Evangelist Joshua Orekhie Ministries

EJOM DAILY DEVOTIONAL:

August 4, 2026

Dealing With the Spirit of the Snail

Opening Scriptures

Deuteronomy 1:6–8 (KJV)

“The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: Turn you, and take your journey… Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers…”

Philippians 3:13–14 (KJV)

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

Memory Verse

Habakkuk 2:3 (KJV)

“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”

Praise and Worship

Sing songs that declare God’s power to remove delays, strengthen your faith, and accelerate your progress according to His perfect will.

EJOM DAILY DEVOTIONAL: August 4, 2026 – Dealing With The Spirit of the Snail

Today, we are dealing with a spirit – the Spirit of the Snail that has attached itself to destinies, assignments, prayer lives, businesses, marriages, and ministries, thereby slowing everything down until they melt away like a snail touched by salt.

If your life has been moving at snail speed, always starting, never finishing; always planning, never producing; always almost-there, never arriving, then this devotional is your deliverance appointment.

Everybody knows how the snail moves. The snail is a slow moving creature. It is carrying its own house on its back everywhere it goes, and because of that heavy load, the movement is gradual, it is quiet, sometimes you will not even notice that it moved at all until you check the place it started from.

That is why many Christians use the snail as a picture of stagnation, delay, and spirit of sluggishness. Whether you take it as a spirit or you just take it as a picture to teach a lesson, one thing is clear, no child of God should ever get comfortable living a life that has no growth, no purpose, no meaning, no forward movement but moving sluggishly.

Spiritually speaking, many people are trying to move forward while carrying unnecessary burdens and responsibilities. Some are carrying the weight of unforgiveness and anger. Some are keeping the pictures of people in their mind. Others are carrying bitterness, guilt, fear, anxiety, sinful habits, or painful experiences from the past.

These burdens slow down their spiritual growth and affect their progress in life. I know many of you reading this today, you are working hard. You are praying, you are fasting, you are doing everything you know how to do, and yet you feel like you are moving too slowly. You feel like everybody around you is moving forward and you are the only one crawling.

You noticed that almost all your friends have gotten married, while you have been left behind. Some of you started a project with fire, with excitement, with joy, and today that same project is sitting somewhere gathering dust, unfinished.

Some of you have faced one delay after another, in your education, in your career, in your marriage, in your ministry, in your personal goals, and you are asking God, “When will it be my turn to move away from this level and fulfil my purpose?”

Now let me be careful here and tell you the truth. Not every delay is the work of the devil. Sometimes it is God’s own timing and arrangement. Sometimes it is life itself, circumstances that are not in your hands. Sometimes, if we are honest before God, it is our own decisions that put us in that slow lane.

But when stagnation becomes a pattern, when it becomes something that follows you from one season to another season, that is not the time to fold your hands and say “it is God’s will.” That is the time to seek God’s wisdom, to examine your own life, and to pray until something gives way.

God never intended for His children to stay in one place forever without growing, without succeeding in life. From the beginning of the Bible to the end, God has always been a God who is calling His people to move and become great in life. He did not tell Abraham to sit down in his father’s house comfortably and manage the situation there.

He told him, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.” He did not tell Israel to stay in Egypt and just be praying and fasting there in bondage. He said leave that place, go and possess what I have promised you. And when it was time for Joshua to take over, God did not tell him to relax and wait small more.

He told him plainly, “Arise, go over this Jordan.” Now, let me show you something else that will help you understand this matter better. When you look at a snail, it does not just move slowly, it also has a habit of retreating into its shell the moment it senses danger or discomfort.

Touch it, even a small touch, and watch it, that thing will disappear inside its shell immediately. That is a picture of something many believers do without even knowing it. The moment life brings a little pressure, a little criticism, a little disappointment, a little challenge or a moment their friend challenge them, they withdraw.

They stop trying. They stop believing God for the next level. They go back inside their shell and they call it “rest” or they call it “waiting on God” when in actual fact it is retreat.

Somebody reading this today, ask yourself, is this really God’s timing for my life, or have I simply gone into hiding because something scared me? Because there is a big difference between resting in God and hiding from God’s assignment. David did not hide when Goliath came out to mock the armies of Israel.

He said, “Is there not a cause?” And he ran, he did not crawl, he ran toward that giant. That is the spirit God wants to put in you today. Let me also show you the trail the snail leaves behind. As it moves, it leaves a slimy trail on the ground, a wet, wasted substance trailing behind it wherever it has passed.

Beloved, that is what happens when we live a stagnant life for too long. We leave a trail of wasted time behind us. We leave a trail of wasted opportunities. We leave a trail of unfinished dreams, unfulfilled promises, unspoken words that should have blessed somebody, unbuilt structures that should have stood by now.

And the painful thing is, the snail itself may not even notice the trail it is leaving behind, because it is too busy just trying to survive the next inch of ground. That is exactly how delay works. It blinds you to how much you are actually losing while you are busy managing small small survival.

Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Somebody reading this today is carrying a load God never asked you to carry. God never told you to bear the burden He has already promised to bear for you. That is why the more you learn to drop your worries at His feet, the lighter your journey becomes.

You cannot move at kingdom speed while you are dragging bags of anxiety on your back. Drop it today. Now watch this carefully, because this is where many of us have missed it. The snail does not only move slowly when there is an obstacle in front of it, it moves slowly even when the road is completely clear, even when nothing, absolutely nothing, is blocking its way.

That is the deepest part of this matter. Some believers have made delay their permanent address. Nothing is stopping them, no giant, no Red Sea, no wall of Jericho, but they have simply gotten used to postponing things. They postpone the decision. They postpone the obedience.

They postpone the opportunity that is standing right there begging to be taken. They even postpone divine timing for their life.  And they keep saying the same dangerous sentence, “I will do it tomorrow.” Beloved, procrastination is a quiet killer. It does not come with thunder and lightning, it comes with a soft voice that whispers “later” until later becomes never.

But our God is not a God of “later,” He is a God of forward motion. When the children of Israel stood trembling before the Red Sea, crying and complaining, do you know what God told Moses? He did not say “keep praying,” He did not say “keep waiting,” He said, “Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.”

God was practically saying, stop crying and start moving! There is a time to pray, and there is a time God expects you to move your legs (make the move) while you are praying.

And let me correct something we often get wrong, sometimes the greatest obstacle to your progress is not a demon assigned from the pit of hell, sometimes it is simply you. It is pride sitting on your shoulder. It is laziness disguised as tiredness. It is poor planning. It is lack of discipline.

It is that unhealthy relationship you refuse to let go. It is your own stubborn refusal to learn from correction. We love to blame the devil for every closed door, but God expects us to also examine our own mistakes. The Lord blesses diligence. The Lord blesses humility. The Lord blesses wisdom and faithful stewardship.

You cannot be careless with what God has given you and still expect Him to give you more. Now, do not misunderstand me, there is a real difference between waiting on God and being spiritually lazy. Waiting on the Lord does not mean folding your arms and doing nothing.

While you wait for the promise, you should still be praying, still be learning, still be serving faithfully, still be working with your hands, still be sharpening yourself for the opportunity God is bringing your way. Faith is not a chair you sit down on, but faith is a pair of legs that keeps walking even when the promise has not yet arrived.

Beloved, the eagle and the snail were never built to move at the same speed, and God did not save you and fill you with His Holy Spirit so you would crawl through life like a snail. He gave you His Spirit of speed so you can run your race with strength, with endurance, with purpose.

He wants progress in your faith. Progress in your character. Progress in your family. Progress in your ministry. Progress in every single assignment He has dropped in your hands or spirit. But we must also be truthful enough to look at ourselves and recognize destructive patterns when they keep repeating.

When you notice that you always postpone the important decision, always abandon good opportunities, always refuse to act smartly even when you have every capacity to move forward, beloved, that is not the time to make excuses, this is not the time to blame devil or the village people but this is the time for self-examination, for renewed discipline, and for serious, and earnest prayer.

God told Israel plainly, “Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount.” That word is not just historical, it is speaking to somebody right now, today, as you are reading this. Whatever has been slowing your spiritual growth, whatever has delayed your progress, whatever has quietly discouraged your faith over the years, God is able, this same hour, to strengthen you to rise and move forward.

There are people who have spent years preparing, and preparing, and preparing, but have never started. There are people who will tell you they will do it, and they never make that move. They are still waiting for the “perfect time” as if such a time exists anywhere on this earth.

Beloved, no season is ever completely perfect. Those who accomplish great exploits for God are not the people who waited for perfect conditions, they are the people who trusted God enough to take the first step while conditions were still uncertain.

Remember Peter, he did not walk on water while he was safely inside the boat, admiring the waves from a distance. He walked on water only after he stepped his foot out of that boat. If he had stayed inside reasoning and calculating, he would have missed one of the greatest miracles of his life.

There are people, and maybe you are looking at somebody in your family right now as I speak, who are very slow. Slow in thinking. Slow in taking decisions. Slow in confirming even the simplest thing. Slow in trying anything new. Slow in taking their own life seriously.

And because this thing has followed them for so long, it has started to look normal to them, they have accepted it as “that is just how I am,” they have made peace with it, they have stopped questioning it.

But beloved, I want to tell you today, this is not something to wave away casually, this is a serious matter, and much of the time, this is something spiritual.

Think about it with me. When a mother notices that her child is not picking things up quickly, when the child seems to think slower than others, when the child does not appear as sharp, as alert, as fast as the other children around, watch that mother’s face, watch her spirit, she becomes troubled immediately.

She does not sit down and say “ah, it is just his temperament, let me relax.” No! Something inside her, a mother’s discernment, rises up and says “something is not right here, I need to pray about this child.” That instinct in the mother is not foolishness, beloved, that instinct is often the Holy Spirit alerting her that this matter needs spiritual attention, not just patience.

Beloved, when slowness begins to affect your thinking, your decision-making, your confidence to confirm what is clearly true, your willingness to try what is new, and your seriousness about your own destiny, that is not a small personality quirk to shrug off, that is a spiritual matter crying out for prayer and deliverance.

The devil is strategic, he does not always come with loud, dramatic attacks. Sometimes he comes quietly, he settles into a person’s mind from childhood, and by the time that person is grown, the dullness has been there so long that it has been mistaken for identity. “This is just who I am” becomes the very cage that keeps a person from discovering who God actually created them to be.

That is why I am saying to you today, beloved, do not accept a mind that cannot think clearly as normal. Do not be in an association that doesn’t talk quality things. Do not accept indecision as your personality. Do not accept the inability to confirm simple truths as just “how you are wired.”

Do not accept fear of trying new things as harmless caution when it is stealing your growth and progress silently. And do not accept a careless, unserious approach to your own life as if it does not matter. A mother’s spirit rises up in alarm when she sees this in her child, let your own spirit rise up in the same alarm concerning yourself, or concerning that loved one you have been making excuses for.

There is another sign, and I want you to check yourself honestly here, the fear of taking a positive step forward. Some of you reading this have talent oozing out of you. You have brilliant ideas. God has literally handed you golden opportunities, and yet you are still parked in the same spot, year after year, because fear has gripped your legs.

Fear of failing. Fear of being rejected. Fear of what people will say if it does not work. That fear is the reason you have not applied for that job, that is the reason that business plan is still sitting in your phone as a draft, that is the reason that book is still unwritten, that is the reason you have not enrolled for that programme, that is the reason you keep dodging the call of God on your life.

Beloved, hear me well, faith moves things forward, faith conquers fear, but fear stays exactly where it met you. If fear is your compass, you will still be in the same location next year, doing the same devotional, hearing the same message, convicted the same way, and still not moving forward. May that not be your portion.

And let me expose one more disguise of this snail spirit, and this one is very popular in many people, it is called excuses. Instead of taking responsibility, some people have mastered the art of blaming people close to them except themselves for their failure. They blame their family background. They blame the economy.

They blame their village people. They blame their spouse. They blame their pastor. Now beloved, I am not saying challenges are not real, they are very real, but God still expects His children to trust Him and to diligently use whatever door He has already opened before them. Excuses have never built a house, they have never grown a business, they have never advanced a ministry. Only diligence does that.

That is why the Word instructs us to redeem the time, because the days we are living in are evil days. Time, beloved, is one of the most precious gifts God has ever given any man, and once it passes, no amount of money, no amount of tears, no amount of prayer can bring back that exact same day.

Every single day carries inside it an opportunity to grow, to learn, to serve, to move one step closer to your God-given purpose. So beloved, I beg you, look critically at your daily habits and ask yourself, is this thing I am spending my time on actually adding value to my life or to my calling, or am I just filling up hours with nothing?

If God is clearly telling you to move, please move, do not sit there quoting Joseph’s prison story while ignoring your own Jordan. If He has dropped an assignment in your hands, begin it today. If He has shown you an area of your life crying out for improvement, work on it now, not next month.

Beloved, I need you to write this down, delayed obedience is still disobedience, no matter how spiritual the delay sounds. Every single step you take in obedience is a step that draws you nearer to the fulfilment of everything God has spoken concerning you.

There is another danger hiding inside this snail spirit, and it is called spiritual complacency. Some of you have become too satisfied with where you currently are with God. You no longer hunger for His presence the way you used to when you first got saved. You can sit in church every week without any personal devotion at home.

You can hear powerful sermons without ever practising a single line. You only remember how to pray when trouble shows its face. You pretend to be fine when all is not fine. You see someone who is willing to offer you help, but you declined because of pride.

Beloved, a stagnant Christian gradually loses spiritual sensitivity, until one day, you cannot even recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit anymore. God is calling you to grow continually, in faith, in knowledge, in wisdom, and in intimacy with Him.

Understand this, the enemy celebrates every time a believer make mistake or becomes spiritually inactive. A Christian who has stopped praying, stopped studying the Word, stopped doing the right thing, stopped pursuing God’s purpose, becomes very easy prey for temptation, spiritual attacks, and discouragement.

But the Kingdom of God does not advance through spectators, it advances through believers who are active, who are faithful, who are fully committed to their divine assignment.

And please, stop comparing your journey with your neighbor’s journey. God has a unique timetable written specifically for your life. Somebody will reach their milestone earlier than you, somebody else will reach it later, that is not a curse, that is simply how God has designed each individual race.

Your only responsibility is not to compete with anybody else, but to remain faithful exactly where God has planted you. As long as you keep walking in obedience, I promise you, your season of advancement is already on its way.

And if you feel like you have wasted too much time already, beloved, remember what the prophet Joel declared, that the Lord would restore the years that the locust had eaten. It does not matter how many years you feel you have lost.

Our God specializes in restoration. He can accelerate your progress beyond what your human mind can calculate. One divine opportunity. One God-ordained connection. One inspired idea dropped into your spirit. One single act of bold obedience, can accomplish in a matter of months what years of struggling could never achieve.

So beloved, I am pleading with you this time, refuse to carry the mentality of the snail any longer. Reject every attitude that has kept you spiritually weak, emotionally discouraged, or physically lazy. Rise up with fresh determination today. Strengthen your prayer life. Sharpen your skills.

Be diligent in whatever your hand finds to do. Walk in holiness before your God. Trust His timing, yes, but never, ever stop moving in the direction He has already shown you.

The same God who told Israel, “Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount,” is speaking that exact word to you today. He is calling you to leave the place of stagnation and step boldly into a new season of growth, fruitfulness, and fulfilment. This is your time to move forward, beloved.

Do not let fear hold you back. Do not let delay convince you it is still “not yet.” Do not let excuses talk you out of your miracle. Do not let past failures define your future. By His grace, and by His grace alone, you shall make progress, you shall fulfil your purpose, and you shall finish your race with great joy, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Now let me take you to one more place in scripture before we close this matter, because I want you to see something powerful. When God finally moved Israel out of that mountain where they had dwelt too long, He did not just tell them to move casually, He gave them clear direction, He said, “turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites… behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land.”

Notice that word, “I have set the land before you.” Beloved, God does not just push you out of stagnation and leave you confused. He always sets something before you, a clear next step, a clear door, a clear assignment. Your work is to recognize it and walk through it, not to keep standing at the mountain analyzing why you have been there so long.

I think of Abraham again, because his story preaches this same message so loudly. God told him to leave, and Scripture says simply, “So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him.” No long speech, no long negotiation, no waiting for five confirmations from five different prophets, he heard the word and he moved his feet.

That is what separates those who possess their promised land from those who only ever dream about it. Both Abraham and Lot heard the call of God, but only one of them fully departed in obedience without dragging along every attachment from the old life.

Beloved, some of us are still spiritually tied to Ur of the Chaldees, tied to old habits, old excuses, old comfort zones, and we wonder why Canaan has not yet appeared on our horizon.

So what must you do, beloved? First, you must be honest with yourself before you are honest with God. Sit down quietly and ask, where exactly have I stopped growing? Is it in my prayer life? Is it in my finances? Is it in my relationships? Is it in the vision God gave me years ago that I have folded up and kept somewhere? You cannot fight what you have not identified. Naming the place of stagnation is the beginning of your deliverance from it.