By Felix Ngunjiri Gichuri

Reading: “…look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.” (Isaiah 51:1 ESV)

How Rocks are Formed

We hear that when some huge forests in the Precambrian age were overlain by layers of heavy material like soil and were subjected to a lot of pressure from some great amount of weight overlying them, they turned into a rock called coal while the ones that hardened further became a harder and lustrous rock called anthracite coal. Mud on the other hand can be turned into a rock called shale when it is subjected to a lot of pressure.

If Pressure can Turn Soft Mud into a Rock, then We Need Some Pressure to Press Us to Be Better

People who end up as failures fear to be subjected to pressure. They like doing minimum work and they are always complaining that the work is very hard for them. If you continue complaining that the work you have been given is too much, what if God hears that prayer and relieves you of that job or that appointment or that position that you have. If God starts relieving you of duties, will you be able to stop Him? What if He continues reducing your duties until none is left?

Achievers Work More When Under Pressure Because They Are Self Driven

Achievers on the other hand work very hard, sometimes under pressure, because they are self-driven. They do not fear pressure and in fact perform better when subjected to pressure. Some high office bosses believe that if they want work done, they give it to the one who has been given a lot of work because they are intrinsically motivated to handle a lot of work. Some amount of pressure is good for rigorous work to be accomplished. 

The More the Pressure, The Harder the Rock Becomes

The difference in qualities and hardness of rocks lies in the amount of pressure exerted on them. If a rock is not subjected to some pressure or compaction, the forces of the weather makes it to waste away and it becomes sand. On the other hand, when sand then gets buried and compacted, it turns into the sedimentary rock called sandstone. If that sandstone gets subjected to heat and pressure, it slowly changes into a harder metamorphic rock called quartzite. Aspire to be a hard stone, not a soft stone.

You Were Hewn From a Rock

Do not allow yourself to soften from the rock you are into the dust of the earth as a result of being exposed to effects of the weather. God is the rock from whom we were hewn. The Bible says, “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.” (Isaiah 51:1 ESV) God is the rock from whom we were cut from. David, the servant of the LORD, who spoke unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said, “I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.” (Ps 18:1-3 [KJV])

David says in his Psalm to Jeduthun, the chief Musician, ‘’Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved. How long will you imagine mischief against a man? you shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall you be, and as a tottering fence. They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times; you people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.” (Ps 62:1-8 [KJV])

Out of Himself, God cut a Piece of Himself and Softened it into a Man

Out of Himself, God cut a piece of Himself and softened it into a human being called Adam. He transferred His strength to withstand any pressure to a small personality of Himself called man. We have the strength of a rock inside of us, impenetrable strength that cannot be moved. If only we enjoin ourselves onto the Rock we were made out of who is our salvation, nothing can move us. But if we separate ourselves from the rock of ages, we shall be weather-beaten, eroded, wasted and crumble into sand and dust which is blown away by the wind. Remember God condemned the serpent to be eating dust “So the LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.” (Gen. 3:14)

You are a Small Rock Hewn From the Rock of Ages

The devil is destroying those of us who are not small rocks like Simon Peter us by eating into our bodies using viruses, bacteria, poisons, addictions, germs, accidents, sicknesses, diseases and crime. Stop those viruses and sicknesses by binding them in Jesus name because Jesus promised us power to bind demons when we shall know that He is the Christ (which means Messiah), the Anointed One. “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He said unto them, But whom say you that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto you, That you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt 16:13-19 [KJV])

Refuse to be the devil’s food by reminding him that you are a small rock hewn from the Rock of Ages. Refuse to be the devil’s kiosk. Dismiss him and command him to eat the dust of the ground. He will not have eaten even one percent of the world’s dust by the time the world will come to the end. Jesus Christ is able to make us hard by renaming us into Peter which means ‘small rock or stone’ if only we know who He is: that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He said unto them, “But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock (of revelation) I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt 16:13-19 [KJV])

God will Harden You Like Himself If You Know that His Son is the Messiah, The Anointed One

If only we have the knowledge that Jesus is the Christ which means Messiah or the Anointed One or His Anointing. God will harden you to be like Him by anointing you with His Holy Spirit. The word anointed actually means to pour on, smear all over or to rub into. Most Christians today know very little about the anointing because when the Bible was translated into English, the translators failed to translate the Greek word Christ. And because of that failure instigated by the devil, a major revelation has been hidden from the Church. People began to use the word Christ as a title. Some even used it as if it was Jesus’ last name. But it is not. The word Christ is a Greek word Christos that is a translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. Translated into English, it means anointed or the Anointed One. It also refers to His anointing. The anointing is God’s presence. His essence. It is the thing that makes God be God. The anointing is God on flesh enabling flesh to do those things that are impossible for flesh to do. For instance, flesh cannot heal anyone. Even Jesus’ flesh could not heal anyone because it came from Mary. It was as human as hers. He had to wait until He was anointed with the Holy Spirit for Him to start doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. Peter preaching about Christ to a Gentile who had not heard of Jesus preached “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38 [KJV]) And Jesus after overcoming temptations of the devil returned in the power of the Holy Spirit into Galilee confessed that “The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor” Luke 4:14 [KJV]. His perfect, sinless flesh speaking the words of a perfect sinless God caused God’s anointing to be poured upon Him without measure. When you are covered by the Holy Spirit, no demon can touch you. You are immunized against powers of the devil. “Because thou hast made the LORD, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.No evil shall happen to you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling” (Psalm 91:9-10 World English Bible).

Jesus Promised to Make us into Hardened Stones that are Untouchable by Demons

Jesus Christ is able to make us harder than stones by giving us “power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19) and “if you are of God, and have overcome evil spirits, greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) God is promising you that if you walk in “In the way of righteousness of life; in your pathway thereof there is no death.” (Prov.12:28) God is promising you that if you walk in righteousness, He will harden you like the rock you were hewn out of such that even if a ‘deadly viper bites you and fastens itself on your foot or hand, it will not harm you.’ (Acts 28:1-6). Those who expected Paul to fall down dead later changed their testimony and said that he might have been a god. Those who expect the worst of you or who wish you dead will wait forever. When God anoints you with Himself, you will develop a skin hard like a rock that even death will not overcome you.

God can harden you to be like Him who is the Rock of Ages. “Confide ye in Jehovah for ever; for in Jah, Jehovah, is the rock of ages” (Isaiah 26:4 Darby Bible Translation). “Trust ye in Jehovah for ever; for in Jehovah, even Jehovah, is an everlasting rock.” (Isaiah 26:4 American Standard Version” Jesus Christ is the Rock of Ages. “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” (1Cor 10:1-4 [KJV])

When the serpent was trying to bite Paul’s hand, it portrayed its foolishness and lack of knowledge of who Paul was. Paul was a small rock hewn out of the massive Rock of Ages and the serpent cannot and will not be able to bite a rock. Agur, a wise man and a prophet was amazed by the way of a serpent on a rock in Proverbs 30. “There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.” (Prov 30:18-19 [KJV]) Agur noticed that a serpent moving on the sand creates paths and furrows changing the shape of the sand it is moving on. The serpent can do whatever it wants in the sand. It can strike at an enemy with lightning speed and hide without trace in the sand. On the other hand, he noted that a serpent is not able to run away when on a rock because the rock is smooth and hard and it is like it is trying to bite the massive impenetrable rock it is lying on forgetting that serpents are powerless on a rock. A serpent cannot bite a rock. If you make the LORD, even the most High, your habitation, you just need to shake it off into the fire it is doomed to.

Jesus Gave Us the Holy Spirit to Abide in Us

After resurrection, Jesus told His disciples before ascending to heaven that He would not leave them alone as orphans. That He would leave them with a Comforter. Jesus told them that “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:16-17). This means that if we abide in Christ and He abides in us, we shall be like Him, the Rock of ages. The devil will not have any power over us. Jesus told His disciples that “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12) [KJV]. What a great joy for us. The Rock has conquered and made us more than conquerors in Christ Jesus such that even if a serpent pins itself on our bodies, we shall just shake it off and it shall not have power to harm us. When we stand on Christ the solid Rock, no harm can come upon us as we become untouchable and unconquerable. When Jesus pours on us His Anointing on our bodies, we become more than conquerors, and the devil cannot touch us because we are covered by the blood of Jesus. We become untouchable in the name of Jesus.

Amen.