Rhema Ehiemere - I'll Take My Chances

On your way to your seat, look at your neighbor and tell them, «I don’t know about you, but I’m going to take my chances.» It’s difficult to understand and contextualize this text in Chapter 7 without stepping back to examine the context of Chapter 6. It’s important to note that in Chapter 6, Syria was a neighboring country that had invaded the nation of Israel, specifically Samaria, which was the capital city at that time. So, Israel is now under siege, and what this means is simple: siege warfare was a common military strategy. The enemies would surround the fortified city, cutting off all communication, resources, and supplies. They would just sit back and wait—wait until those in the city caved under the pressure. When they caved, they would surrender and submit. This was a brutal way of fighting. All the enemies needed to do was wait, cut off the water access, cut off the food access, and just sit back. This was the siege strategy of warfare.

Make no mistake about it; the siege is not just a physical attack; it is actually a psychological and spiritual attack. This is why the enemy prefers to come at you with a siege rather than one-on-one, because he understands that he can win the battle without even fighting. All he needs to do is sit back and wait. All he needs to do is watch you starve, watch you run out of options, friends, and strategies. The enemy just sits back and waits for you because he doesn’t want to come close—he knows he’s already defeated. So, what he does is surround you, tries to suffocate you, and waits until you buckle under pressure. The enemy uses waiting as a weapon, waiting for you to suffocate.

I wonder how many people in this place are under siege and don’t even know it. The thing about a siege is that it is very subtle. You can be under siege and might not even know it. Why is this happening in this instance? Because when you talk about a siege, all the enemy needs to do is surround you. You can still be moving around without realizing you’re surrounded. Think about it: we can still move around, but if we are surrounded, we might not even know it. You’re still walking around. One of the ways to know that you are under siege is when there is movement but no advancement. Whenever there is movement but no advancement, you know you are under siege. The enemy is so smart; he knows he cannot stop you from moving around, so he just cuts off access to anything new happening in your life—no new connections, no new opportunities coming.

Here you are, stuck, constantly recycling old opportunities and repeating past seasons in your life. Let me break it down: whenever you see repetitive cycles and seasons in your life, you need to pay attention because you might be under siege. You’re stuck in repetitive events, outcomes, and addictions. It’s just repetitive—the same way they treat you in different jobs, the same outcome. You hop from relationship to relationship, but it ends the same way. You are under siege.

But I have good news for you: God is a God of freedom, God is a God of deliverance, and He is about to give you freedom and deliverance in this place! If you believe it, say «freedom.» Somebody shout «freedom!» No, somebody say «freedom!» God is about to break the very things that have been breaking your heart. Somebody shout «freedom!» You know why you’re not excited about this? Because when you are under siege, all the enemy does is block your access on the horizontal level. But what the enemy doesn’t understand is that this is not just a season of open doors; this is a season of open heavens. The enemy can deal with you on the ground level, and when man interrupts you on the ground level, God switches to the heavenly level where they cannot mess with you or interrupt you, because they cannot touch the heavens.

Open doors would lead to new rooms, but open heavens will lead to new realms. God is about to move you from rooms to realms, and God is taking you from where you are to where you’re supposed to be. Here you are crying about the doors that were closed in your life. What you didn’t know is that God sometimes will close the doors because He wants to open the heavens. The heavens are open over your life! The doors might be shut, but I have good news for you. Look at your neighbor and tell them, «I hate to be a prophet this morning, but Pastor told me to tell you that the heavens are open over your life.» Look at them and tell them, «The heavens are open over your life. The heavens are open over your mind. The heavens are open, and the blessings are…»