled, and they caught him and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adoni-bezek said, "Three score and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me." And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.

I want to share briefly on divine justice. God is a God that believes in the enforcement of justice. God is a God that believes in fairness.

• One of the benefits of justice is equity.
• One of the benefits of justice is reprimanding the oppressor and putting him in check.
• One of the benefits of justice is to make sure that rights are upheld.
• One of the benefits of justice is to make sure that whoever is guilty is held responsible.
• One of the benefits of justice is to make sure the underdog gets a fair share.

You must understand that justice cannot be enforced on the platform of neutrality. Justice can only be enforced on the platform of constitution. The place where we read — this man was a king. A king is entitled to one region. But this man was in charge of seventy nations. He reigned over seventy regions without question, without challenge. Nobody could confront him.

Satan will only come for you at your vulnerable state. Satan will wait for where you are vulnerable. Some of the decisions we made that caused us pain — we made them at times when we were vulnerable. We made those decisions in a state of confusion, in a state of pain. Do not make a permanent decision on a temporary situation. Whatever you are going through will pass. Nothing you go through stays forever. The Bible says, "And it came to pass." Anything that comes will pass.

When this king came after Israel, Israel said, "We are not going to give up our nation without a fight." Victory is a product of fight. The toughest battles are won in the realms of the spirit.

He confessed: "If you go to my palace, under my table, I have the heads of seventy kings." He cut off their heads as a trophy — to frighten new territories into surrender. Then they asked him: How did you do it? He said, "I cut off their thumbs and their great toes."

The Spiritual Meaning of What Was Taken

1. The Thumb — Your Grip

What he took was physical, but it had spiritual potential. When your thumb is cut off, you can't hold anything firmly. You lose your grip.

Divine justice is needed because many thumbs have been cut off in the spirit. There are people who cannot hold anything good. They cannot hold a good job. They cannot hold a good relationship. No matter how good a thing comes their way, it slips off. Nothing stays, nothing good is sealed — because in the realms of the spirit, their thumb has been cut off.

Haggai 1:6 — you have a bag with holes. You make money, put it in the bag, but there are holes. It falls off. There are people who do three or four jobs in America or London, but they cannot make ends meet.

There are people who cannot keep a marriage, cannot keep a relationship — and they call it culture. It is not culture. It is a spiritual attack. You need to raise your voice against it. A man can't keep anything productive. The only friends they can keep are friends that are not profitable. Let them just have one drunkard friend — twenty years. One gossip partner — twenty years. But anyone productive in their life, something happens and separates them.

Father, everyone under the sound of my voice — in the realms of the spirit, whatever has taken their thumb, in the name of Jesus, I break it. Let their thumbs be restored. Let their thumbs be restored. Let their thumbs be restored.

2. The Toes — Your Speed

The Bible says he cut off their great toes. When you are on the mark in a track and field event, you tip with your toes. When your toe is cut off, it slows your speed. Your motion is truncated, tampered with. What would have taken a man one year is taking him ten years.

Are you aware that motion is not movement? You can be exerting energy but not moving. That is why some people are laboring, sweating, going to work, getting jobs, walking — but they are on the spot.

There is a power that has kept them on the same spot. One man in his mid-seventies had been in a relationship for forty-six years — in courtship, preparing to marry. When I said that in a meeting, a man came forward. I said, "Sorry sir, how long have you been dating?" He said forty-six. In the next few months, forty-seven. I said, "Why are you not married?" He said, "I want to check if she is the one." When your speed is affected, what others get easily is always hard for you. You revolve around the same spot.

No matter your vision, without motion, it ends up as a mere wish. Habakkuk 2:2 — write the vision that he may run. Every vision that nobody runs with has no capacity to produce. The vision starts speaking when you start running with it. When you attach motion to your vision, you give the vision expression. He said it will speak and not lie — it will produce evidence. Why? Because somebody is running with it.

Father, in the realms of the spirit, restore our toes. Restore our speed. In the realms of the spirit, restore our toes and give us speed. Your speed shall be restored. Heaven will restore your speed. In Jesus name. Amen.

3. Incompleteness — Your Wholeness

He cut off their thumbs and their toes to make their lives incomplete. A man without a thumb and a toe — his body is incomplete. There are people today whose lives are incomplete. There is something they need to complete them.

A man came home to see his mother after seventeen years. He came with a Lamborghini. He had made so much money. But he was not smiling. Everyone was excited except him. The mother said, "You are not happy?" He said the doctors gave him three weeks. He came home so that, even if he was going to die, he should die before his mother. Everything he had made no sense — because there are things you need to complete you.

No matter how beautiful you are, how educated you are — if you don't know Jesus, you are incomplete. You need to be complete.

Psalm 138:8 — God is able to complete and perfect that which concerns me. God wants you complete. God wants you to finish well. To be complete means to arrive at the place of destiny.

John 4:34 — Jesus said, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish it. Genesis 2:1 — God finished creating the heavens and the earth. 2 Timothy 4:6-7 — Paul said, I have finished my course, I have fought a good fight. John 19:30 — on the cross, Jesus shouted: It is finished. God wants you to finish well. God wants to perfect that which he has started. Faithful is he that calleth thee, who also will do it.

In the name of Jesus, in life and destiny — Lord, complete me. Lord, complete me. Lord, complete me in life and destiny. Amen.