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The Judah Principle

“Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgement and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

Jeremiah 23:5,6

Before Judah was conceived God knew her destiny. Out of Judah would come the “rod of Jesse.” Out of the tribe of Judah would come the Savior of the world. Out of this tribe of praise would come the adoption of the Gentiles into the family of God.

But what many of us seem to forget is that God’s plan for Judah was no secret to Satan either. The enemy knows God’s Word backward and forward. He saw God’s hand on Judah from the beginning, so he immediately began his attacks. He stirred up confusion and rebellion. He was a hindrance along the way, sparing no attacks, including damaging the relationship between Judah and God. He attempted to destroy the tribe before the prophecy could be fulfilled and was nearly successful several times. The Old Testament prophets were constantly interceding on behalf of the rebellious Israelites of which Judah ranked worst. Why? Because Satan saw the anointed purpose of Judah.

In the same way, Satan saw God’s hand on your life from the time of your birth. He sees you as you do not see yourself right now—a powerful, anointed, servant of the most-high God. He sees the blessings God has in store for your life. He sees the lives you will touch. He sees the men and women you will help lead to Christ. So he entered on the ground level—your youth, whether spiritual or actual—to try to confuse you from the start.

It was Satan who was the author of that traumatic childhood you endured. It was he who stirred up marital problems for you. It was the presence of his demons within you that inflicted you with those addictions to drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, or food. It was that father of lies who tried to make you take your own life, who tried to make others take your life. It was he who orchestrated the illness that had you flat on your back for months.

You see in order to destroy the tree before it bears fruit, you must destroy the root. If you pull off leaves, the tree will simply produce more and keep growing. If you chop off a branch, the tree will simply grow in another direction. If you take out the root, however, it won’t just stunt the growth of that part of the tree—it will kill the entire tree.

The root of your individual life is your childhood. It is during your childhood that you learn how to deal with life situations. You learn how to relate to others. You learn how to appreciate the person that you were created to be. You learn how or how not to establish a personal relationship with God. In addition, in your spiritual childhood you learn the basics for survival in the Christian walk. You learn how to relate to other Christians and how to develop that personal relationship with God.

For many of you the root of your family is YOU. If you are the only saved member of your household, you are the root of the family tree. Your household is blessed because you are blessed. Through you, your loved ones will one day be saved. For these reasons, Satan will make every attempt to cut off that root in order to prevent God’s promises in your life from coming to pass. He makes these attempts by sending every trial, test, and tribulation imaginable, trying to take you out of the game before the prophecy on your life is fulfilled.

This is what we call the “Judah Principle.” If you read through the writings of the Old Testament prophets, you will find that Judah is repeatedly referred to as the worst of all of the tribes of Israel because of her constant backsliding. Among other things, Judah is described as a harlot or a whore. Satan was attacking the root.

Jesus was the “rod of Jesse.” Jesse was of the tribe of Judah. For clarification, allow me to explain that a rod is like a branch, so in essence Jesus was of the “branch” of Jesse, which was growing from the “tree” of Judah. Satan knew the prophecy of Christ better than any man did. He knew that Christ would be crucified but would rise again and ascend into heaven to be our great intercessor. Killing Jesus was simply cutting off the branch. This wouldn’t destroy the prophecy, but would in fact, fulfill it. So he set his ax head on the root. He began attacking with the heavy artillery–-idolatry, lust, greed, persecution, and so forth.

But to God be the glory because what the devil meant for Judah’s bad, God meant for good. The same is true in your life. Yes, God permitted every negative situation, every traumatic circumstance, every tear that fell, every broken bone, every broken spirit, every broken heart, every time you feared for your life, every time you wanted your life to end . . . God preordained it all to make you who you are today. He allowed it all to happen to get you to where He needs you to be spiritually.

God will use it all for His glory. He will use it to cause you to be a blessing to that next saint coming through the fire behind you. God allowed it so that your testimony would encourage someone in a similar situation to keep pressing on. But a testimony is only beneficial if it is told. An unspoken testimony is simply a memory, which is beneficial to no one but yourself. We overcome by the word of testimony. And so I testify . . .