Rest Part 6: Critical Areas For Alignment Part 2 by Pastor Lawrence Oyor: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

What Rest Means

The series has been on rest. Rest simply means the next level — entering another level where there is greater ease. Things are just easier. Rest is in levels. Everyone who has been born again has already entered some kind of rest — there is a difference between life before and after salvation. But the writer of Hebrews says there yet remains a rest for the people of God. We keep contending for greater levels of rest.

In engaging rest, two things have been established:

• Grace — it teaches, rewires, multiplies results. It is the grease in the machine.
• Alignment — the critical areas now being explored.

Critical areas of alignment discussed include:

1. Location alignment — being at the right place at the right time.
2. Prophetic alignment — alignment with declared prophecies.
3. Specific instruction alignment — following what God says completely.
4. Destiny or assignment alignment.
5. Alignment with angelic forces and kairos moments.

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6. Alignment with principles.
7. Divine relationship alignment.

Location Alignment

The wisest man said being at the right place at the right time gives an edge — the race is not to the swift, the battle is not to the strong, but by being at the right place at the right time (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Right place, wrong time is still out of alignment.

Jonah illustrates this powerfully. He was a great prophet. But being at the wrong place at the wrong time — running from Nineveh — meant the winds and waves came for him, and they almost wrecked the innocent sailors who carried him. One person out of alignment can cost those around them dearly. Jonah himself recognized it and told the sailors to throw him out. Every Jonah in a boat can sink an entire ship.

Naomi is another example. Her family left Bethlehem during famine and went to Moab. While in Moab, she lost her husband and both sons. When bread returned to Israel, she returned — but she said to the women of the city, call me Mara (bitter), for the Almighty has dealt with me bitterly. She said "I went out full and the Lord has brought me home empty."

Misalignment can drain a person of virtue and life. Many burnouts are traceable to misalignment. The people she met when she returned asked if she was the same Naomi — she looked so different from when she left. Life had happened to her in a place she was never supposed to remain.

Yet Ruth, who aligned with Naomi — declaring "your God shall be my God, your people shall be my people, where you die I will die" — was placed into the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. A Moabitess, from a cursed nation born of incest, entered the bloodline of the Messiah because she aligned. Rahab did the same — a harlot who aligned with Israel when the spies came found a place of honor in Israel's history and lineage.

Jonathan knew God's hand was on David. But out of sentiment, family ties, and loyalty to Saul, he stayed aligned with a man God had left. He died with Saul. Had he aligned with David, he would have been at David's right hand establishing a kingdom. Instead, the only legacy left was one lame son — Mephibosheth — eating at David's table for Jonathan's sake.

Pray that you will not misalign in location. There are those who have sold property, left positions in Nigeria, and gone abroad — only to be cleaning toilets. There are also those sitting in Nigeria looking at sectors no one is paying attention to, with access to opportunities that others cannot see. Open your head to what God is showing you about your location and your field.

Alignment with Specific Instructions

1 Kings 13 presents the story of a young man of God — a prophet of extraordinary power and promise — who delivered God's word with accuracy and authority. His hand withered the king's arm when the king tried to arrest him, and he restored it when asked to pray. The word he delivered was verified by signs. He was clearly anointed.

God gave him specific instructions: do not eat bread, do not drink water, and do not return by the same way you came.

• He refused the king's invitation to eat and receive reward — declaring he could not enter even if given half the house, because God had said do not eat or drink here.
• He explained this instruction to the king — which is where the problem began. Telling a potential enemy the details of your consecration gives them intelligence to work against you.

An old prophet heard about the young man of God. His sons had told him everything — including the specific instruction about not eating or drinking. The old prophet saddled his donkey and went after the young man. He said: "I also am a prophet as thou art, and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water."

The young man turned back with him and ate and drank. While they sat at the table, the old prophet prophesied against him — because he had disobeyed. On his way back, a lion killed him.

Several misalignments converged:

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• He talked too much — disclosing his consecration gave the enemy the intelligence needed to target him.
• He allowed another person to override God's direct instruction — even a claimed angelic word cannot supersede what God said directly to you.
• He was moveable — someone was heavy enough to shift him from alignment.

Satan is not omnipresent, omnipotent, or omniscient. He works with information — intel. What you disclose, he uses. He could not finish a thing because he did not have the information. The moment the prophet disclosed his consecration to the king, and the king's sons relayed it to the old prophet, the mechanism for destruction was in place.

Disobedience is as the sin of witchcraft (1 Samuel 15:23). Delayed obedience is disobedience. Whatever God says to do, do it. Do it completely. The difference between Saul and David is disobedience. David was described as a man who would do all God's will. That is what God looks for.

No relationship should be heavy enough to make you disobey God. Not even a close mentor, father, or friend. If someone can consistently pull you out of alignment with what God has said, that person occupies a place in your life they should not occupy. There must be no one heavy enough to move you from alignment.

Divine Relationship Alignment

Relationships are not random — they are orchestrated. Miss the right ones and you lose months or years before the next arrives. Enter the wrong ones and they cost you more than time.

Kairos moments — divine windows of time — are often activated by persons. Wherever Jesus goes, kairos has started. And as He is, so are His servants in this world.

Jonah is also a case of relationship misalignment. The sailors suffered because of one wrong connection in their boat. David's men lost everything in Ziglag because David had consulted them rather than consulting God — and they had gone to fight in a wrong location at a wrong time. When they came back and found everything taken, mighty men wept. Some were contemplating stoning David.

But what David did was go and inquire of God. Should I pursue? Normally the answer seems obvious — your wives and children have been taken. Yet David stopped and asked. God said pursue. And they recovered all. That inquiry saved everything.

Discern your relationships. Know when someone has switched. People can function as inversions — appearing helpful while working against your alignment. Know when to keep a person close and when that person's season in your life has ended.

Naomi aligned and Ruth was positioned. Rahab aligned and her household was preserved and she entered Israel's lineage. Jonathan misaligned through sentiment and died with Saul. Discern your relationships and align with where God is moving.

The Cost of Misalignment

Misalignment is usually the reason for troubles and setbacks — not God. God is for you. The enemy's primary warfare is not direct attack — it is inspiring misalignment. He can't get you when you're in the right place. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Stay where the presence is.

Israel was only to move when the cloud moved. You don't move ahead of the cloud. When the cloud moves, where you were has expired — even if you loved it there.

Misalignment can be in location, in relationships, in marriage, in specific instructions. Every area has consequences. The young prophet of 1 Kings 13 was a great promise with an early ending — not because his gifting failed, but because his alignment did. The gifting worked to the very end. The word was still accurate. But one act of disobedience in one critical instruction was enough.

Do not start strong and finish poorly. Remain in alignment. And agents assigned to pull you out of it — those planted in your environment, those sending suggestions designed to drift you — they must be recognized and removed.

I decree and declare: anyone assigned to drift you from your place of alignment — from your location, your specific instructions, your divine relationships — is uprooted now. Right people, right relationships, burden-bearers who will take your matter like their own matter, persons who will love your shift and celebrate your season of rest — they are entering your life in seven days. The Lord is sending those who know your worth. Receive them.