In Acts 4, the apostles had been pushed around. They had been warned not to preach in the name of Jesus. Then in verse 29, they started praying, “And now, Lord, behold their threatening and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.”

I had a visitor sometime ago, who told me that she had been born again for thirty-three years, but recently, she met a member of Mountain of Fire and Miracles ministries who started praying with him. And right from the time that she started praying with him, it was as if she was not born again at all. She said that the way that the prayer was going and the kind of prayer points the sister called were strange to her, although he had been born again for thirty-three years. Despite the fact that the prayer points were strange, she prayed them, and she was getting results instantly for the first time and that her life was never the same. According to her, this sister who prayed with her did not seem to recognise that there is something called fear. When you say something is big and terrible, she just moved in and demolished it with prayer. She said several weeks back, somebody fired an arrow at her and one hand and one leg was getting paralysed. And that sister just came with what she called anointing oil, applied it on her, and everything disappeared. She said she asked the sister if she was a pastor and she said no. She told her that she was only an ordinary member. Then she said to the sister, “If you, an ordinary member can be this good, I must come and see your pastor.” Those are the kind of testimonies that encourage us. And not those who would say, “When my husband was talking rubbish, I just gave him a dirty slap and later, asked the Lord to forgive me.” My prayer is that you too, will be a good example. And your life will record testimonies.

Any power militating against a true child of God is looking for problems. Such a power wants to sink into the red sea after the order of Pharaoh. It is also seeking to be destroyed by God’s anger after the order of Senacherib. One angel defeated 185,000 people. I am very sure that nobody has up to 185,000 enemies. Any power militating against a true child of God is seeking to fight and oppose itself. It is seeking to receive the stones of fire, after the order of Goliath. Any powr militating against a true child of God is seeking to be substituted in the evil that he or she is trying. Such a power wants to receive what we call divine hail stones. Any power militating against a true child of God is looking for compulsory and forceful burial like after the order of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. It is seeking to be eaten up by worms, after the order of Herod and to be pursued by terrifying noises after the order of the Syrians.

Few months ago, I heard another testimony that gladdened my heart. The testimony was that the co-tenants of one of our members came to report him. What did he do? He said since this brother man moved into their compound, the whole place was always hot at night. Apart from that, his wife who used to attend witchcraft meetings to assist him could no longer attend because the brother has blocked her way. Then I said, since you could see that this man is praying and because he is praying, he has blocked the journey of your wife, why don’t you seek to get the kind of power that he has? He said, “We are just appealing to him, we don’t mind refunding what he has paid; but he should leave.” I said this is good, for a change. That is how it should be, The wicked should run when they see a Christian. They are the ones who should be having the problems, not believers. Not the kind of testimony where somebody comes and says “Pray on these prayer requests for me sir, my co-tenant, the man on the first floor is a herbalist and the other one a witch, therefore, they are harassing me at night.” This one was different, he was the one harassing them. Take the following prayer points with holy anger:

a. Every witch living in my surrounding, receive the stones of fire, in the name of Jesus.

b. Any evil vessel conveying my information to the evil world, be paralysed now, in the name of Jesus.

What is the principle of praying to get results?

There are many examples in the Bible of those who prayed and got results instantly. For us to understand the principles of praying to get results, we shall study the prayer points of some people who prayed and received instant answers in the Bible. There are many examples but we will look at three.

1. In Numbers 16, Korah, Dathan and Abiram offended God by offending his servant, and in verses 28 – 33, that servant of God began to pray; “And Moses said, hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them; And the earth opened her mouth; and swallowed them up and their houses and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods. They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit and the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the congregation.”

2. 1 Kings 18 : 36 says, “And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me O Lord, hear me that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, the Lord, he is the God; the Lord he is the God.”

The man prayed a prayer point of about 60 words and instantly, things began to happen. Compare his wordings with the wordings of the prayer of Moses.

3. In Acts 4, the apostles had been beaten up. They had been told not to preach in the name of Jesus. They had been threatened that if they continued to preach in that name, they would be killed. Verses 23 – 27 say, “And being let go, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is; who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ” Verse 29 – 31 say, “And now, Lord, behold their threatening and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word. By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness.”

What are the characteristics of these three passages?

1. A petition was filed to God. The Bible says, plead your cause before the Almighty.

2. The troublers of Israel were reported directly to God as if God did not see them. We too should form that kind of habit. Talk to God as a friend. When you wake up at night and you don’t like the kind of dreams you had, you can sit down and say, “Father, when I slept last night, I had so and so dream. I don’t understand what this means, explain to me and teach me what to do. Report the case to God, as if He did not know about the dream.

3. A war was declared against the opposing forces.

4. Instant divine intervention was requested. That is even if God is not going to give you the cash now, you can at least go with the cheque. That is a good way to start with.

5. They prayed from the bottom of their hearts. There is a difference between surface prayer and deep prayer. Whenever prayer comes from the bottom of the heart, it yields results.

6. There was instant faith and holy expectancy.

7. They prayed using the standard of somebody who is divinely dissatisfied. You have to declare today too that you are divinely dissatisfied with your unfavourable situation.

8. They asked for divine judgment against opposition.

9. They made an urgent request for the display of the supernatural.

10. Signs and wonders were expressly requested.

Having looked at the major characteristics of these three passages, let us consider the prayer points. I was not there but from what I can see in the word of God, I have an idea of the kind of prayer points they prayed. They must have prayed the kind of prayer points we sometimes pray for example, “Let God be God in my red sea situation.” When you check what Moses, Elijah and the apostles said; “Let it be known that I do this thing, because You sent me; therefore, let it be known, that thou art God.”

They might have also prayed: “Let it be known that you are God in every department of my life.” Or, “Lord, do a new thing to my enemies that will permanently destroy their powers.” God did a new thing to Korah, Dathan and Abiram. They broke record. They were the first men to go to hell fire without dying. They must have prayed like this: “O Lord, utilise uncommon techniques to disgrace my opposition.” They must have said, “Let the earth open up and swallow every stubborn pursuer,” O Lord, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, manifest yourself in your power,” “O Lord, answer me by fire and roast every single stronghold,” “Every power challenging your power in my life, be disgraced,” “Let every rage of the enemy quench,” “Let every evil imagination fashioned against me, be frustrated and disgraced,” “Let every satanic plan that concerns my life be rendered a failure,” “Every evil ruler assembled against me, be scattered unto desolation,” “O Lord, behold these powers threatening me,” O Lord, give me divine boldness to disgrace my oppressor,” “O Lord, stretch out your mighty hand to perform signs and wonders in my life.” These are examples of the kind of prayer they prayed and had instant results.

Many of us, whether we like it or not, have arrived at our Red sea situations. Some got there very early in life. Some have arrived now, some have just started to hear the sound of Pharaoh running them on.

A woman came to me and broke down and cried saying, “This is disgusting, if I had known that Nigeria was like this, I would have kept my husband in England. Immediately, we got here, he just forgot us and started running after other women who he brings to the house and they take anything they like and go away. The first time I tried to challenge them, three of them beat me up. O, what kind of thing is this!” Then I said, “Well, if you want to cry, I give you one week to do that and when you finish, you can come back. She said, “I have stopped sir.” I told her so because prayer and crying do not work together. You may only cry for your sins, that is fine. Exodus 14: 30 says, “Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hands of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.” That was the end of that contest. They sank like lead in the Red sea.

A sister came all the way from Ijebu-Ode for the anointing service. She brought her boy who was five or six years old. The boy had never talked. At his young age, he had arrived a the Red sea. It is like when you go for an examination, and immediately you get to the door of the examination hall, the examiner asks you to bring your answer sheet. You give it to him. You have not even answered any question and he says, “Minus fifty!” A lot of people like that. Their enemies start with them from the womb. He has removed fifty marks from hundred before they even became adults. That was the case of that boy. At the anointing service, there as a word of knowledge that somebody who could not speak would speak. After the service, the mother gave him the anointing oil and they travelled back to Ijebu-ode. They both slept. And suddenly, the woman started to hear, “Amen, Amen, Amen! And by the time she looked up, it was her boy making the sound. The first sound that this boy produced in five to six years was Amen! That was how the boy started to talk.

Many people are presently camping by the Red sea. They were moving forward only to find out that they cannot move further. They have arrived at the Red sea! Things were moving smoothly and suddenly, the smoothness just faded out. Heaven became brass and the coloured prophets began to make money out of them. And the herbalists started using their money to build their own houses.

A man told me that one prophet told him to sell his big house in Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos for three million naira, a house he spent 11.5 million to build. This prophet told him to sell it and use the money to work for Jesus. He did and the prophet collected the whole money and went away. That was the only house he had.

The door of escape for some people is getting farther and farther. That is the Red sea. The joyful morning of some is bringing in fearful nights now. Red sea. The nice flower in the hands of some people is being buried. Red sea.

A boy used to fail all available examinations. He failed the school certificate exam several times. Every year, he had F9 in all subjects. There was a particular year he did not enter for the examination, W.A.E.C. still sent him a result of failure. It was that bad. What am I trying to say? He was barricaded on every side. Some people are under hot pursuit. They are being pursued by forces with evil rage, it is a Red sea. Perhaps, you too have been hearing the battle cry of the enemy, the battle cry of witches and wizards, sounding right there in your ears. I have news for you now: The Lord shall fight for you.

Jesus has all the strength and victory. All creatures, which are living now, which have lived and which shall be, are less than the smallest dust before the power of Jesus. When the Israelites were being pursued, they could not fight. They had no army, no chariots, no horses, and no trained soldiers. Everything seemed to be working in favour of Pharaoh until something happened. A voice spoke from heaven and immediately that was the end of the contest.

The Lord said, “Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forth.” Then Pharaoh learnt a big lesson: that man is nothing. He even learnt a second lesson: that God can use the instrument that saves His children to destroy another. That was what He did in the same Red sea. The Israelites passed through. The same Red sea swallowed the Egyptians. All the tests and their preaching did not work as far as God was concerned.

Therefore, beloved, I want you to close your eyes and pray with holy madness like this: “Let impossibility be disgraced before me today, in the name of Jesus. I want to apply a parable from In Matthew 22 : 11 – 13. There was a feast and something happened at that feast: “And when the king came in to see the guest, he saw there, a man which had not on a wedding garment. And he saith unto him, how comest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, bind his hand and foot, and take him away and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Our message this week, entitled, “The Wicked Fertilizer” is a warfare message. In it, we would be looking at one of the wicked operations of the enemy. Therefore, I would like you to read it carefully.

THINGS TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE WICKED

1. If God opens your eyes to see the wicked operations of the enemy and you are able to see a little bit of what they do, you will understand what Jesus meant when He says, “Pray without ceasing.” They work like automatic machines. They do not rest. They do not go on holiday. They work hard at what they are doing to populate hell fire.

2. A lot of wicked operations are so strange that some people think it is superstition.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FERTILIZE A THING?

It means to enrich a thing. A fertilizer is something that is used to enrich something. When you supply a thing with nourishment, you are fertilizing it. When you do something that will make another thing to germinate quickly, you are fertilizing the thing. Fertilization is also real in the spiritual realm. You can fertilize for good or for evil.

SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER ON WICKED FERTILIZATION

1. Can life be used for life? Yes, it is possible. Can a person’s life be used for another? The Bible says it is possible. Isaiah 42:4 says, “Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee; therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.” Life can be used for life. Somebody may be killed so that another person can live. Somebody can be made poor so that another person can be rich. Somebody can be rendered a vagabond so that another person can have direction. Can life be used for life? Yes it is possible and is being done day by day. Proverbs 11:8 says, “The righteous is delivered out of trouble and the wicked cometh in his stead.”

2. Can virtue be transferred from person to person? Is it possible to steal the intelligence and wisdom of somebody and transfer them to another person? Yes, it is possible. They are tangible items that can be moved from place to place. Genesis 48:13 says, “And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel’s right hand, and brought him near unto him.” Normally, the firstborn should have the right hand laid on his head and the second born should have the left hand laid on his head. But in this case, there was an exchange. Verse 14 says, “And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, which was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.” The virtue of Manasseh was transferred to his younger brother. This is the trouble of many firstborns. Their lives have been used for lives and their virtues have been transferred.

3. Can blessing be exchanged or taken away? Yes, it has happened before.Genesis 25:30-34 says, “And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee with that same red pottage; for I am faint; therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said; Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day, and he swore unto him; and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way; thus Esau despised his birthright.” This man exchanged his own blessing.

4. Can promotion be stolen? Yes, it is possible. It has happened before. The story of Jacob and Esau is also a case in point.

5. Can a man become an animal and still remain a man physically? Yes, it is possible. The life of a man can be reduced to that of an animal? The Lord did it to Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 4:16 says, “Let his heart be changed from man’s and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him.” This is the reason behind the unreasonable behaviour of some people. Their real personalities have been transferred and an animal spirit has been given to them. When the real heart of a person is taken out and a dog’s spirit is projected inside the person, the person will become an established prostitute, male or female.

6. Can problems be transferred? Yes, somebody’s problem can be transferred to another person. You can lay your hands on the sick and the sickness will be transferred to you. It has happened before. 2 Kings 5:27 says, “The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee …” Look at the choice of words very well; the leprosy of the person to be transferred was specified. It was once the problem of Naaman before it was pushed to Gehazi. So, problems can be transferred.

7. Can peace, joy and love be withdrawn? Yes. The Bible says it is possible. The power of darkness can turn somebody’s love for a person to hatred. Luke 10:5-6 says “And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it; if not, it shall turn to you again.” Peace can move up and down.

8. Can God make a promise to a person and later withdraw it? Yes, He can. The enemy can manipulate a person to a position where the earlier promise made by the Lord is withdrawn. I Samuel 13:13 says, “And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God which he commanded thee: for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever.”

The family of Saul would have been reigning in Israel forever. There would have been nothing like the house of David reigning there. Verse 14 says, “But now thy kingdom shall not continue; the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.” God withdrew the promise, He transferred the destiny of Saul to David. It is possible too in the negative way.

9. Is it possible for somebody to work and somebody else who did not work reap the fruit? Yes, it is possible. Isaiah 65:21-22 says, “And they shall build houses, and inhabit them: and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat…” So, it is possible to work and not reap the benefits.

10. Can one life be demoted and wasted in order to fertilize another life? The answer is yes. In Ezekiel 13, we can see how the souls of people can be hunted down and transferred. We see how the soul of a person can be made to fly out so that another person might live.

Many years ago, a certain man rushed his daughter to me. The name of the girl was Uswa. She ran mad suddenly. As I wanted to start praying for her, the Lord said, “Don’t pray. Ask this man to go to his father’s house and tell the father to break open the centre of his sitting room. There, he will find a small coffin. Destroy that coffin and Uswa would be well.” The man broke down and cried thinking I did not want to pray for his daughter. I encouraged him to believe the word of the Lord. So, he went to his father’s house and told him what the Lord said. To his amazement, his father confirmed it. The place was broken and the small coffin was brought out. Inside the coffin was a script on which the name of Uswa was written. The idea was to terminate and waste Uswa so that her grandfather would continue to live. Immediately the coffin was destroyed there, Uswa became well. By the time her father came back, she was already taking a drink and was laughing and playing with others. An evil exchange was programmed to take place.

The devil has no power to create anything but he is the most successful robber in the universe. He can steal, transfer and exchange virtues. He can exchange a person’s spirit with a terrible spirit. He can do body exchange and the affected person would look older than his or her age. The presence of the person will be inviting irritation also. He can do brain exchange, where he replaces the brain of a person with that of a goat. He can do child exchange in the womb. He can do wealth exchange. He can withdraw money from one place to another. He can do hair manipulation, virtue exchange, talents exchange, partner exchange, promotion exchange, etc. He uses people’s lives to do terrible things.

SIGNS TO SHOW THAT A PERSON IS BEING USED AS A WICKED FERTILIZER

1. The person will experience what is called “firstborn demotion.”

2. There would be constant failure at the edge of serious breakthroughs.

3. Unexplainable health failure.

4. Brain failure.

5. The person’s children would become his enemies.

6. All kinds of terrible spiritual problems will come in. The person may find it very difficult to grow in the things of God because certain things have been taken out. His virtues have been removed.

7. The person may have a low self-image.

8. The person would have terrible nightmares especially nightmares in which he sees himself serving others all the time.

9. The person will experience a life of struggle and battle always.

WAY OUT

1. Surrender your life to the Lord. There is no other way.

2. Pull down the altars of the wicked fertilization.

3. Command a reverse of what the enemy has done wrong to you.

Believers should not sit down and allow the enemy to be operating what they know is not the ordinance of God.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every satanic obituary written against my destiny, die, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every witchcraft agent in my place of work, receive the stripes of fire, in the name of Jesus.

3. I will not go to my enemies for help, in the name of Jesus.

4. Pharaoh of my life, rush and perish in the Red sea, in the name of Jesus.

5. My Father, contend with those who contend with my destiny, in the name of Jesus.

6. Every satanic surveillance over my life, I bind you, in the name of Jesus.

7. Every witchcraft prayer targeted against my destiny, die, in the name of Jesus.

8. Every evil power of my father’s house, vomit my virtues, in the name of Jesus.

9. Every power nominating me for demotion, your time is up, die, in the name of Jesus.

10. My life, refuse the handwriting of the wicked fertilizer, in the name of Jesus.

11. The timetable of my favour shall not be frustrated, in the name of Jesus.

12. The sons of strangers shall build up my wall and kings shall minister unto me, in the name of Jesus.

13. My Father, I recover by fire my birthright that I have unconsciously sold out, in the name of Jesus.

14. Every power caging my greatness, die, in the name of Jesus.

15. Every power that wants to waste my life, your time is up, die, in the name of Jesus.

16. Every dry bone of my virtues, come alive, in the name of Jesus.

17. I withdraw my virtues from the waters, in the name of Jesus.

18. Every power planning to use me as a wicked fertilizer, die, in the name of Jesus.

19. Every power planning to use my life as a wicked fertilizer, die, in the name of Jesus.

20. Every wicked replacement of my destiny, scatter, in the name of Jesus.

21. Satanic exchange of my destiny, die, in the name of Jesus.

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Beloved, our message today, “When your marriage needs deliverance” is very important for all married people and those who want to get married.

God completed everything He needed to do in the Garden of Eden, passed it through His spiritual laboratory and declared that the whole thing was good. But all of a sudden in Genesis 2:18 we come across something that was not good. Genesis 2:18: “And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” This is the beginning of marriage. There is no history book that goes further than this. Verse 24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.” The Bible says: The man shall leave his parents but if he is still tied to their apron strings then deliverance would be needed. It means that it is possible for a man to be married without leaving his parents. The Bible says, “…he shall cleave unto his wife…” wife in the singular, meaning one. It did not say, “his wives.” Also it says, “Therefore shall a man” and not a boy. “… And they shall be one flesh.” This is the foundation of marriage.

THE FAMILY

The family is the foundation of civilization. It is a church within a church. It is a world within a world. It is the building block of the society. The family is the root of both the church and the state.

The family is like a book; the children are the pages and the parents are the cover. Nobody has a choice how he is to be born or given birth to. The concept of family originated from God and it is the school of human virtues. If things go right in the family, if marriages go right, everything will go right everywhere.

FORCES OF MARRIAGES DESTRUCTION

There are powers called, “The powers of marriage destruction.” Sometimes, their work starts in the womb. It does not only start when somebody gets married. Once they discover that a person’s marriage will move God’s purpose forward, they will begin to create problems. They are specific powers delegated to pull marriages down.

Many years ago, I prayed with a sister who wanted to get married but her marriage was considered to be very risky by the devil. It was the kind of marriage the devil did not want to permit. One day as we were praying, I saw her standing before me and twelve men were queuing up in her front. The number twelve at the back was the right man, her husband. The Lord was saying that the devil was going to send eleven men before the right person. And one by one, they were coming; the handsome, rich, educated polished etc seeking to marry her but she was able to turn them down through prayers. Eventually the right person came along and she was able to fulfill the will of God. However, she almost fell for one of them, whom she really liked; it was the enemy trying to confuse her.

There are specific powers delegated to pull marriages down. Some time ago, some witches gathered in South Africa and fasted for two hundred and one days against Christian marriages. Many marriages are bewitched and sometimes affected persons carry the bewitchment to church, and it is very obvious. Once you see a couple going to church and the husband is walking fast not wanting the wife to be by his side, you know that bewitchment has set in already. Unfortunately, many people do not attach importance to the issue of marriage. Some rush into any kind of marriage just to appear to be married. It is a tragedy that so many sisters have died untimely due to wrong marriages. They would have remained alive if they had not married. The marriage became graveyards to them. It is sad to know that many people do not really care about the type of marriage they get involved in.

A person’s life never remains the same after marriage. Wedding is just for one day while marriage is for life. Many marriages have broken up due to seemingly light issues, but that is the work of bewitchment.

WEDLOCK OR PADLOCK

Many people will help you to organise your wedding but marriage is between two people. The next horrible thing after hell fire is a bad marriage. Marriage is an institution created by God. Marriage can make or mar your life in no small measure. But a good and godly marriage is a bedrock of correct living and success.

There is no difference between wedlock and padlock. Wedlock is padlock – those concerned are padlocked. Marriage is either a holy wedlock or an unholy padlock. The wedding ring that many people desire so much is the smallest handcuff in history. The truth is; it is better to be laughed at that you are not married than for you to be unable to laugh because you are married.

Anyone who enters into a marriage relationship because the woman is beautiful or because the man is handsome is like a man who bought a house because he likes the paint. If a child of God marries a child of the devil, satan his or her father- in-law will trouble his or her life.

When a marriage is wrong, the children from such a marriage are in bondage. If marriages work in our society, a lot of things will start going on very well. A lot of marriages have been caged by the enemy. That is why you find some pastors beating up their wives. The enemy knows that once he causes disunity in a home, that family will not move forward. Also, the devil has a way of bringing problems when couples are at the edge of their breakthroughs and they will start fighting and miss the breakthroughs.

WHAT KIND OF MARRIAGES NEED DELIVERANCE?

1. Marriages where communication has broken down. I have seen couples that write notes to themselves instead of talking and they live in the same flat. The man would bring his girl friend home and the woman too would bring her boy friend home. The boy friend of the woman and the man’s girl friend would greet each other but the couple would not talk to each other. When communication breaks down, it is a sign that bewitchment has set in. Deliverance is therefore needed. It means that the enemy has become a third party in the marriage. It is very unfortunate to know that marriages conducted in Pentecostal churches break down now unlike in the olden days when it was unheard of.

2. Marriages where in-laws have taken over, deliverance is needed.

3. Marriages retained by money. The couple stays together as long as there is money. Immediately there is no money, it breaks down.

4. Regretted marriages. These are situations where partners do not have time for one another.

5. Marriages where both parties are actors and actresses. They pretend as if things are alright but within, fighting, cursing and quarrelling dominate the relationship. There are many acting husbands and wives.

6. When the marriage has entered into a third party cage. That is the home is controlled by a third party. It could be the husband’s friends or in-laws.

7. Shallow marriages. This is where there is no true love. The people involved just got married for some purposes.

8. Marriages where there is an abusive husband and a stubborn wife.

9. Marriages where both parties are committing adultery. The only way a person can be free from this is to remain on fire always.

10. Troubled marriages. These are situations where you have sicknesses, satanic attacks, surgical operations, children problem, lack of peace etc.

11. Marriages where couples beat and bite one another. Baby husbands beat their wives and baby wives bite their husbands.

12. Polygamous marriages. Anyone who is a product of polygamy, needs to go for deliverance. All polygamous marriages need restitution and deliverance.

13. Marriages with the foundation of sex before marriage. If a couple had sex with each other before they were joined in marriage, the marriage would suffer attacks from the enemy because they have offended God. The Bible says that marriage is honourable and the bed must remain undefiled but God will judge adulterers and adulteresses. Once you build the foundation of your marriage on sex before marriage, you will certainly have troubles.

14. Marriages to satanic agents.

15. Marriages with the foundation of accidental pregnancy. When people rush into marriage due to pregnancy, there would be problems.

16. Marriages as a result of demonic consultation.

17. Forced marriages. Marriages where couples were forced into the relationship either by parents or others.

18. Child marriages. Situations where children of age eight, twelve, thirteen etc are given out for marriage would create problems.

19. Marriages based on tribal sentiments.

20. Marriages as a result of demonic prophecies.

21. Marriages with the foundation of trial and error. Marriages entered into after some samplings have a bad foundation.

22. Marriages with blood covenant.

23. Marriages in which the bride’s legs were washed with water on the wedding day.

24. Marriages in which a goat or any other animal was attached to any of the parties, or the couple was given a small girl to take away.

25. All marriages done in a crude traditional way need deliverance. Deliverance is needed for marriages done with alcohol, alligator pepper, cola nuts etc.

26. Marriage in which the bride was stolen. That is there was no dowry, no engagement and no marriage. The woman just moved into the man’s house. For such marriages, correction marriage alone is not the answer, deliverance is needed.

27. Marriages for the purpose of obtaining documents.

28. Couples that have the problem of spirit husband and spirit wife. Such marriages need deliverance.

29. Marriages where the husband sleeps with his in-laws.

30. Marriages where the couples secretly carry out abortions.

31. Marriages where both families never agree and the couples too are not born again.

Beloved, the enemy has really worked hard in this area of human life and is still doing so. The enemy knows that marriage goes beyond the two people involved.It concerns generations and family trees on both sides. The enemy struggles hard to ensure that marriages are built on wrong foundations so that he can do his work of destruction very well. Unfortunately for the ladies, many nice men do not start out very rich and those that are rich treat women like money.

There are demonic influences fighting against marriages that try to work. This is why family prayers are essential for Christians. The family that prays together stays together. God is angry with Christian couples who do not pray together. Families that do not pray together are looking for serious trouble.

Jeremiah 10:25 says, “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.”

Many dangers are done at night. The Bible says, “While men slept the enemy came and sowed tares.” Danger comes when husband and wife go to sleep without clearing their disagreement. If you do not settle your disagreement before going to bed every night, there will be a third party on your bed with you. The devil will be the third party. Some husbands are possessed; some wives too, are possessed. There are some people whose natural body would like to preserve the marriage but the spirits within them will be seeking to destroy it; and when there is trouble, they begin to regret. They apologise to one another only to go back to the trouble again.

A sister whose husband is a womanizer, or a drunkard, or a smoker or a grambler or someone that uses charms and believes in it, reads occult books or attends occult meetings or has unbelievers as his friends will only survive in that marriage by carrying out spiritual warfare every night because any time he goes out, he brings in new demons. You need to understand what you are doing so that you do not get involved in that which will pull your life down.

Marriages where couples talk to themselves in a bad language will be destroyed. Nagging and quarrelling in a marriage are signs that there is a bewitching force pursuing that marriage.

HOW TO DELIVER YOUR MARRIAGE

What you should do to avoid these attacks:

1. Get born again. The first thing is new birth. If you got married as unbelievers, or your partner is not born again, you need to pray for new birth.

2. Complete repentance.

3. You must seek God’s face for the right partner that is if you are not married yet. If you are, it is too late.You must pray foundational deliverance prayer for your marriage. If you discover that marriages do not work in your family, do not deceive yourself by thinking that those forces will not attack your own.

4. You must cultivate the garden of your heart daily- pray about it daily.

5. Pray consistently for your partner.

6. Your family altar must be on fire.

PRAYERS

1. Every strong man of marriage destruction, die, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every problem introduced into my life by the marriage of my parents, die, in the name of Jesus.

3. Every ancestral spirit husband/wife, your time is up, die, in the name of Jesus.

4. Every witchcraft power of my father’s house, release my marriage, in the name of Jesus.

5. Every owner of evil load in my marriage, carry your load, in the name of Jesus.

6. Within seven days, every power pursuing my peace shall be buried, in the name of Jesus.

7. O God, arise and advertise your power in my life, in the name of Jesus.

8. Every evil tree growing in my family line, die, in the name of Jesus.

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WRESTLING WITH SHADOWS

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Our message today is very important, especially to those who were born and brought up in this environment. Life is something many people fail to understand because there are so many questions those men cannot answer. For example, Cain and Abel were two men born of the same parents. They had similar backgrounds, similar abilities and were headed in the same direction but Abel was successful while Cain was overshadowed by failure and frustration. The world is exactly like that.

A lot of black people are wrestling with shadows. What does this mean? Some people have done all there is to do for them to be successful, yet they remain failures. Some even have higher degrees and have done everything that qualifies one for resounding success yet success remain elusive; their children are disobedient, their marriages are unstable and sicknesses are becoming a routine affair. A person just discovers that in one particular area or in many areas of his life, he is struggling with something he cannot understand or identify. He just goes from one problem to another. He is always at the edge of good health but never really achieving good health. Sometimes the way may look clear once in a while but as some people try to go to the clear way, they stumble and fall. This is what we call wrestling with shadows. Many people cannot get a grip of what is happening. They are struggling with something they cannot understand or identify.

We are in a world of powerful forces that harass men. These powerful forces do not operate according to natural laws. There is a lamentation on this in the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 9: 11 says, “I returned, and I saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” This lamentation proves that there are forces operating on the lives of men that men cannot understand. The forces that determine the course of our lives are both visible and invisible. The powers that confuse the lives of men most can do so through what we call the mouth gate. A lot of people are in such bondage. 1 Corinthians 10:16 talks about the kind of communion we have in the church now. It says, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” During communion service, when the cup and the bread have been blessed, the cup then has the power to transmit the blessings of the New Covenant to those who drink it. Therefore, by simple spiritual interpretation, it shows that a physical object like a cup used during the Last Supper can transmit spiritual power. Likewise in Numbers chapter 5, we read about what happens when a woman is suspected of being unfaithful to her marriage vows in those days. Numbers 5: 18 says, “And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that caused the curse.” (They would have water inside a cup and issue a curse on the water). Verses 19 – 22 say, “And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse. But if thou hast gone aside unto another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband. Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell. And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot. And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.” In this case, the cup of water is the vehicle through which the destroying power is transmitted. So, if the woman had been truly unfaithful, that water would transmit the curse and the belly would swell and explode. So, destroying powers can be transferred by physical objects. Therefore, if you have been served meals from the devil’s table, you may live your life wrestling with shadows unless you are purged. Once you get something from the table of the devil you would be wrestling with shadows and won’t know what you are fighting against unless you are purged. The reason is that what you are fighting against is inside your body and you are thinking that it is one old woman or one relative somewhere. The thing has already been deposited inside, and you are going around with it.

In our environment, wicked people succeed in making some people to be wrestling with shadows through the mouth gate. Sometime ago, I went to somebody’s office and the person said, “You are welcome. We have some meat that we just used for a festival.” I said, “What do I do with it?” He said, “It is for consumption.” I said, “I don’t eat food from the table of the devil.” He said, “What? Table of the devil?” I said, “Jesus has been made a once and for all sacrifice. Anybody that is killing anything after Jesus died is sacrificing to the devil and those who eat it are eating from the table of the devil.” The scripture is very clear on this. It can be very frustrating when somebody is fighting an external force when the problem is internal. It can also be very frustrating when somebody has a physical object in his possession, which is the vehicle of his problem and he does not know. Sometime ago, we prayed for a sister and the demon spirit that spoke from her said, “Well, ask her to bring the cloth we gave to her.” The sister brought the cloth, which was destroyed before she could regain her freedom. It means that as long as she had that cloth in her possession, she could sing all the praise worship in this planet, and read all the psalms, but there would be no freedom.

Sometime ago, we held a revival service in a church and when an altar call was made to those who wanted to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I saw a dear old woman who came crying and saying that she could not understand why it was difficult for her to receive the baptism even after many revivalists had visited her church. So, I said, “Madam, you will be filled with the power today.” She said, “Thank you my son I will try.” I told her to pray and she prayed until she was sweating. Her clothes were soaked. I was impressed with her prayers yet nothing happened. I could get impressed but I am not the giver of the Holy Spirit. At a stage, I left her alone and sat somewhere else to pray. I asked the Lord what was wrong with her and the Lord said I should look at her hand. I looked at her hand and saw a particular ring on her fourth finger. On the ring was the symbol of a half moon. The Lord said that with that ring on her finger, His Spirit would not enter into her life. Then I said, “Mama, open your eyes. Who gave you this ring?” She told me that she inherited it from her great grandmother. I took the ring from her and made her to understand that the half moon was the sign of witchcraft. She gladly gave it to me and did not have to pray for one minute before she received the power of the Holy Ghost. She did not know that her enemy was on her fourth finger for 25 years. She slept with it, woke up with it, bathed with it, went everywhere and did everything with it. So, she was busy wrestling with shadows instead of the real thing, which was on her fourth finger.

When you are wrestling with shadows, you would be kept away from receiving the blessings of God. God would be offering the blessings but you would not be able to get them. Sometimes you may not even realize that there is a blessing to receive. Somebody who is under witchcraft attack in our environment would be manipulated, intimidated and dominated. What do I mean by manipulation? The following illustration gives us the answer. Sometime ago, a man married a very beautiful wife, who was light in complexion. But he noticed that in the afternoons, the woman would take a knife and begin to scratch her body and salt would be coming out of her body. He got worried and decided to visit a white garment prophet. Before he got to the white garment prophet, the woman had visited the white garment prophet to inform him that her husband was coming and that he should charge him very high fees. They were members of the same evil society but the man did not know. That is manipulation. How can you have a bed in your house and somebody would tell you to be sleeping on the mat, or they remove your all the protein food from your diet, that is domination and intimidation. The wife of a man asked him for soup money and he had only N20. He gave her the N20 and she took it, tore it up and said, “What do you want me to do with N20?” And the man slapped her. The woman said, “Okay, you have just slapped yourself.” Right from that day, the man started feeling as if somebody was whipping him. Even when he was in the office, it was the same thing. He would be dancing in the streets and people thought he was mad. He was in that condition until he got to a prayer meeting where the Lord sent fire on the invisible evil whip. The man was wrestling with what we call shadows. In normal wrestling matches, what we have is a physical challenge. But when your challenger is a shadow, you have an impossible task in your hands.

HOW DO PEOPLE GET TO WRESTLE WITH SHADOWS?

1. Idol worship: Worship and acknowledgement of false gods would lead somebody to wrestle with shadows. Involvement with dark societies and occult powers would cause a person to wrestle with shadows. If somebody’s father was a secret cult member, he would be wrestling with shadows.
2. Disobedience: Disobedience to God’s clear command would lead to wrestling with shadows. The Bible says that at the time of ignorance, God winked at it. But if you understand it and you are disobedient to it, you are inviting shadows.
3. Disrespect for parents and the elderly: This makes people to wrestle with shadows.
4. Sexual perversion: All forms of sexual perversion, as far as the Bible is concerned, make people to wrestle with shadows.
5. Stealing: All kinds of stealing and also being stingy with God make people to wrestle with shadows.
6. Curses: Anyone operating under a curse would be wrestling with shadows.
7. Remote control forces: There are some forces called remote control forces. Somebody who lives in London could be remote controlling the life of another person in Nigeria like somebody operating a television set. Our environment is so filled with wickedness that many people are already programmed to spend the better part of their lives wrestling with shadows. This message gives you have an opportunity to strike back and recover your blessings.

SIX AREAS BY WHICH DARK POWERS MAKE PEOPLE IN THIS ENVIRONMENT TO WRESTLE WITH SHADOWS

1. Attack by demon idols: The first area by which they make people in this environment to wrestle with shadows is what I call attack by demon idols. They send a demon idol to a person to attack him or her. They cut off part of people’s clothes, steal their shoes or underwear’s or collect things from people’s body such as their hair, nail, etc and give them to the demon idol to enable it to identify who to fight. If you lose things like that, and wave it off as one of those things, you will be surprised to find that it is not one of those things, but an attack. These demon idols which are usually short, come with big clubs in their hands. They are generally used to kill or render people useless. I know a person who was attacked with a demon idol. The thing came into his bedroom and hit him on the right hand with its club. The hand got paralyzed immediately. If not for the fact that he knew the name of Jesus, he would have been maimed in that hand for life. A person who is spiritually blind would not be able to see a demon idol. So, if it is sent to attack such a person, he or she will not know what hit him or her. If you allow them to go free, you are giving them opportunity to stage a comeback. So, you must deal with them.

WAY OUT

1. Withdraw your stolen materials or the parts cut off from your body from them.
2. Issue an invitation to the demon idol to come by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and command it to go back to the sender.
3. Command the evil materials that have been injected into your system to be neutralized by the blood of Jesus. That is how to handle them.

If you are living in a flat where a demon idol has walked through before, whether it succeeded or not in its assignment in that place, something has already been deposited there, so, you need to clean up the place.

2. Strange touch: A strange touch is when you feel that somebody touched you but you did not see the person or even if you saw the person, certain things began to go wrong as from that moment. That is what is called a strange touch. When somebody with a spiritual poison in his hand shakes your hand or touches any part of your body, you would feel serious heat internally or a funny sensation. That is a strange touch. Life would become meaningless as from that moment.

Way out

1. Shake off the strange touch, in Jesus’ name.
   2. Ask for the fire of the Holy Spirit to saturate every organ of your body.
   3. Return the strange touch to the sender.

Beloved, if you notice that someone is just looking for an opportunity to touch you, you better beware. Women who do not mind men touching parts of their bodies carelessly are playing with fire. They can receive a strange touch through that way. A believer ought to angrily give such men a stern warning, plead the blood of Jesus and shake off the evil touch. It may be the touch of wastage, which can result into all kinds of female problems like late marriage, bareness, etc.

3. Encounter with the spirit of death: Wicked people can send the spirit of death to a person. This evil spirit is generally a dark tall shadow. It walks into the room and wants to touch the person. Or the person could be seeing another personality inside him or he could be seeing coffins, or he could be seeing himself being buried, or he could see people planning his funeral. Another evidence of the spirit of death pursing somebody is when you have masquerades running after you in the dream. A lot of people have this encounter.

Way out

1. Bind the spirit of death and hell.
2. Return spiritual obituary to the senders.
3. Keep declaring Psalm 118: 17 which says, “I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord.” If you have experienced this kind of thing before and you did not cancel it, you maybe walking about the street three-quarter dead by now.
4. Strange call: Some people have heard their names called out in the middle of a sleep, these are strange calls. Sometimes, a person could hear a familiar voice call out his name three times. If the person answers, he or she becomes a shadow fighter as from that day. A lot of people have answered such strange calls. Many times they call us like that but God just does not allow us to hear it. He sends them back before we even have time to hear because He says, “Touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm.”

• Way out

1. Ask for forgiveness for not being a proper sheep of Jesus, because He says, “My sheep know my voice and a stranger they will not follow.” If then as a child of God, you heard a strange voice and you answered, it means that something is wrong with your spiritual life. So, the first thing is to ask for forgiveness for answering the call that is not from Jesus.
2. Rewind the call.
3. Return the call back to the sender. If you had answered, withdraw your answer by this simple prayer: I withdraw the answer, in Jesus’ name.
4. Serpentine spirits attack: Serpentine spirits are very dangerous demons. They represent the dragon we read about in Revelation 12. A person under serpentine attack may be pursued by a snake in the dream. A snake may spit on the person or bite the person. The person may be playing and discussing with a snake in the dream. What are the implications of all these? They would prevent the person from achieving goodness in life. They would scare the person away from good things. If the person has received saliva from the snake, he would have an evil mark on him. But the blood of Jesus can rub it off. If a snake has bitten the person then spiritual poison has been released into his or her body. This would cause sickness and death in the person’s life. The snake venom that has been spiritually introduced into a person’s life can amputate the person’s spiritual life. If somebody plays and discusses with a snake in the dream, it means that he or she has a covenant with the snake and water spirit as well. The person may be unconscious of this.

Way out

1. Rebuke the serpentine spirit, in Jesus’ name.
2. Withdraw your name from their register because they just don’t send the snake to anybody. They have a book from which they consult.
3. Plead the blood of Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to neutralize the serpentine saliva and every poison injected into your body.
4. Release yourself from every conscious and unconscious serpentine covenant. Now you can command any obstruction to leave your way. If a snake is running after somebody in the dream, the truth is that the snake is trying to chase the person away from the blessing that is about to come to him or her.
5. Demonic signature: A certain young female undergraduate, who used to make a mockery of her lecturers who preached the gospel to her changed her music when she woke up one morning and found a signature on her palm. The signature was written in a strange language she did not understand. She used all kinds of soap to wash it away but it did not go. Eventually, she had to go to the preachers she had mocked for help. These lecturers preached to her and prayed that the evil signature should go off and it disappeared. That was an evil signature. She was lucky to have seen it physically. People who have evil signatures on their bodies do not prosper. Whatever they lay their hands on will not work. Marks of scratches that people see on their bodies when they wake up from sleep are evil signatures. They must be rubbed off.

Way out

1. Clean off the marks and stamps by the blood of Jesus.Invite the Holy Ghost power to burn away the demonic pen used to write them.
2. Release yourself from any evil linkage. Psalm 97: 10 says, “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 149: 5-9 says, “Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two- edged sword in their hands. To execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishment upon the people. To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron. To execute upon them the judgment written: This honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord.” These scriptures give us the right to rewind or recall any evil that has been done to anyone in the past and to execute judgment on behalf of God. Colossians 2:14-15 says, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” That is the stand of scripture. 1 John 3:8 says, “…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” You will be amazed at how many people the devil has tormented and is still tormenting with shadows. You must pray aggressively to defeat them because we know that they do not have the final say on your life. It is only God that has the final say but if you don’t bring God into the situation, He will be watching you. If you bring Him in, you can take back what has been taken away from you by violence.

PRAYER POINTS

1. I refuse death and curses, in the name of Jesus.
2. I choose life and blessings, in Jesus’ name.
3. I cancel all satanic claims against me, in the name of Jesus.
4. I shake off every strange touch, in the name of Jesus.
5. I bind the spirit of death and hell, in the name of Jesus.
6. Every strange call upon my life, go back to the sender, in the name of Jesus.
7. You snake spirit, I bruise your head, in the name of Jesus.
8. You demonic handwriting, I rub you off with the blood of Jesus, in Jesus’ name.
9. (Place one hand on your head and the other one on your stomach as you take this prayer point) Holy Ghost fire, begin to burn in my body, in the name of Jesus.
10. I break every curse of blindness, in the name of Jesus.
11. Wonderful God, I thank you, in Jesus’ name.

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THE GARDEN OF EVIL PLANTERS

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Today, our message is entitled, “The garden of evil planters.” We shall start by considering Matthew 13: 24-28: “Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which seweth good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this…”

These are the last days and the Bible makes us to understand that part of the signs of the last days is that the enemy of man’s soul is going to be much more horrible and wicked. The Bible says that evil men shall wax stronger and stronger. Therefore, in this age of so much spiritual contamination, it is important for every believer to know how to deliver himself and how to help others. When we talk about deliverance, there are three ways by which a person can be delivered from the power of darkness:

1. By growing up spiritually: As you grow spiritually as a Christian, childish things depart from your life, your prayers become much more powerful, having more fire in them, certain things would find your life uncomfortable and go out without you making any effort. Your spiritual maturity would cause them much inconvenience to make them quit. This is what we refer to as deliverance by spiritual growth.
2. Deliverance by the word of God: When you become a Bible addict and you meditate on the word of God, thereby allowing the word to be inside your body, soul and spirit, certain things would leave because they cannot withstand that kind of situation. They will go without anybody making additional serious effort.
3. The ministry of conflict: This is the one most people refer to as deliverance ministration. When you declare a conflict against your enemies, you begin to fire on until they leave. Many people who come for deliverance are however not always patient. They want immediate results not knowing that in most cases, the ground has to be cleared and the garden of their lives fenced to prevent a reentry of evil spirits after the clearing. And this takes some time.

The life of a man can be regarded as a garden in which things can be planted, whether good or evil. The scripture above says that the man planted wheat in his garden, but when he was sleeping, his enemy came and planted something else there. But he quickly recognized that an enemy had done it. However, one thing is certain: it is not in the garden of every life that the enemy can plant things. Some lives are too hot for the enemy to handle while others are so cold that he easily plants things in them.

WHAT BREAKS DOWN THE IMMUNITY OF A PERSON’S LIFE AND MAKES IT ACCESSIBLE TO THE ENEMY TO PLANT WHAT HE LIKES?

I Corinthians 15:55 records a strange thing. It says, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?” It is because of the sting of death that the enemy is able to plant rubbish into many lives. There are quite a number of insects that sting and deposit poisonous venom into the system, and unless something is done quickly to eject the venom, the consequences can be gravely. It is the same thing spiritually. If the evil deposits that the enemy plants in people while they are asleep are not dealt with quickly it will result in serious problems. The Bible says, “While men slept, his enemy came and planted tares into his life.” What kind of sleep is the Bible talking about? Is it the usual sleep at night or spiritual sleep? It could be either of them. One of the ways the enemies operate against men is to come while they are asleep physically or spiritually.

The Bible says, “O death, where is thy sting?” Here, Paul personifies death as a creature, an insect that can sting. Verse 56 of the same chapter says, “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” The Bible calls that sting of death sin. This sting of death has enabled the enemy to convert so many lives to a garden where he plants whatsoever he likes. Such evil things shall be uprooted today, in Jesus’ name.

One of the most hopeless things you could ask a minister to do is to officiate at the funeral service of somebody who had gone to hell fire. Such a minister would render the service as a matter of duty. He would not enjoy it because he knows that the person has gone to hell fire. The sting of death is so terrible that Jesus had to sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane to help us remove it. The Bible says that as He prayed, His sweat were like drops of blood. He received 39 strokes of cane. The kind of whips used in those days had sharp objects attached to them which peeled off the skin when they were used to flog somebody. Jesus, the Creator of man, was stripped naked in the street. His hands and feet were nailed to the cross. One of the most painful deaths is death on the cross. The person does not die immediately. The suspension on the cross applies painful pressure to the heart, which causes internal bleeding, and excruciating pain. Our Lord Jesus suffered all these because of the sting of death. The ridicule and the painful death on the cross were the price He paid to remove the sting of death. This is why the Bible says that He is a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief.

I was told the story of a certain schoolteacher who was telling his students about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. When he finished, one small boy said, “Excuse me, sir, the story is not true. It cannot be true.” He asked the boy why he said it was not true and the boy said, “If it were true, you would not be telling the story with your eyes dry. If Jesus Christ was actually dealt with like that, and you said He is your Saviour, your eyes cannot be so dry. So, it cannot be true.”

The sting of death made Jesus to cry out on the cross: “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?” God Himself rejected Him because He was carrying the load of sin. Sin made God to be separated from Him. The stings of death are the worms that are in hell fire. The Bible says that those worms never die. The sting of death is sin, meaning that death would have had no power if not for sin. If somebody has the sting of death operating in his life, all kinds of things would be planted in his life. Some of those who say that they need deliverance probably only need to check if the gardens of their lives are well protected. Please, close your eyes at this point and pray this prayer point aggressively: “You the garden of my life, reject evil plantation, in the name of Jesus.”

Do you have the sting of death operating in your life? If you do, then the devil will be busy planting things there. When someone treats you shabbily, do you revenge the evil done to you? Do you take kindly to criticisms? Are you the kind of person who retaliates when you have opportunity to do so? Are you the kind of person who finds faults with your critics because they are criticizing you? Are you provocative to the point of retaliation? Do you absent yourself from a meeting because you are no longer the leader? Do you find it difficult to operate once you are to follow and others are to lead? Then you have a fertile garden for the enemy. If a person is called to do what you normally do, do you become angry? If you do, you have a fertile garden for the enemy. Are you a believer who has compassion for those who are lost? Or are you really not bothered whether anybody goes to hell fire or not? Are you the kind of believer who shifts your responsibility to others and anytime something goes wrong, the first thing you do is to look for somebody to blame? Do you cover up your bitterness? When you are prevented from having your own way, do you feel heat inside your stomach? Are you the kind of person who would curse and swear when you have made a mistake. You know that you are wrong, and still you are cursing and swearing? You have a fertile garden for the enemy. The truth is this: whatsoever hides in the heart of a person will eventually run out through his mouth. So, any spiritual poison that you retain in your spirit will lead to something inside which would be a fertilizer for the enemy. And the more sinful a man is becoming, the more violent his anger would become. The holier he becomes the less angry he becomes. Some people get so angry with themselves that they would want to destroy themselves. Let me ask you the following questions: Are you patient with others? Are you the touchy or sensitive type? Are you the kind who likes to be pampered, and if nobody is ready to offer the pampering, you become uncooperative? Are you the kind of person who takes offence when you are not given your due recognition? Or are you offended when somebody fails to greet you the way you want? Are you given to finding faults in others or do you always grumble? Are you the kind of person who loves the praise of men and if nobody praises you, you get upset? If you fall into any of these categories then you have a fertile garden for the enemy. I am telling you all these so that you will know that the fact that there is an enemy going about planting evil things in people’ lives, does not mean that he can plant them into just any life.

Some lives are very fertile for evil seeds. The reason some are not yet growing evil fruits is that Mr. Walk-about, the devil, has not arrived there. Do you have anything inside you seeking compliments? Are you willing to allow others to be praised instead of yourself? Or do you get envious? Do you withhold your offering because there is no public announcement of your contributions? When your effort yields results, do you demand that people should be giving you credit for it? Do you have secret pride? All these questions that I am asking you are for you to be able to do some surgical work on your life today. Do you have a feeling that your own talent is superior to that of others? Do you love supremacy? You just want to be the boss? Are you the kind of person who has the funny feeling that he has arrived? Do you fail to stand for your right as a Christian because of fear? Are you a stubborn or rebellious Christian? A stubborn Christian will say: “I will not do it,” and a rebellious one will say, “I will do it, but I will do it my own way.” Are you jealous of another person’s success or achievements? Are you happy with other people’s success? Do you pretend to be wiser than you are, or do you appear to be better than others? Are you the kind of the funny Christian who testifies about spiritual experiences that he doesn’t have? Some people would say, “Thus says the Lord,” whereas the Lord has not said anything. They forget that God does not speak to a talkative. If you are the type of Christian who says, “Thus says the Lord” when the Lord has not said anything, it is dangerous. You are making your life a fertile garden for the enemy. Unfortunately, the modern-day church is filled with Christians who play cards, whot and Ludo and half-naked people who say to themselves “Well, we are going to make heaven. We are covered by the blood of Jesus. Praise the Lord!” I have not seen the blood of Jesus covering an unclean material. Among the so-called holy people, we find those who shout very loudly when they are angry. We also find some people who can preach very well but are very trickish. Are you unteachable or do you lack self-control? Look at the hot complaint of our Lord in Luke 6:46 “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Many people call Him Lord, Lord, but refuse to do what He is asking them to do. Some do it half way, some do it a quarter of the way while some do not all. Some people give God conditions for working for Him. We must allow God to take out our brains today and wash them thoroughly in His detergent.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD

In Matthew 5: 20, our Lord talks about the qualifications of those that can make heaven. He says, “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Mark 10:15 also says, “Verily, I say unto you, “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.” Look at those two conditions. The first one says, your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees and the scribes. The second condition says, You must be as a little child. You may then ask, what is the righteousness of the Pharisees? Luke 18:10-12: “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, (Look at his wonderful prayer:) “I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.” That is the righteousness of the Pharisees. And Jesus says that except our own righteousness exceeds that, we would not make the kingdom of heaven. Sadly, many are yet to get to this level, let alone exceed it. This is why the enemy is having a field day planting whatsoever he wants in their lives.

WHO ARE THE PHARISEES?

The Pharisees were religious men. They were a body of teachers. Jesus said that they sat on the seat of Moses. They taught and preached in their time. They ran the schools and synagogues. An average Pharisee was a man of high morals. He knew the law, that is, the Old Testament. His way of life was strict. He maintained that the Jews had to be separated from other people. He would not eat with the Gentiles, nor do business with them. The Pharisees did not allow their people to marry Gentiles. You can accuse the Pharisees of all kinds of things but not telling lies. They did not tell lies. They knew the Old Testament and quoted it even to Jesus. They were not extortioners. They did not practice injustice or adultery. They subjected themselves to a rigorous code of conduct. In fact, there is no serious Bible student who would not admire the Pharisees. Many Christians compromise their faith but the Pharisees would never compromise their faith. So, we can see that the standard of God is very high.

MARKS OF ADULT BABIES

Most Christians are not even doing as well as the Pharisees. The devil knows that they are not doing as well as they are supposed to so, he plants so many things in their lives. Nursery and primary school teachers have a hell of time because one of the most difficult tasks one can get involved in is controlling children. Children complain all the time and the teachers are always busy running up and down to calm them. That is the mark of spiritual babies. They want to wait for the Lord to treat them like Jonah before they become wise. Many Christians who claim to be growing are not. They are just getting fatter and there is a difference between getting bigger and growing. When there is no change in your quality of prayer, Bible reading, study of the word of God and witnessing to others, then you are still a baby. The devil likes baby Christians, especially those who refuse to grow so that he can plant sins in their lives. They are fertile grounds for evil.

Another way of knowing those who are babies in the church is that they are more interested in getting than in giving. The mature believer will give. Giving is one of the marks of Christian adults. Miracle services are usually jam-packed with people because most of them are more interested in receiving than in giving. A certain man called a prayer meeting and found out that few people were interested. He devised a trick to make people come. When the meeting got half way, he shook his body vigorously and began to prophesy: “Thus says the Lord, Death, death, wants to kill three people and if they don’t come to this prayer meeting tomorrow, they shall die.” He succeeded. Immediately the meeting closed, people went home saying that it was a serious meeting and that they must not miss it the following day. The following day, the place was jam-packed. The man asked the people to close their eyes, and he began to pray: “O God, send down money, send down money, send down money,” and they were all saying ‘Amen’. Suddenly, he stopped the prayer and said, “Before this prayer can continue you must give something first to God. You must all empty your pockets. You must put everything down, including your transport money.” They put down all their money and the preacher said, “Now let us continue the prayer: “Oh God, send down money, send down money.” A mature Christian would have reasoned that God cannot be printing money in heaven. They were still saying ‘Amen’ when the man disappeared. When they did not hear his voice again, they opened their eyes only to discover that the man had gone away with their money. It was evident that they were babies. Children get easily excited.

If you call a meeting and say, “Possess your possession and wonderful success,” many people would come. But when you say, “I want to discuss the nature of hell fire,” nobody will want to attend that kind of meeting. Whereas, at the end of the day, that is the reality we are all going to face whether we like it or not. A time will come when the trumpet shall sound and the goats shall be separated from the sheep and we will know where each person is going. Those who shun salvation will get there on that day and say, “O Lord, open your gate,” and the Lord will say, “No. You did not want to be saved, that is why you cannot come in.” Like little children, some Christians don’t know what to do. When they offer them what they really need, they would prefer other things. Solomon was given long life, riches and power to defeat his enemies, but he asked for understanding to discern judgment. If you ask many Christians what they want now, they would tell you they want their enemies defeated quickly. But Solomon said, wisdom and understanding, and God gave them to him. God said to him, “Now that you have asked for the main thing, you can get the rest.” “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)

A lot of Christians are not doing very much for God. There are people who have been Christians for 20 years, and still have not led a single person to Christ. They prefer to be fed with milk. Many seminaries and Bible colleges are only teaching people how to warm the milk for their congregation to drink. The reason there are so many problems in the church is that most people who go to church are babies. The man of God would be busy repeating the basic things that they ought to have known all the time. This does not help anyone. The Bible says, “Except you accept the kingdom of God like a little child it would be difficult for you to enter therein.” It is sad to note that some people have not even taken enough of the milk that is available and is distributed every Sunday. Some who have taken the milk have not digested it. The question is, when are we going to start learning the wisdom of the age to come? When are we going to start having more adults than babies? When the devil knows that he is playing with kids, then he knows how to deceive them and plant things into their lives. A baby Christian would be proud and oversensitive. He would be living by what others say instead of what God says. He would not be able to take decisions on his own. The faith of a baby in the Lord would be unstable and he would not be able to receive anything from the Lord. It is not everybody who grows up that grows old. You could be as tall as a giant and still be a small boy inside. There is a great difference between age and maturity. Normally, the older we are, the more mature we should be. But often this is not the case. I saw a 40 year old man crying. What did he do? He raped a two-year old girl. Will you call that kind of person an adult? He is only an adult physically but inside he is something else. This is why the enemy is recklessly planting things. The devil used to find it difficult to do things easily but now, he is having a field day because believers have refused to grow up. If Christians should grow up, they would become victors instead of victims.

Think about it. Are you growing or you are just getting fat? You are buying more Bibles and more commentaries, but spiritually you are not growing. Ask yourself a few questions. Are you becoming more and more patient in your daily life? Do you play with temptation or you resist it from the start? Do you find joy in obeying the word of God or you just read it because they say it is good for you to read? Are you able to control your tongue? Are you the kind of person that people come to for spiritual wisdom? Do you make your plans without considering God at all? Are you selfish when it comes to money? Are you unfaithful in your tithe and offering? Are you a prayer addict or do you criticize and gossip? When prayers of material breakthroughs are offered, baby Christians say a loud Amen but when you say, “O Lord, when the goats shall be separated from the sheep, let us not be found wanting,” the response would be a sluggish Amen. The prayers, which need to be violently prayed, are taken lightly. These are the marks of babies in the house of God. Baby Christians are fertile gardens for the plantation of the enemies. Things that ought not to chase them are chasing them. Instead of addressing these problems, many people come to church to gyrate and to dance. In those days, when you come into the church of God, you would tremble. You would know that you came before the Almighty God. The seriousness of the way people sat down, and the way they sang and worshipped, no sinner would find it comfortable. The Bible says, “The Lord is in His Holy Temple, let all the world keep silence before Him.” But these days, even men wear earrings to the church and do all kinds of things. They snake-dance and break-dance in the house of God and you still wonder why the devil is having a field day? The devil is having a field day because nobody wants to resist him again. Some people would say, “Well, let them do anything they want to do, as far as God is in their hearts,” forgetting that Christianity is a set of dos and don’ts. Some would tell you that we are under grace. But Jesus said, “You have read that Thou shall not commit adultery, but if you commit it in your heart, you have already sinned.” The law says that when you take another man’s wife, you have committed adultery. But under grace now, Jesus says that just thinking about it makes you guilty. So, which one is tougher? Righteousness is all about dos and don’ts. There are certain things you must not do. If you do, you will go to hell fire.

Enough is enough of these evil plantations. As some people are struggling to remove one, the enemy is planting another one. When some people have still not succeeded in pulling out the ones they have, fresh ones are being planted. Do you want these evil planters to succeed in your life? If you know that you were born again but have backslidden, I want you to slide back to Jesus. You can take that decision now. Today is the day of salvation, tomorrow may be too late. There may be no other opportunity. Slide back to Jesus now! Tell the Lord you are coming home. The Bible says, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul. With what shall he exchange his soul.” Some people need to do restitution, apologize, appeal and withdraw from certain activities so that the axe of God can touch the root of every evil plantation in their lives. The Bible says, “Behold, now the axe is laid at the root of the trees and every tree that does not bear good fruit shall be cut off and thrown into the fire. It also says, “Every tree that my Father has not planted shall be rooted up.” Act now!

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every tree of destruction, be uprooted, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every evil night planter, be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.
3. (Place one hand on your head and the other on your chest) Every evil material planted in my life in the dark, be uprooted, in the name of Jesus.
4. (Place your hand on your chest) All the powers preparing poison for me, drink your poison, in the name of Jesus.
5. Let the chariots of fire chase away every evil spy reporting on my life, in Jesus’ name.
6. Let every curse issued against me go back to the sender, in the name of Jesus.

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THE DARK ROOM OF LIFE

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Our message this week should be taken seriously because we will be considering answers to some of the questions that are bothering so many minds. It is entitled “The dark room of life.”

Psalm 30: 5: “For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” The ‘night’ in this text is what we refer to as the dark room. Where can the dark room of life be found? It can be found in the night.

There are only four main important questions to ask on any issue. These are: Why? Which? How? and When? However, the one people ask most is ‘why?’ Many of our problems come upon us when these questions are not asked. Take the issue of marriage as an example. If you do not ask these questions before you go into marriage, it may lead to failure. It is commonly said that ‘not all that glitters is gold.’ Proverbs 16: 25: “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are ways of death.” That is, those things that look bright and fascinating in the eyes of men are coated with deadly poison. To Eve, the fruit looked good but it eventually spelt doom for her.

There was a sister who needed a husband badly and her prayer point was “O Lord, give me a rich, tall and handsome husband.” Eventually, she found one man who was attending a church as if he was born-again. Thereafter they started to talk about marriage. However, whenever there was a prayer meeting she noticed that the man could not pray more than two minutes, and he did not like calling the name of Jesus. That did not bother the sister. As long as the man was rich and had a fast car, she was okay, or so she thought. They did the marriage and on the second night after their wedding, she woke up in the middle of the night to find her husband at an altar in his bedroom naked and uttering some strange words that made no meaning to her. She was terrified and asked him how the altar got inside their bedroom. To her amazement, the man said, “Don’t worry, wait on that bed for your husband. I am not your husband. Your husband will soon come.” And truly, somebody walked in from nowhere.

When the relevant questions are not asked, it leads to problem. A brother came to a pastor and told him that he wanted to marry a certain girl and the pastor advised him to go and pray. After sometime, he came back and told the pastor that he had prayed. The pastor urged him to go and pray again. When a pastor tells you to go and pray again, he must have seen something, which he wants you too to discover. The brother went ahead and married the girl. When they got home after the wedding ceremony, the brother said they should pray. He prayed and the sister refused to say Amen. When he asked her why, she screamed at him and warmed him never to call on the name of Jesus again. Why? Correct questions were not asked.

I also know a fellow who went into business. He started with cocoa export. One day, he came complaining that the information given to him concerning his business was very strange. He was told that the ship carrying his cocoa had disappeared. The question was how could a whole ship disappear? Anyway, he lost everything. Then he started again, this time on wood business and invested a large sum of money. His major customer, a white man, came to him and said that the wood he sold to him had been infested with insects and that was how everything he had invested in that business got wasted too. So, we need to ask questions.

IS IT POSSIBLE FOR A CHRISTIAN TO HAVE PROBLEM?

One question, which people have been asking through the ages, is: Why does God allow problems? A lot of people even say that God is unfair to them. Before we consider this question, I would like you to bow down your head and pray like this: “I receive the sword of fire to disgrace stubborn mountains, in the name of Jesus.”

A Christian can have a problem but the problem must not have the Christian. That is the most important thing. The Bible says that all things work together for good for us, children of the Almighty.

1. God does allow Christians to have problems because problems keep us from being attracted to the world. They keep us from becoming too attracted or too attached to this sinking world. They are to remind us that everything happening here is transient and temporal. I Peter 2:11: “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” We are strangers and pilgrims. That is what the Bible says. The problems we encounter are all to remind us that this world is not our home. Woe unto that person whose life on earth makes him forget heaven, because he is not going anywhere but hell fire. The world is full of grief and wickedness. It is not designed to be attractive for very long. As believers, we are pilgrims passing by. We are travelling strangers here and so our activities should be geared towards reaching the better world.
2. Adversity or problem brings out the best in us. Many people would have remained spiritual babies forever if not for problems that kept on harassing them. I was invited somewhere for lunch and there I met a man with slightly grey hair. To me he resembled a pastor. So, when the meal was presented I requested him to pray on the food. The man stood up and read a psalm. He read the second and yet the third, fourth, fifth and up to the seventh. Meanwhile the food was getting cold. He read the psalms off-hand. After the seventh psalm, he started praying. He prayed for about ten minutes before we sat down to eat. Some of the people there were not very happy. I became very interested to know more about him, so I moved my chair over to his side and asked him how come he was able to memorise and recite seven psalms non stop. I said, “Sir, if you can read seven psalms like that because you want to eat, I am sure that by the time you want to really pray, you will not stop until you have read 14.”. He said, “That is right. I know all of them off-hand.” I later got to know that he was forced to memorise all the book of psalms when he had serious problems and wanted to be free from satanic oppression. Perhaps a man like that would never have bothered to read the Bible, let alone memorizing some verses. Therefore, problems and adversities have the capacity of bringing out the best in us. Only a bad school will promote a student who did not pass.

During my days in the primary school, pupils with very bad results were paraded before all the other students in the school at the end of every year. The shame that accompanied such exercise really energized them to perform better in subsequent examinations.

I know that so many sisters would have loved to be at the Barbeach or other resort centers enjoying with their spouses. But because of one or two slaps from satan, they have been turned into prayer addicts and consequently champions.

It is problems that drove many people into receiving eternal life. Many would not have been born again if not for the adversity that pushed them to Jesus and when their problems were solved, they stuck to Him. A lot of people entered into heaven because they were chased into it. Many too, have made heaven because they were scared of hell fire. Perhaps they heard that hell fire is bad and people should not dream of going there, so they determined never to be candidates of that place.

3. They give us occasion to silence the enemies of God. When the enemies of God have held their meetings and have concluded their plans to utterly destroy a child of God with the confidence that nothing can disturb them, then the Fourth Man in the fire comes up and scatters all their forces. Problems give room for God’s enemies to be silenced. If a person has never had a problem, he would never know whether God could solve it. If a person had never had a problem, he would never know what having faith in the Lord could do. Pharaoh had a field day for over 430 years, maltreating God’s children. Then, it looked as if God was sleeping. But when Moses appeared at the scene and demanded that Pharaoh should let God’s people go and he refused, God showed him who He is.

Nebuchadnezzar raised up an idol and commanded everybody to worship it. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego told him that they could only worship the Almighty God. Nebuchadnezzar threatened to put them in the fiery furnace and they told him that the God whom they served could deliver them. Nebuchadnezzar asked a question: “Who is that God that will deliver you from my hand?” What happened? The Lord silenced him.

Sennacherib too was harassing the children of God. He said: “The gods of other nations which I have conquered were not able to defend them why do you think that your own God can deliver you? Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. Bring all your wives and everything here.” What happened to Sennacherib? He was disgraced and silenced.

There was a case of some demonic people who wanted to disgrace some children of God. The idea was to drop a corpse near their church to make it looked as if the church of God was into some sort of ritual activities. They brought the corpse around 4.00 a.m. but as they were about to drop it, an angel of God who was waiting for them ordered them to hold it and stand there. Their hands were glued to the corpse and their feet glued to the spot. They could neither drop it nor go away. That was the position at which the church members met them when they arrived that morning. Of course, God engineered that disgrace. And so shall all your enemies be disgraced today, in the name of Jesus.

4. Problems or adversities make us to appreciate the goodness of God. Many people take divine blessings for granted while quite a lot do not even know how to thank God for His goodness. A certain preacher went somewhere to preach and prayed a long prayer for healing. After the prayer, he said, “If you know that you have been healed, come out and testify.” Out of about 2,000 people, only one person came and said, “I was having a slight headache when I came here but that headache has gone. Praise the Lord.” The preacher was so sad because he expected more miracles to have taken place. He was not appreciative. When he got home that night, an angel of the Lord came to him and said, “You think that healing of headache is a small thing? We are going to test it on you so you can understand how it is.” The headache started and was on for a week. It was as if his head would drop off. He cried a cry of repentance to the Lord, before he was healed. When you have a problem and the Lord moves in to solve it for you, you should appreciate His goodness.
5. Problems or adversities make us to depend on God and increase our confidence in Him who is our Maker and Husband. When all other things have failed and you now depend on His mercy, He rises to help. When all the consultants and doctors have done all they could over an ailment, when money and knowledge have failed, then God is the next option to totally fall back on.
6. Adversity or problem purifies us. When there is a problem, you have to search your life and confess every failure and shortcomings to God. As you are trying to see that sin does not stand in the way of your prayers, you become a better person. You become toughened and stronger. Many Bible characters that we read about today passed through trials and came out victorious hence we are reading about them. Just as exercise is necessary for the body, problems serve as tonic for spiritual growth. When you solve a problem, you climb another step on the ladder of maturity. In every adversity there is a seed of goodness. Every hardship should make a Christian better. That is why somebody said, “To recognise the usefulness of an anchor, you must feel the storm.” If you have never felt any storm, you will not know the importance of an anchor in the ship.
7. Sometimes, a problem is a discipline from the Lord. God chastises His children much as earthly fathers correct their children to make them better. Deuteronomy 8:5 speaks on this. It says, “Thou shall also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee.” Psalm 118:18 also says, “The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.”

If the Lord sees that you are speeding too much with your vehicle, He could decide to puncture your tyres, so that when you are busy fixing the tyres, you will escape from accident that lies ahead. Hebrews 12: 5 – 6: “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” So, if you are a child of God and you get out of the track, He will knock you back into it, even if He had to grind your nose against the wall to get you back. The important thing is to get you saved.

8. God allows problems to make us sympathetic with others. When somebody has not experienced a particular problem, he will not know how it feels. But if he has gone through it he would be able to sympathise with others.
9. Adversity humbles a person. It stops us from over-valuing ourselves. Paul said he had a thorn in the flesh so that he would not be puffed up beyond measure.
10. Problems teach us how to pray. Your prayers become different when you are a warrior. Take the case of a brother whose wife was pregnant and about to give birth. He took the woman to one of the best hospitals and there, he was told to pick between the wife and the baby because one of them must die. The man requested to be given sometime. He ran to his best friend. This was on a Thursday night. His friend advised him that since the doctors could not help the situation there was a programme called Power Must Change Hands where he knew that God would do it for him, but that he would need to fast for one and a half days. The husband of the pregnant woman lamented that he usually ate his breakfast by 10 am. The brother encouraged him and the man resolved to fast to keep his wife alive. He was given some prayer points which he prayed the whole of Friday and resisted every temptation to break his fast. But at 3 a.m. the following day which was the day of the programme, he felt like dying. He could neither walk nor talk. His friend who recommended the programme for him had told him to be at the church at 6 a.m. but as at that time, he could not hold his car key not to talk of driving the car. He phoned his neighbour and asked him to drive him to the church, the venue of the programme. He dragged himself to MFM that day. By the time we prayed for a little while, there was a word from the Lord concerning his situation. His wife and baby had been delivered. Here was a man who had never fasted before but when he was forced to do it, his lot changed. Many people learn fire prayers in the school of affliction.

Difficulties bring out the talents in people. God is like a surgeon who will tell you, “I may hurt you, but I will not injure you.” You have to be completely melted before you can be molted up. Human beings are like a tea bag. Until you pour hot water on it, it will not cooperate with you. Until God pours hot water into some lives, they won’t be useful.

Therefore, today, even as you are about to finish reading this message, I want you to know that there is a God in heaven who knows all secrets. He said in Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Whatsoever may be the problems you are having now, no matter what mountain may be confronting you, just know that they are ordinary raw materials preparing you for a great testimony. Remember, weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Put all your trust in God and He will never fail you.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every good thing my hands have started to build, my hands shall finish them, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every dream of poverty, I dash you to the ground, in the name of Jesus.
3. I will arise above all the unbelievers around me, in the name of Jesus.
4. Every war waged against my staff of bread, receive double disgrace, in Jesus’ name.
5. Every satanic hunter of my career, receive double frustration, in the name of Jesus.
6. Any power hiding my key of promotion, loose your hold, in the name of Jesus.

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IDOLS OF THE HEART

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Ezekiel 14:1-4:“There came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their tale: Should I be enquired of it all by them? Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Every man of the house of Israel that set up his idols in his heart, and pulleth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols.” Ezekiel 14:9-10: “And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing. I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hands upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him.”
The elders of Israel came to the man of God to enquire of the Lord. You would have thought that somebody who needed to go and see a prophet would mean well by doing so, but they went there with idols in their hearts, and because they had idols in their hearts, the Lord said the reply they would get would be according to the idols that were already in their hearts. That is, if anyone has an idol inside his heart, and he goes to a prophet for information, God would ask that prophet to answer him according to the idol in his heart and the person ends up getting the wrong information.

Many people have secret idols hidden in the chambers of their hearts from the sight of men but not God. And these idols decide sometimes what they get from God, Hebrews 4:13: Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” So, as far as God is concerned, all the things that many people try to hide are open before Him. But the problem is that the Christian idols are harder to recognize than the others.

When I was in junior school, I was taught a song that says, “Break down every idol in your heart.” I could not understand it because I thought it was not possible since I was a Christian and we did not worship idols in our house. My idea of an idol was the carved head of Ogun or any other graven image. But as I got matured, I began to understand what the Lord means by breaking down the idols in our hearts. The Bible says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). When the heart is filled up, it would pour out through the mouth. Those talkative most of the time speak from their hearts and not from their brains. That which a person has in his heart will eventually come out. Sometime ago, I was counseling a couple. The wife said something and the man got angry and said that the God of iron should break the head of her father. I said, “But you are a Christian, why are you talking like that?” He said he was sorry. The truth is that that was how his heart was working. You may try to hide but a time is coming when you will be exposed. The Bible says that everything is naked before God. All fornicators and adulterers are naked before God like a television set.

There was a man who refused to give his life to Christ even though he was the son of a catechist. One day, as he was sitting down, somebody tapped him on the shoulder and said, “You have an appointment?” He said, “Appointment?” Before he could understand what was happening, the person pulled his spirit out of his body as one would pull off clothes from another person. Behold, it was an angel of the living God. “Where are we going?” he asked the angel. The angel said, “Be patient, you will know very soon.” Eventually, he landed before the throne of God and could not behold the glory. God called him by his name and told him that he was 25 years behind schedule of what He wanted him to do for Him. God said to him, “Before I start on you, let us look at a review of your life.” And all of a sudden, there was something like a television set and the brother was watching his life right from the moment his mother gave birth to him. He saw all the funny love letters he had written, all the fornication he had committed, all the abortions he sponsored and encouraged, etc. Everything was so clear. After he had watched to a point, he begged God to turn it off for he could not stand it any longer. That experience changed the man’s life.

Any person or thing that can replace God in your heart has become an idol. Anything you place before God or side by side with Him has become an idol. The moment the affection you are giving to God is given to any other thing or person, that substitute becomes an idol. A lot of Christians have secret idols in their hearts and these idols put them in trouble. At this juncture, I would like you to close your eyes, lay your hand on your chest and pray like this: “O Lord, show me the idols in my heart, in the name of Jesus.”

When some people come to see a man of God. They forget that it is not every time that God has a message for them. They would want to force the man of God to see a vision for them. Sometimes when you pray with such people and tell them that God says everything is fine, they can go, they will not believe because they have idols in their hearts.

Sometime ago, a man and a woman came to see me. The woman requested me to help the man., that his enemies were destroying him. As I started praying it was as if my prayers were bouncing back to me. I stopped and asked the woman to go out. After she left, I asked the man who she was, and he said she was just somebody who was concerned about his situation I asked if that was all and he said yes. I asked him to go too. Later, they came back and the man said “Please, sir, forgive me I can see that it is not good to tell lies to a man of God. That woman is supposed to be my fourth wife. I am just planning to marry her.” This confirms what the bible says, that the Lord will answer them according to the idols in their hearts.

A lot of singles have already made up their minds concerning the type of people they would like to marry before praying to God to show them who to marry. As a result, they find it difficult to accept God’s will for their lives. God eventually gives them the idols they want. Pray this prayer point: “O Lord, deliver me from secret idols, in the name of Jesus.”

If you are a good Bible reader, you will find that there is a man whom the bible does not talk well about. His name is Jeroboam the son of Nebat. The Bible describes anybody that committed a serious offence in the Bible as Jeroboam the son of Nebat. He was a yardstick. What was his offence? He set up an idol in Dan and another one in Bethel and called the people of Israel together and said, “You house of Israel, behold the god that delivered thee from the land of Egypt.” Before Jeroboam started putting the physical idols on ground, the idols started in his heart. Along the line, something happened. Jeroboam’s son became sick and because Jeroboam was far away from God he did not know that the prophet of God in Israel was already blind. He told his wife to take the child to the prophet and find out from him whether the son would die or live. He also asked her to disguise herself so that the prophet would not recognize her. As the wife of Jeroboam, who had dressed like a man got to the door of the prophet who was blind and knocked, behold a voice sounded from inside saying, “Come thou in you wife of Jeroboam, why frameth thyself to be another?” (Why are you pretending to be another person?) Before she could open the door, the prophet went further to tell her why she had come.

Many people who come to church find it difficult to function in any group because none of the groups is ready to admit them because they still paint their faces. Such people keep running around just because of an idol. If the Lord tells you to serve Him in an area with a condition attached to it and you do not want to abide by the condition, it means that you have another god.

Those who find it difficult to put away their false finger nails, attachments and make-ups need deliverance because those things have become idols in their lives. Beloved, think about these things seriously.

When God gave Saul an instruction, he carried it out in his own way and God told him, “Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of ram.” God also told him that stubbornness is an iniquity as idolatry and rebellion is as witchcraft (Samuel 15:22-23). So, a witch and a rebellious person are twin brothers in hell fire. A stubborn person and an idol worshipper are the same thing before God.

Nowadays, we have a lot of modern-day idols that people worship. They include the following:

1. Money: A lot of people now just keep running after money all the time. They do not understand any other language except money. When you tell them to get serious with the Lord, they would say, “I will become very serious with the Lord when I make my first million.” When you ask them to come to night vigils, they will tell you that they must do over-time to make ends meet. They do not know that the only person that can make ends meet is the Lord Jesus. I know a man who had a simple boil on his neck that cost him more than half of his salary to treat. So, at the end of the day, it is only God that can make ends meet. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all other things shall be added unto you,” The Bible says. But when you start seeking all other things before the kingdom, you have an idol in your heart. The Bible says, “I have been young but now I am old, I have not seen the righteous being forsaken or his children begging bread.” There is no man who sought the kingdom of God and got it that ever remained poor. What is the use of gathering money and at the end of the day, you go to hell fire? What is the use of gathering money and at the end of the day, some people are just waiting for you to die so that they can fight and kill themselves over the money they did not make?
2. The world: There are so many fellowships now where all they talk about is financial prosperity. According to them, if you are a herbalist, a thief, or a fornicator, God will prosper you. They say, “Come whoever you are and donate money.”
3. Fame: A lot of people are looking for popularity. They just want to be known. Without knowing that if the whole world knows you and God does not know you, you are wasting your time.
4. Pleasure: People just want to relax and enjoy themselves.
5. Power.
6. Knowledge: Some people have turned their certificates to their god. God hates idolatry with perfect hatred. Once you give what is due to God to an object, special demons move in and turn that thing into something powerful. The internal idols will then invite wicked spirits from outside. Until these internal idols are destroyed, you cannot make a headway as a Christian.

Let us look at the secret idols that many Christians are going about with. You will do yourself a lot of good to look deeply into your spirit because these may be the things that the enemy is using to harass you and you think it is witches or wizards that are harassing you.

1. Unforgiveness. This is common amongst Christians. Many Christians harbour malice in their hearts concerning others. If you are living in a house and you cannot get on with the people there, not because of your faith but because they are abusing you, or they ask you to sweep or keep your things somewhere, then you have an idol. You may try to prove that you are right but you have an idol, which you must pull down. Unforgivenness in the heart is an idol. Some people cannot forgive their pastors, group leaders, university lecturers, etc. Don’t forget that anytime you come to God with an idol in your heart, the first thing that the enemy would say is, “O God, hold on, look at this.” And the unforgiving idol will say, “I am here, sir.”

Sometime ago, a woman came to me for prayers. She complained that things were rough and her business was grounded. As I was praying, the Lord said, “Son, there is somebody this woman does not want to forgive.” I opened my eyes and said, “Madam there is somebody you do not want to forgive. God says you should first of all forgive that person before any other thing.” She looked at me and said it was her husband. I asked her to forgive him. She said no, that the man had hurt her badly. She said when they were poor and struggling, the man did not abandon her. But when they became rich, the man went and took a girl, the age of their last daughter, as second wife and abandoned her. So she would not forgive him. I told her that the Bible says she must forgive him no matter what he had done. She went away in anger because I refused to pray for her. But the next day, she came back and said she was ready to forgive him. After she repented and forgave the man and we prayed, all the miracles that she had been asking for, for five years came within a week. And things have been going on well for her since then.

2. Bitterness.
3. Jealousy.
4. Envy.
5. Hatred. Unforgiveness, bitterness, jealousy and envy give birth to hatred. There is no how these three things will be in the life of a person and the person will not have hatred inside. And any believer that has hatred against anybody and does not repent will go to hell fire.
6. Discouragement. Many people get easily discouraged. They lose hope when their prayers are not answered quickly or when they are disappointed. In a vision, a sister saw the shop of the devil. In that shop, she saw hypertension, diabetes, bad luck and all sorts of things with their price tags. She asked the devil, “Mr. Devil, what is the most expensive item in your store?” The devil told her it was discouragement. He told her that once he was able to get believers discouraged, he captured them. She asked him, “When does discouragement come to a person?” He explained to her that discouragements sets in after depression; and both of them give birth to hopelessness. Sometimes when somebody is heading towards a miracle and the devil wants to hinder the person, he uses discouragement.
7. Worry. The reason some people are looking older than their age is because of worry. They worried over any little thing.
8. Confusion. Confusion gives birth to fear. This is present in many lives and is an idol. It must be cast out today.
9. Impatience. Impatience is the opposite of patience. Patient is a virtue. The patient person always laughs last. But the impatient person will spoil the blessing that God has for him. The perfect wife or husband is the one who agrees that he or she is not married to a perfect partner.
10. Selfishness.
11. Evil thoughts. These give birth to evil imaginations. Many Christians commit sins in their hearts. No serious Christian will bow down to physically carved idols but they worship the idols inside their hearts. You see believers watching films, which they are not supposed to watch. This is because of the idol in their hearts.
12. Doubt. Many believers are clever doubters like Thomas. Thomas said, “Well I am a honest doubter. I am not asking for too much. All I am saying is, let Jesus come and show me His hand because I saw Him when He died on the cross and I was there when He was buried. Now you say He has resurrected. I will also like to touch the holes in His hands and feet because the holes cannot heal within three days.” So, when Jesus got there, He said, “Thomas it is because you have seen me that is why you believe. But blessed are those who have not seen me and yet they believe.” That simple word he told Thomas changed the life of Thomas. He died preaching the gospel. Doubt is an idol and the Bible says a doubting man is like the wave of the sea. Such a person does not believe that he can receive anything from the Lord. Some people have high level of doubt. Such people even ask if there is God at all. Some people doubt so much that they do not even believe that witches exist.
13. Indecision. This is another idol, which has destroyed so many people.
14. Pride. Pride leads to self-exaltation and unteachable spirit.

All these secret idols must be chased out by the Lion of Judah. The problem of the idol is that it hinders the move of God. God is saying, “Clear away the idols. Cast them into the fire. Then you can see what I can do.” There was a medical doctor who died. When he died, his wife prayed that he must come alive again. She prayed for hours. Eventually the man came back to life and narrated what he saw when he died. He saw himself arriving somewhere. In that place, somebody held him by the right hand, another person held him by the left hand and they were dragging him away. He first of all thought that they were dragging him to heaven but as they dragged him along, he felt heat on his face. He remembered the Bible and thought: “If this place is heaven the breeze will not be uncomfortable.” Then he began to appeal to them to leave him alone. He said he was born again, and that they should not drag him to hell fire. They did not listen. Then they dragged him to the edge of hell fire. He said people were being dumped into hell fire like tipper lorry tips sand down. He was amazed and suddenly as they were about to throw him inside, a voice sounded from above, “Release him.” And they left him. Immediately they released him the devil came out and said, “O God, You have no right to take this man to heaven, because he is free from all sins apart from one, and that is idolatry of the heart.” Just one, but many of us are committing serious sins daily. God said, “Okay, agreed” (The devil does not tell lies against anybody. If the devil is reporting you to God, he tells God the truth. But you cannot tell God a lie anyway). God said. “Devil, you are right. I am not taking this man to heaven, because he is not qualified as you have said, but at the same time, I will not allow him to go to hell fire now because of his wife.” The importunate prayers of his wife compelled God to send him back to life. Although that man was a Sunday School Teacher and he taught the Bible very well, there was an idol hidden in him.

On the last day, if an idol is still in a person apart from the idol hindering his blessing, the person cannot go to heaven. Our greatest prayer should be: “O Lord, break down every idol in our hearts, in the name of Jesus.”

If you have not given your life to Jesus, and you try to remove any idol from your heart, the idol will resist you because you belong to the same camp. So, to be able to break the idols in your heart, you must give your life to Christ.

PRAYER POINTS

1. O Lord, break down every idol in my heart, in the name of Jesus.
2. I cast out every idol from my heart, in the name of Jesus.
3. I break down every hidden idol, in the name of Jesus.
4. Let the fire of God boil all rivers harboring my enemies, in the name of Jesus.
5. Let the blood of Jesus wipe off all my evil dreams, in the name of Jesus.
6. I destroy every satanic accident organized for my sake, in the name of Jesus.

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MADNESS OF THE MIND

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

We are looking at a very important topic this week. It is what I call, “Madness of the mind.” Ecclesiastes 9: 3: “This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.”

When the mind is sick, a lot of things go wrong. In fact, most things go wrong. This is why the writer of the book of Proverbs screamed out in Proverbs 4: 23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” That means it involves taking action with all seriousness, and making sure that you barricade your mind so that you can keep it well, because out of it are the issues of life. Mark 12: 30: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”

DIFFERENT KINDS OF MADNESS

1. Low- level madness: Examples of low-level madness:
   When a so-called male prophet washes an adult woman by the river at night, it is madness but a low level one. So is somebody who loses his temper and suddenly begins to vibrate and fume in anger. Also, at times, you see some people roaming the street, ringing bells and sometimes they reel out a stereo-type message of “repent ye for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Among them are women who bleach their skin and insane looking men. What do you think is wrong with them. Madness, but low level. There are many mad people in our streets wearing clothes and looking normal but they are not normal.
2. Middle level madness:
   There is also the middle level madness. This is the stage before complete madness takes place.
3. Complete madness:
   This is full-blown madness.
   As madness of the mind is in the physical, so it is in the spirit. When somebody runs mad, it means the person has lost his inhibition. He is like a drunken man who doesn’t bother about what is going on around him.

What does it mean when the mind runs mad?
The mind is the battlefield of man. And once the mind is captured, the battle of life becomes very tough. That is why the greatest battlefield is the mind. A lot of people roaming around the hospitals would do a lot better if they could pray for the healing and deliverance of their minds. Many things could go wrong with the mind. Let us look at some of the symptoms of a mad mind.

MAJOR SYMPTOMS OF A MAD MIND

1. Worry: It is spiritual madness for a person who sings joyfully in a church service to get home only to become dejected and be saying, “God, are you sleeping about my plight.” It is spiritual madness. This contrast indicates that something is wrong with the person. Such a person has something removing his faith from the Lord, which he needs to address, otherwise the warfare will continue until he surrenders to the devil by confessing eventually that nothing is working. When faith goes out of the window of your heart it will invite doubt, and when doubt comes in, it will invite his elder brother which is fear, and when fear comes in it invites its younger brother worry. When worry comes in, all kinds of things will begin to move in too. So, if you are a worry bag who would confess that God is almighty, who is able to do all things, but immediately you get home from the church, the devil comes in and starts to remind you of some negative things in your life and you give in to him and as a result you break down, it is madness of the mind.
2. The feeling of uselessness: There are some people who feel worthless and useless. They complain of trying many things without success. They therefore contemplate suicide. So the devil will quickly capitalize on their thoughts of suicide to attack them. He may suggest that they jump from the top of the bridge into the lagoon. He may persuade them to hang themselves or use other means. This is nothing but madness of the mind. It is a normal thing with unbelievers, but for Christians, there is no basis for it. You either believe the Bible for what it is or you stick to other things.
3. Depression: The Bible has another name for depression. It is called the spirit of heaviness. A victim of this spirit feels as if there is a big load in the spirit pressing him down and making it difficult for him to move. The spirit of depression can make a person to lock up himself and refrain from talking to anybody. Whoever suffers from depression will also give room for other demons to attack him. And when they move in, the person’s case can result in serious mental problems. It originated from the mind.
4. High-mindedness: The victims of high mindedness don’t want to start from something low. They focus on high things. The devil is happy with people with high mind because he would make them to scatter the table of good things prepared for them by themselves. A high-minded person may be saying “I want to have my own wedding in the airplane so that when it is flying around, I will break record.” This is high-mindedness. It is madness of the mind. Some minds sometimes decide to run contrary to the peace of a person.
5. Sadness: This feeling of hopelessness comes when one’s situation is bad and the person does not know what to do. When somebody had asked God for forgiveness for a sin he committed and God had forgiven him, the person still nurses the feeling that he has not been forgiven and attributes every misfortune that befalls him to his past sins. God will look down from heaven to discover that he is the one accusing himself.
6. Dwelling on the past: Yesterday is gone. It is too late to worry about it since you cannot go back to it. It is madness of the mind to dwell on the past.
7. Unnecessary agitation: Getting perplexed and agitated and the inability to concentrate is a sign that there is madness in a mind. Inability to read the Bible with understanding and lack of prayer is part of madness of the mind.
8. Lack of confidence: This is also a sign of madness of the mind.

MINOR SYMPTOMS OF A MAD MIND

2. Fear of death.
3. Loss of motivation.
4. Frequent desire to cry.
5. Feeling of isolation.

The human mind is the greatest vagabond in the universe. For example, as you are reading this message now, your mind may be somewhere else. If you don’t put this vagabond mind under control, it will eventually cause problem for you. Many minds have cobwebs forming in them. As God is willing to shine a new light into them, they are withdrawing from it. They want to continue in their former ways without knowing that it is only a change that can bring progress. This is because most people hate change. They prefer things to continue the same way. Many people who claim they have open minds don’t really have open minds, what they have is a blank space. Jesus did not have that kind of open mind. He pronounced woes to the scribes and the Pharisees without mincing words.

Jesus was the only person who spoke most about hell fire. He told the most truth we know about hell fire. He makes us to know that the place is not prepared for us but the devil. However, if we are prepared to go with the devil, we will get there. Therefore Christians don’t have the kind of liberality that people are claiming now.

When somebody’s mind is very little, little things would wound him in the heart. Great minds are not easily hurt. Somebody was addressed as a brother and he felt slighted and got angry and said, “Do you know what God has deposited in me? Why are you calling me a brother? Call me a pastor.” Things like this will definitely bother little minds, but great minds would remain unperturbed. Anyone who thinks constantly about himself alone will be discouraged. Note this truth. Another truth to be noted is that it takes a strong mind to control a wild tongue. If your mind is weak then your tongue will be loose. When your mind is not renewed with the word of God and there is no fire in it, it becomes a dumping ground for all kinds of rubbish. The devil will give you topics to be deliberating upon. It is a very dangerous thing to invite enemies into your mind. This is why anger is bad.

A strongman is the head of the demons in charge of a location. At the gate of his palace is the demon of anger, standing, looking cool and normally well dressed like an executive gateman. But when you get angry, he would open the gate and beckon to his colleagues like hypertension, diabetes, and other diseases to surround you. Thereafter, he locks his door and waits for your next moment of madness.

It is even more dangerous when one’s mind has been taken over without one knowing it. If your mind is not free from evil influences, you will become the property of the devil no matter how bright you look on the face and the Bible College you attended. That is why the Bible says; you should renew your mind with the word of God. When you get born again, it does not mean that your mind is completely cleared of all the rubbish of the world. But as you continue to renew your mind with the word of God, you pass it through the clearing process. It is a daily affair. It is certain that if you win a person’s mind, you will have him and when you capture his thoughts, you will control him, that is the trick of the devil. No wonder satan fights to gain control of the minds of men because he knows that once he gets it, all other things are easy. 2 Corinthians 11: 3: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

When the devil came to Eve, he manipulated her, and gave her the impression that God was telling them a lie. He fed her with wrong information which introduced doubt into her mind, and eventually he got her. I want you to lay your hands on your chest and pray seriously with holy anger like this: “My mind, go back to your resting place in the name of Jesus.”

WHY DO SOME PEOPLE’S MINDS WANDER DURING PRAYERS?

No matter how hot the prayer tempo is, some people’s minds still wander during prayers. You find that people who sincerely want to serve God cannot remember the information passed to them by the Lord in their dreams. They forget easily. The mind of man is like a tester and the extent to which you allow it to influence your thoughts is the extent to which it can control you. You may claim to be speaking in tongues, but the devil may be controlling you. In fact, the devil must work with the human minds or else he has nothing to work with. Even all the bodily afflictions originate from the human mind. The heart is the centre of serious warfare. The Bible makes us to understand that the devil has immediate and instant access to the human mind. He has a complete picture of your thoughts, imaginations, motives, intentions and secret ambitions and is familiar with your strengths and weaknesses. And if you permit him either by carelessness or ignorance, he would plant evil ideas into your mind. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Many of us like to forget our mistakes or faults, but the devil does not forget at all. He starts every wrong feeling and passion. He gives appetizing suggestions, which correspond with a person’s weakness. If he discovers that something is your weakness, he would use it against you. For example, if you were prone to crying, he would always bring things against you that would make you to cry. But the day you say, “No, I refuse to be a student in the school of crying,” he will not be able to use it against you again. If you were a worry bag, he would always cause you to be thinking. If you were the fighting type, there would be many people opposing you. But the day you said that you are not going to fight anybody no matter the provocation, he would loose the battle in that area and look for another area. If you were the gluttonous type, he would always put you in trouble through food. He makes wrong appearance as right and darkness as light. He is an expert at introducing deception into the hearts of careless people.

When the mind is not working according to God’s wish, mental and physical ailment, failure, defeat, poverty, family breakdown, oppression, suicide, profitless hardwork, chronic sicknesses and strife will follow. What we are saying is that your life is determined by the state of your mind and what you feed into it. What you think about is what will decide what happens. I would like you to close your eyes at this juncture and pray like this: “O Lord, shine your divine light into my mind and let all strangers fly away, in the name of Jesus.”

PARTS OF HUMAN MIND

The mind of man has two parts:

1. The conscious mind. 2. The subconscious mind.

The conscious mind is the tiny portion of the whole person, while the sub-conscious mind is the larger part of it. This means that if I speak to you and you respond by speaking back to me, then your subconscious mind is at work. But inside that sub-conscious mind, we find long forgotten memories, and experiences of childhood stocked there. When the subconscious mind is filled with dirt and you combine it with the physical environment that lacks Christ, the mind will run mad. Our subconscious mind must be renewed, changed, reprogrammed and be made to conform to Christ. Failure to do this will make the mind to fall under evil control. This is where Philippians 4: 8 becomes relevant. It says, “Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” These are the things the Bible says we should be thinking about. It says our minds should not be dwelling on lies but on honest things. Anytime dishonesty comes into you, throw it out. Your mind should not welcome impure thoughts and the report of the enemy. Failure to do this will result in the mind falling under evil control.

THE MIND CAN BE ATTACKED IN SEVEN WAYS

1. The forces of Egypt: This is a situation when satan and his cohorts come against one’s spiritual progress, advancement and understanding. This can result in frustration and confusion. Have you been born again for some years and you do not seem to be making headway in life? Do not listen to the voice of the devil telling you to go back into the world. One of the greatest tragedies that can happen is for a person who was once born again to begin to use charms and patronize herbalists. It is like saying that the devil is more powerful than God. This is a big lie. Anyone who denies God for whatever reason would be in trouble. Such a person will never prosper. The intention of the spirit of Egypt is to cause a backward movement. It is good to prosper. In fact, a child of God is designed to prosper exceedingly, but if your prosperity is not balanced with holiness, you will go to hell fire.
2. The forces of suppression: These forces cause one’s spiritual life to be dominated by fear.
3. The forces of depression and heaviness: They discourage people and make them sad.
4. The forces of oppression: They weigh people down and keep them from using their authority. They cause physical and mental distress. Majority of churchgoers experience one form of oppression or the other.
5. The forces of obsession: These forces besiege the mind in an abnormal way. They can change the mind and force the victim to take unreasonable actions.
6. The forces of possession: When the forces of possession enter a person, they gain total control over the person and make it difficult for the person to reach God. Such a person will eventually run mad if care is not taken.

HOW DO WE CURE THE MADNESS OF THE MIND?

1. Recognize that there is a problem. When you know that there is a problem, you have started addressing it.
2. Accept the Lord Jesus Christ fully. Don’t be a part-time Christian.
3. Surrender totally to Christ. Every unsurrendered area of your life will open the door to the enemy. When you are not surrendered to Jesus and you lack commitment to Him, you open the door of your life for the enemy to enter. Demons know whether you have surrendered or not. You can accept Jesus, but to surrender and to be committed is another thing.
4. Commit yourself completely to Jesus.
5. Study the word of God.
6. Pray all evil deposits out of your mind.

It is the devil that takes away people’s attention from Jesus. He engineers bad thoughts, evil imagination and evil desires. All these take place in the mind and if they are purged from the mind, the person’s life will be affected. If the tree of poverty is planted in a person’s mind, it does not matter how much you give to him, he would still be poor because he would carry out all the suggestions that tend to poverty. Therefore, you need to pray the following prayer points aggressively:

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every power of familiar spirit and witchcraft working against my mind, release me now, in the name of Jesus.
2. I frustrate every demonic arrest over my mind, in the name of Jesus.
3. Holy Ghost fire; destroy every satanic plantation in my mind, in Jesus’ name.
4. I bind every spirit withstanding testimony in my life, in the name of Jesus.
5. Every river of backwardness flowing into my mind, dry up, in Jesus’ name.
6. Every evil association with un-friendly friends, break now, in Jesus’ name.
7. I destroy anything representing me in any demonic meeting, in Jesus’ name.

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MY LIFE IS NOT FOR SALE

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

The Bible makes us to understand that the spiritual existed first before the physical. Once you understand this principle, many things become clear. The Bible also makes us to understand that things like bondage, freedom, power, anointing, etc. are spiritual items and if they are not sorted out in the spiritual realm, you are wasting your time in the physical. Real power is not in the physical world but in the spiritual world. The children of darkness understand this fact very well.

Ezekiel 13:18-19 : “Thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls. Will you hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you? And will you pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?” In the foregoing, we could see an exchange-taking place. The souls that are not supposed to die are being slain. They are not supposed to die but they are slain to save the souls that should not live. There are also some people that are destined to die but they look for the lives of younger persons, snuff them out and add theirs to themselves . They save alive the souls that should not live by lying to the people that hear their lies.

Verses 20-21: “Wherefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against your pillows (pillows in original Hebrew means magic band), wherewith ye hunt the souls to make them fly (meaning that people can be initiated unconsciously), and I will tear them from your arms and will let the souls go even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly. Your kerchiefs also will I tear and deliver my people out of your hands and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” So, deliverance is needed to get out of their grip.

This is an interesting Scripture. Some people are using magic bands to trade the souls of men. The souls that should normally be at rest, they make them to fly. This is why when some people are asleep, they face battles. There are people after their souls, exchanging their souls for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread. Somebody went to a herbalist and said, “I want to destroy this person,” and he was asked to go and bring kolanut and goat, which would be used to snuff out the person’s soul. These are powers that engage in selling souls. They exchange things. That is why I said, “My life is not for sale.”

All reasonable people sell disposable things, but when a man decides to sell an indispensable item, it means that spiritual madness has crept in. Many lives are on sale. Many are being sold now and many have been sold. There is something in the spirit world known as prostitution of the soul, that is, when the soul of a person becomes a prostitute in the spirit world, all kinds of things will be happening to the soul of the person in the physical. There are people who complain that all night when they sleep, they always see spirit husband. Such people may have become prostitutes in the spirit; they have been sold off. It is very sad.

Jesus says, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul. With what can a man make exchange for his soul? Nothing.

When the soul of a person is out on sale, it is a great problem. Jesus says, “What can you give in exchange for a soul?” In Ezekiel 13, we see people exchanging souls of men for mere pieces of bread. So, the worst enemies of men are soul traders. They hunt for souls and trade with souls.

Revelation 18:11 says, “And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more.” What is their merchandise? They are listed in Revelation 18:12-14 which says, “The merchandise of gold and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet and thine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble. And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots and slaves and souls of men.” These are merchandise of soul traders. Please, declare this to yourself, “My life is not for sale.”

Isaiah 50:1 : “Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.” That means that you sell yourself consciously or unconsciously, or your parents or friends can sell you off. Isaiah 52:3 also says, “For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.”

When a life has been sold off, there would be destiny disorder. Several years ago, I met a sister who had this problem. Her grandmother married her off to someone in the spirit world, collected her dowry spiritually, spent it also spiritually and that grandmother was now dead. Every night, when she slept there was a short demon by her bed. She prayed and bound and loosed it to no avail. It would disappear for a while only to reappear again. When she was going to the toilet at night, it would step aside physically for her to pass. It was always there watching carefully over her anytime she was in bed. If there were other people on the bed, she would be the only person seeing the short thing. It was the guard of the husband which her grandmother married her to in the spiritual world. Five people tried to marry her but each of them ended in disaster. The one that had the least disaster was the one who drank the water of his car battery.

Please, take the following prayer points:

– Every power bargaining for my soul, die, in the name of Jesus.
– My soul, be delivered from satanic flying, in the name of Jesus.

When a life has been sold off, there would be destiny disorder. The prefix “dis” means to remove. For example, dis-ease means “remove ease.” So, dis-order means a removal of order. Therefore when there is destiny dis-order, it means that the order in a destiny has been removed. Once the order is removed, the destiny is as good as dead. This is the major problem of the black man. Let us look at the names of some black people in the Bible:

Hagar: an Egyptian who married Abraham.
Keturah who married Abraham.
Asenath who was Joseph’s wife.
Ziporrah who was Moses’ wife.

Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law. He sat Moses down and taught him how to do most of what he did as a man of God. Obab who acted as the eye of the Israelites in the wilderness. They were going to the Promised Land and did not quite know the way and this black man was their eye. Rahab who saved the Israeli spies at Jericho. In the New Testament, there is Simon of Cyrene. When Jesus was on His way to Calvary and the cross became too heavy for Him, this man carried the cross to the place of Jesus’ crucifixion. In the book of Jeremiah, we read about a man called Ebedmelech, an Ethiopian. There was a time that Jeremiah was thrown into the dungeon. It was this black man that brought him out. In Acts of the Apostles, we read about the Ethiopian Eunuch whom Philip preached to. When Paul was going on his missionary journey, two of the three men who laid hands on him in prayer were Lucius called Niger and Simeon of Cyrene. They were both black men.

Did you know that the gospel got to Africa before Europe? Did you know that whenever God has a major step to take in history one way or another, a black man would come along? God has always used Africa to protect, support and provide for His moves. Whenever the world was in a crisis, God brought a black man to the scene. With this background, you may now ask, what exactly is wrong with the black man? Why do white men often tell funny tales about us? Why did we blacks go through the horrifying slave trade? You cannot read the story of the slave trade without crying. Men and women were gathered and packed into the ship like sardine. There was no walking space and no toilet. When they fell sick, the only solution was to throw them inside the sea and they served as food for fishes. Why did they suffer that treatment? Why is it very difficult to find a single black nation that is now doing very well? What is responsible for the demonic and diabolical attack from hell fire to stop the black man from executing his prophetic mandate? Why should things like poverty, inferiority complex, confusion, insufficient education and civil war be rampant with blacks? It is because of destiny disorder of the individuals. When Mr. A, whose destiny is in disorder, marries a woman, whose destiny is also in disorder, they produce children who inherit destiny disorder, and the circle continues.

Please, pray like this: “I refuse to enter the dustbin of life, in the name of Jesus.”

There are many human beings who are already dumped into the dustbin of life and they are weeping and crying. Sometimes ago, something happened in one city in the western part of Nigeria. It was noticed that a man had a big farm and the farm was prospering. The produce from the farm was very good. But the surprising thing was that no one had ever seen any worker on that farm, yet it was the largest farm around and belonged to one old man. The man’s son used to wonder about the farm. He did not understand who was planting the crops because he knew that his father was old and could not do much. As he began to cleverly study his father, he discovered that anytime he arrived at the farm, he would wash his face with some concoction. One day, the son used the concoction to wash his face and he saw the people working on the farm. They were people who had died in the village. Imagine his father’s wickedness. Holding down people who were dead to serve him before they go to hell. The devil had traded their souls to the old man. When they died the man bought their souls to work in the farm. The boy screamed when he saw them. Then his father knew that he had touched the concoction. He ran after him but could not catch him because of his old age. The son disappeared into town screaming. Until now no one had seen the old man again. The farm is still there.

If you allow your soul to be sold, it is your own business. That is why when you come to the house of God, you better face your business. Do not waste time on joking with the enemy or on things that do not concern you. If you do, your disorder will multiply. It will be a major disaster if you finish reading this message without having a touch from heaven.

God has a purpose for everything He does. The fact that someone is walking about does not mean that the person is alive in the book of the Almighty. He may be moving about, breathing or going to church, but by God’s reckoning, he might have died 20 years ago. God has a purpose for your life. Before you were born He has written certain things about your life. The enemy can see those things, therefore he can cause destiny disorder if he succeeds in grabbing your soul. So, the most precious material on planet earth is the soul of a man. The devil is after it, God too is after it. When Peter said to Jesus, “You cannot die like that, how can you die?” He looked at Peter and said, “The Son of man goeth as it is written of Him.” Something was written about you. Is that thing in disorder now? If it is in disorder, then the soul sellers have done their worst.

Sometimes ago, a woman gave birth and somebody visited her at the maternity. She gave her baby to the visitor while she went to the toilet. Shortly after, another visitor came in. As she came out of the toilet, she overheard her two visitors arguing and wondered what was happening to them. Immediately she got into the room, they became quiet. She said, “If two of you do not tell me what you were discussing, somebody must die here today.” Then one of them said, “When I got here, my friend had already removed four and she wanted to remove the other three. So, all I was saying is that she should leave the other three for me.” They were referring to the stars on the head of the newly born baby. This is the wickedness going on in the world.

There is no need to be alive if your life does not fulfill its divine destiny. Once your soul has been sold off, unless it is bought back, you may not be able to fulfill the destiny that the Lord has for you. For several years I thought Biology in secondary school, and in an adult education school where the youngest person in my class was 36 years old. One day, I taught about amoeba for three hours. After the lecture, I said, “Any question?” A bald headed man at the middle said he had a question. He said, “During the wedding of Amoeba who collects the dowry?” I was shocked because it means that he did not understand anything out of everything I had said for three hours. The trouble with that fellow was that he was doing the right thing at the wrong time. It is destiny disorder. He might have been interested in going to school but witches had eaten up the money of all those who would have financed his education. He might have had the brain but was unable to go to school. His destiny was in a mess.

Nahum 3:3 says, “The horsemen lifteth up both the bright sword and glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcasses, and there is none end of their corpses, they stumble upon their corpses.” What is responsible for these corpses? Verse 4 says, “Because of the multitude of the whoredom of the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredom and families through her witchcrafts.”

SOUL TRADERS

1. Witchcraft Powers: The first major sellers of souls are witchcraft powers. We can see where their activities have led the black man today. Unfortunately, they have wangled their way into many churches. In fact, in many places today, it is mostly the witches who say, “Thus says the Lord.” And many people go to them for prayers out of ignorance. Most times in their prayer, it is only names like Olodumare, Osanobua, Chineke that would be mentioned. They do not mention the word Jesus.

When human fell in the Garden of Eden, the religion he turned to was witchcraft because he fell in rebellion. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. I used to think that Taiye and Kehinde (twins) love themselves until I saw a Kehinde who told me that she had put the life of her Taiye on the shelve, that until she married and had three or four children, her Taiye would not marry. Both of them came from the same womb but look at what witchcraft has done. We need to be aggressive if we do not want soul traders to sell us off. A lot of people have been sold already so they do not understand what is going on. Perhaps you have been sold already and do not know. During the slave trade, they just went to a village, capture some people and sold them off like that.

It is often said that the people who look are very many but the people who see are very few. The greatest enemy of man is not outside him, it is inside. Unless the internal defeat is registered, external defeat can never come. Unfortunately, many people who come to the house of God do not possess this ability to see. There is a need to pray the prayer of Elisha who said to his servant, “Brother, do not worry, those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And straight away the servant could see two armies – the armies of the Lord and their own army.

The foundation of spiritual failure that the modern man is experiencing is due to spiritual blindness. A person has been sold but he does not know. A person has been thrown into jail but he does not know. A person is wearing a three-piece suit and is studying for Ph.D. in the university but already he has been sold. Evil birds have eaten up the good seed planted in many lives. For instance, do you know the real life you are supposed to be living? Many people do not know. Have your enemies converted you to a hewer of wood and drawer of water? Look at yourself. Is your correct life dead or alive?

Have your dreams and visions, been extinguished? Are you a living dead? Is there anything that makes you to accept an inferior or disabled life as your life? Is there anything that keeps you permanently depressed and unhappy? Are you deceiving yourself by having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof? Are you the type of person who will x-ray a man or woman in the laboratory of your heart?

Perhaps you are not who you should be now. The real life of many people exist only in the dream. They count money in the dream but they live in penury in real life. They own companies only in the dream but are jobless here. They preach to thousands of people in the dream but are powerless here. They live in houses in the dream but here they have three quit notice letters.

There is something you must destroy today. You must refuse to be caged or boxed in by the enemy. You must re[1]fuse to accept the satanic substitute for your destiny. You must pray and get your unused things, and your buried Lazarus must resurrect. You must renounce the curse of powerless living. You must disallow the enemy from dulling the edge of your sword. You must disallow the enemy from closing down the factory of your life. You must refuse the call from the camp of the enemy that you should drop your weapon.

2. The second means through which souls are sold is prophetic manipulation: This is where many people make mistakes. That is why the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries is a do it yourself church. It is not a place where “the man of God must pray for me” syndrome is welcomed. No. It is a “do it yourself” place. When people surrender the totality of themselves to the prophet, they are looking for destiny disorder because when God does not give a message and you ask the prophet, “What do you see?” He may give you an information that is not from God. The work of a man of God is a work of high responsibility. Men of God have to be very careful.

The devil knows that people believe their pastors and would do whatever they ask them to do so he looks for his men and pushes them into the position of fake men of God who give people demonically inspired prophecies to confuse their lives. Sometimes, parents go to the fake prophets behind their children to make their children do what they want. For example, a parent could go to such a prophet and say, “Prophet, there is one fine man coming to look for our daughter but we don’t know what is wrong with the girl, she is chasing away the fine man. What we want you to do is to call her and tell her that the man is her husband.” The prophet would then call the girl and say to her: “Is there anyone coming to visit you at home? That person is your husband.” He says this without prayer or revelation. The sister too is not given time to pray. That way, her destiny is put in disorder.

Several years ago, a pregnant sister going to the market met a white garment prophet who said, “Thus says the Lord: Unless you bring this or that you will die with this pregnancy.” She held on to his clothes and said, “You must reverse what you have said if not, you will not leave this place.” People started gathering and saying, “Sister, leave the man of God alone.” She told them what he said and said they should ask him to reverse it. The people now said, “Why did you deliver such a message to the woman?. Reverse it quickly.” Then he said, “You will deliver safely,” etc.

Several years ago, another sister came and said that a prophet in her mother’s church told her that she would die, that I should pray for her and cancel it. I said, “No. You go back and tell the prophet that your pastor said, I should tell you that you will die.” She went and the prophet did not last beyond the next seven days. The arrow of death went back to its sender. The devil has a way of gluing one’s mind to evil prophecies. If you know that evil prophecies have been uttered against you by astrologers, unholy prophets, herbalists or that any ungodly person has foretold your future, pray this prayer point aggressively: Every satanic programme for my destiny, die, in the name of Jesus.

3. Joining yourself to a harlot: If you sleep with a man or woman outside marriage, you introduce disorder into your life. The Bible tells us that you become one with a sex partner. If you have gone with up to 30 to 40 men or women, it means that is your life has been fragmented into many pieces. You need to pray. The destiny of Samson was reversed because of this. The way he ended up was not God’s plan for his life. It was a plan of the powers of wickedness. A man who sleeps with a married or single woman outside marriage is digging his own grave. You may think you are enjoying yourself. No. You are putting your life into disorder.
4. Contamination from the womb: This is the reason pregnant women have to be careful where they go. Drinking concoctions, attaching strange things to your dresses, paying aimless and useless visits and consumption of demonic food will cause destiny disorder.
5. Idol worship: God hates idol worship with perfect hatred. If you check your name and find something idolatrous about it, that should tell you that there is destiny disorder in place. You must cut off every linkage with that kind of thing.
6. Anger: Anger can manifest itself in several ways. It may be in shouting, slamming the door, abusive language, pounding on the tables or the ground, throwing objects at people, or destroying objects. It may be fighting, senseless argument or negative and critical comments. It may be strange look, hissing, hatred, depression or murder. Anyone with the spirit of anger already has a spirit that will put his destiny in disorder. Anger will control that person if it is not controlled. It is a powerful killer of spiritual lives. Angry people normally have retarded spiritual growth and crippled spiritual lives. They quarrel often and so they cannot pray. Angry people have bad testimony. It destroys their ability to serve the Lord and puts their destiny in disorder.
7. Household wickedness: There are many examples of this in the Bible. Jesus told us in Matthew 10:36 that the enemies of a man shall be members of his own household. Eve was used by the devil against Adam. Cain was used against Abel, Lot against Abraham and Jacob against Esau. Joseph’s brethren dealt with him. Miriam, Moses’ sister who took Moses out of the river was against him. Absalom overthrew his father. Judas Iscariot one of Jesus’ 12 disciples was household wickedness to Jesus.

We need to pray, not the type of prayer the enemy will hear and rejoice. The first thing we need to do is to repent before the Lord of anything that has given the enemy the ground to sell our souls or tamper with our lives. We need to ask God to forgive us so that we can start moving forward. After asking for forgiveness, we will move on and identify the disorder, and then call God into our situation. It will be a tragedy after reading this message you do not receive the touch of God. The Bible says, “The Son of man goeth as it is written.” Are you going as God has written of you, or you are going as your enemy has written? Or are you going according to verdict of witchcraft? You have the opportunity to ask God to forgive you.

If you are reading this and you are yet to surrender to Jesus, you better do so quickly before you move into the prayer section. Otherwise you cannot introduce order into your life. If you want to surrender your life to Jesus, pray this prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come before you and confess my sins. Forgive me, O Lord, and cleanse me with your precious blood. Come into my life now. Take control of my life, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

PRAYER POINTS

1. O Lord, let my prayer arrow bring results, in Jesus’ name.
2. (Use your right hand to cover your two eyes as you pray this prayer with faith): Oh Lord, reveal hidden things to me that will move me forward, in the name of Jesus.
3. Every power that has refused to allow my star to operate, die, in Jesus’ name.
4. I recover my stolen stars by fire, in the name of Jesus.
5. I recover my stolen stars by thunder, in the name of Jesus.

6. I reject every evil prophecy, in the name of Jesus.

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WHEN YOU ARE UNDER ATTACK

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Isaiah 59: 19 says, “So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” Many people do not understand this Scripture because they do not read it correctly. It is the Spirit of the Lord that shall rise like a flood, not the enemy. People usually say, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” But the original version says, “When the enemy shall come in, like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard against him.” That is our working verse in this message.

WHY DOES A PERSON COME UNDER ATTACK?

• A person comes under attack because the enemy wants to conquer him.
• A person comes under attack because the enemy wants to suppress him.
• A person comes under attack because the enemy wants to contend with his destiny.
• A person comes under attack because his existence is threatening the existence of another person.
• A person comes under attack because his destiny is an eagle destiny.
• A person comes under attack because he is trying to escape from the hands of a slave master.
• A person comes under attack because somewhere somehow some persons, powers or personalities do not want to see him around.

Two years ago, I prayed with a man who was completely down. As he continued to pray, the Lord showed him a vision of himself the day he was born and was taken to a herbalist. Like the practice of many tribes in this country, his parents took him to a herbalist where they enquired about his future and the herbalist said, “This one is the saviour of the family. All of you without exception will benefit from him. You shall bow down to him. He will be your anchor in the family.” Unfortunately when the herbalist was saying this the other seven wives of his father were around. His mother was the last wife. His battle started not because he had offended anybody but because of his divine destiny.

Of all cities in the world, none has been so frequently attacked like Jerusalem. Why is it so? It is because the place has a prophetic destiny. So, as a child of God, in case you are seriously under attack or you are wondering why you are sweating and struggling, it means that there is something in your destiny that the enemy does not want to happen. The enemies dealt with this man; he spent 14 years in the primary school and eight years in the university to get a degree that usually takes four years. They bombarded him right, left and centre. He could hardly feed when he was the angel who was supposed to feed his family. His family was very poor, until God showed him that vision, and he started praying that all the agents of the enemy that were present when his destiny was being proclaimed should lose the information from their memory, in Jesus’ name. Then he began to possess his possessions.

The problem is that at the baby stage, there is nothing a baby can do. People would come and say, “Let me carry the baby, let me put the baby here, let me give the baby food,” and little by little, they would be destroying him. So as this man started praying, God started blessing him. All the attacks he had were not his fault. His destiny was proclaimed in the presence of his enemies.

Beloved, be rest assured that you will be under attack from time to time. Jesus was under attack most of the time. Many Christians make the wrong decision when they are under attack. As Christians, our decisions should be based on some principles when we find that we are under attack.

1. Our decision must be based on what the Holy Spirit is prompting us to do.
   2. It must be based on the word of God.
   3. It must be based on biblical principles.

Any time a person comes under attack and he does not listen to the Holy Spirit, he would have problems. If you do something outside the word of God, you will have problems. If you do something contrary to biblical principles there would be problems. When people come under attack, they sometimes forget these principles. In Exodus 14, we see a beautiful example of how somebody can be under attack. The Israelites marched out of Egypt. An angel and a pillar of fire went back and forth to lead them. When the pillar wanted them to move, it would move and when it did not want them to move, it would stay. There was also an angel attached to their camp and something happened. The angel and the pillar led them to a place where they could march no further, where there was no door of escape. In front was the Red Sea, by the sides were walls of rock which they could not surmount and at the rear was their deadly foe with a deadly rage, pursuing them. It was a time when all hope should be lost. The attackers were ready to devour. Every true child of God, at one time or the other in life, can find himself in this situation I have just described. For many years the devil had kept the Israelites in Egypt moulding bricks and all of a sudden, their eyes opened and they escaped. But before they knew it, fresh terrors had gathered around them again. What do you do when you are under this kind of attack? The most costly mistake that people make usually occurs during the first few moments of any attack. Once you make that initial mistake, you get into trouble. The enemy uses the weapon of fear.

WHEN YOU ARE UNDER ATTACK WHAT DO YOU DO?

1. Do not panic: Be calm. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” Do not panic, rather praise the Lord. Panic will always lead to trouble. There is this testimony of a woman who did not know that the man next door was a satanic agent. Her child was convulsing and she was praying for the child. She did not know that the man had a nail in the wall and anytime he banged the nail the convulsion would start but as she prayed, the nail would come out of the wall. Whenever the nail came down, the boy would recover. The man would take the nail again and bang it in the wall and the convulsion would start. This went on for five hours. When the herbalist saw that the nail kept coming out, he took a bottle of concoction and knocked at the door of the woman, saying, “Madam, any problem?” The woman answered, “No problem.” The man said, “But something is happening here.” He gave her a container and said, “Give the child this medicine to drink.” She rejected it. If she had accepted it the child would have been well but another problem would have been planted in him. So, when there is an attack put your ear in the neutral position and listen carefully to the inner voice of the Holy Spirit.
2. Analyse it by the wisdom of God: Ecclesiastes 7:14 says, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider.” We should know that any working system would occasionally develop crises. So, sit down to analyse it and see what you have learnt from what has happened.
3. Seek for godly counsel: Proverbs 11:4 says, “Where no counsel is, the people fall; but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.” So, ignorance is destructive. Don’t neglect knowledge. Somebody somewhere will know something that would help you to survive. Try and reach out for people with such information.
4. As a child of God, expect the power of God to move: It is easy to sit down and believe that all hope is lost. But, as a child of God, if you read your Bible well, you will find that anytime the devil was preparing his soup, it was usually scary but by the time the God who delivered Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego arose, He would just take the enemy’s pot of soup and smashed it to the ground. Expect the power of God to move. Adversity is the enemy’s reaction to your progress. It is the enemy’s attempt to steal your approaching blessing.
5. Fight back: James 4:7, a very popular verse says: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” When you say resist, a lot of things are involved. To resist means to fight. Somebody cannot just stroll into your sitting room and carry your T.V. set, video machine and all you have in the room and walk out. You have to resist him. To stop him might require that you fight. The Bible says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” This means that if the devil is not fleeing from you, you should check whether you are really resisting him. What some of us call resistance is to stand up and start praying when you have a bad dream. No. You should pray before the bad dreams come. Satan loves very fearful people but real fighters intimidate him.
6. Use your spiritual weapons: 2 Corinthians 10:4 says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” The weapons of our warfare are: The word of God, the fire of God, the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, praises, testimonies, prayers, etc. Learn how to use them.
7. Soak yourself in the Scriptures: When some people have one or two problems, they stop reading their Bibles. Some people would say to them, “Since you have been reading it what have you got out of it? Don’t waste you time.” Psalm 119:92 says, “Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.” Your mind is like a garden, it would grow any seed you plant there, good or bad. Plant words spoken by God in your heart, then you have sown energy, life and hope in your spirit. Be a Scripture addict.
8. Remember that seasons change: Psalm 30:5 says, “For his anger endureth but a moment, in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Know that as a child of God the attack will not last forever. People change, so also circumstances. Therefore, expect God to change things on your behalf.
9. Be spiritually tough: Life is a battle and the violent takes it by force. God is in control and is bigger than whoever you are dealing with. He is stronger than any enemy you are fighting with. Hebrew 13:5-6 says, “Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have; for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”
10. Guard your mind with all diligence: You will never be defeated as long as you are victorious in your mind. But if you are defeated in the battle of the mind, you will lose all the battles everywhere. Isaiah 26:3 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Everybody ought to memorize this scripture. The only people God would keep in perfect peace are those whose minds are stayed on Him.
11. Never give up: 2 Timothy 4:7 says, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” He did not give up. Luke 9:62 also says, “And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” So, your perseverance destabilises the enemy. Therefore, other people stone of adversity will just be your stone of promotion. If the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Paul is your God, you will certainly overcome.
12. Pray to locate and fire at the unprotected forehead of your enemies: No matter how strong your enemy is, he must have some weak points. You pray to locate those points and then fire at them.

I counsel you to read through this message again. Then tell the Lord to forgive you for the various ways you have failed when you were under attack. When you are supposed to be the David to kill the Goliath, the Goliath was boasting all over the place because your strategy was wrong. Talk to God to forgive you. I want you to pray with the spirit that believes that your God is a God that knows no impossibilities. There is no situation that is beyond His power, no matter how strong it may be. The battle is not greater than the One described as the Almighty. The battle is not higher than Him who is the highest. The following prayer points are powerful and effective. Pray them aggressively.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every arrow fired into my destiny this year, backfire, in the name of Jesus.
2. Every power that stole my destiny when I was a baby, return it by fire, in the name of Jesus.
3. I possess all my blessings for this week, in the name of Jesus.
4. Every wall of Jericho standing against my progress, fall, in the name of Jesus.
5. Every hidden authority and stubborn pursuer that is following me, I command you to die, in the name of Jesus.
6. Every garment of wickedness and shame, be roasted, in the name of Jesus.
7. The glory of the protection of the Almighty shall be upon my life, in the name of Jesus.

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DESTROYING SATANIC MASKS

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

ln Matthew 3:10, we see a powerful verse of Scripture which says, “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” So, if you see somebody standing somewhere and praying that unprofitable trees be axed down, his prayer is scriptural.

Matthew 15:13: “But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Meaning that if there is anything growing somewhere that was not planted by our Father in heaven it must be rooted up. God does not plant poverty neither does He plant frustration, depression or disappointment.

Doctors may have all kinds of names for different sicknesses, but the Bible has one name for them. It calls them “every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted.” So, it does not matter who planted it, it shall be rooted up.

In the olden days, there used to be a very popular saying which is still very relevant today. It says, “Kill the spider and there would be no cobwebs.” A lot of people abandon the problem spider and keep busy fighting the cobwebs and then confusion sets in.

Confusion comes in when the spider is a front or is wearing a mask. When somebody wears a mask, it is to hide his identity and for him to want to hide his identity from you shows that he is a person you know.

It may be very frustrating when the enemy is using another person’s face to attack you. But the Bible says, “Don’t marvel at this because angels of darkness sometimes present themselves as angels of light.”

There was a certain brother who got born again properly, not the way many people get born again nowadays by shaking the hands of a disco preacher or signing the back of an American tract and claiming to be born again. Those are the kinds of people who still chew gum during the service. When you try to tell them to have respect for God, they would say, “My God is not a hard God.” They forget that He is the same God who rained fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah and killed the sons of Aaron by the altar. The problem is that they do not read their Bible well. So, after this brother got born again, he asked the preacher what else he should do and the preacher told him about sanctification and encouraged him to pray for that. When he got that, he also prayed for the baptism in the Holy Spirit and got baptized.

He lived in the same compound with a herbalist. And this herbalist used to disturb him at night with all kinds of spirits making funny sounds inside his room and his numerous customers who came in at all times to consult with him. He used to get scared but one night when he got home, he was ready to deal with anything. He now waited for the herbalist to start discussing with his evil spirits. Immediately the first spirit came, the brother got up and started praying. Suddenly, he heard the sound of their foot steps as they were running away. As he continued praying, a man in white garment appeared to him and said, “Brother, stop praying. It is all right, you have finished your assignment.” He wanted to stop but reasoned within himself that Jesus would not ask him to stop praying. He might just change the prayer points. When he looked closely at the person in white garment, he found stains on the garment and said, “Oh, he’s an enemy in disguise,” and continued praying until the evil spirit was defeated.

There is something known as fighting a spiritual dummy. A dummy is an object that is made to look like the real thing but is not the real thing. The problem with spiritual dummies is that they waste your spiritual bullets.

FOUR KINDS OF SATANIC DECEPTION

1. The enemy may be operating using a front.
   2. The enemy may be operating wearing the mask to hide his identity.
   3. The enemy may be operating using the face of another person, particularly that of somebody who loves you.
   4. He could use a dummy and you would be wondering why nothing is happening in spite of your prayers.

You cannot recognise enemies by physical appearance. This is why if suddenly in your dream, somebody comes and begins pursuing you or firing an arrow at you and for any reason the arrow enters and is working, the first person to blame is yourself because the Bible says, “Touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm.” When the anointed is being touched, and the prophet is being harmed, it means that he has problem. So, do an internal check-up before you look outside. No matter how strong a demon is, it cannot withstand a life that has sufficient fire.

There was an old, illiterate woman. Somebody came to her in the dream with a big club in his hand and as the person was moving close, she said, “Stop, in the name of Jesus,” and the person stopped. Then she said, “Stand at attention so that I can look at you well,” and he obeyed. She said, “Now what do you want?” He said, “I have been sent to destroy you.” She said, “Right now, I command you, in the name of Jesus, to begin to hit your head with the club in your hand.” He started hitting and eventually killed himself. If the woman was hit and she woke up the next morning to say it was her husband or somebody else she knew, she would be wasting her time. The important thing is not to allow it to happen.

Before a tree can bear fruits, it must have root. Sometimes we are busy fighting the fruit. You may fight the fruit all your life and will not get anywhere. A long time ago, in a particular place where I lived, at a certain period of the year, a masquerade festival was held. During the festival, masquerades would be all over the town chasing people with whips and little children would stand afar off and make fun of the masquerades so that the masquerades would react and pursue them. When these masquerades catch up with people, they beat them up terribly. One day, a masquerade chased somebody into our compound, and a neighbour of ours who cared less about the sacredness of masquerades just picked him up and slammed him on the ground, and unmasked him. Everybody was surprised to know that it was one lazy man in the vicinity called Sunday who under the guise of a masquerade was beating up people he could not withstand normally.

There are many mask-wearing problems like that in many lives. It is good to take the masks off them so that you can see exactly what you are fighting. You must take the mask off the spiritual face of the enemy and see the reality of what is exactly harassing you. It is not every problem that is caused by witches and wizards. Some things come from other sources too.

Somebody told me the story of some Red Indians living somewhere. These Red Indians noticed that people were dying in their midst on a daily basis. They thought their water gods were angry and offered some sacrifices to them but the death continued. Then they blamed it on the disunity amongst them, the white man’s attack on them, witches, and so many other things, but there was no solution until one day somebody took the mask off the problem. The mask was this: It was their tradition to use a particular blanket to cover people who died, so before a person was about to die they used the blanket to cover them. So the problem was the blanket.

We know that the devil is the active force behind all evils, we also know that the devil cannot be everywhere at the same time. He uses his agents.

The real enemies of many people are yet to be unmasked. Some people do not know why things are going wrong. They would say they have tried prayer, praises, fasting, confession, and deliverance, but the problem is still staring them in the face. It could be that there is a mask in place. The enemy can wear the face of a lion, a snake or a child. The mask is meant to conceal the identity. But when the mask is taken off, the actual identity may look big but the solution maybe easy. This is where we need to pray for divine revelation.

Balaam was supposed to be a prophet. He was harassed by the angel of the living God. He paid many useless visits. He tried to carry out his duties but failed and invited God’s anger upon himself. He might have complained that his problem was great but when you take the mask off the face of his problem, you find out that his problem was actually covetousness.

A woman noticed that men always jilted her after few months of courtship. She tried prayer, she tried washing her head in a red garment church, and she tried dressing more attractively by adding attractive colours, but all these did not work. She tried attending parties, and serving as an usher at such parties so that men would see her very well. That too didn’t work. Then she tried horoscopes, but it was not helpful. So, she got fed up with life and said she would commit suicide. One day, the mask was taken off and she found that the mask was anger. Meanwhile, all kinds of people have been blamed for her predicament. She had blamed her stepmother, her classmate, wicked witches flying at night, her stolen clothes, etc, but alas, the real thing was anger. Many times, people blame all kinds of things for their problems, while the actual cause remained untouched. That is exactly what the enemies want.

Many people find out that they are just wasting their prayer bullets because enemies have sold dummies to them and they are busy attacking the dummies. There are thousands of people in this category. God in His infinite wisdom has decided not to open the spiritual eyes of many people. Many times, they attack the fruit, leaves, branches, and stems of their problem trees, but the roots remain in place.

FUNCTION OF THE ROOTS IN PLANT

Physically, the root of the plant has so many functions which can be related to the root of a problem spiritually.

1. The root anchors the plant to the ground: That is, it ensures that the plant stands. By implication, the root of a problem makes it to stand firmly in a life.
2. It absorbs food into the plant. That means, it feeds the problem and makes it grow. A lot of people feed their enemy to fight them harder. I normally say to myself that, “I will not feed any problem, in the name of Jesus.”
3. It helps the plant to store food. That is, it compounds the problem or reinforces it.
4. It may be used for propagation. This in turn prolongs the plant which eventually bears even more fruits. Likewise, when the root of a problem is left untouched, it expands and many things would continue the way they were.

Because of the importance of the root, God’s method is to get to the root of a problem. When there is a problem before God, He starts treating it with a diagnosis- the root of the problem. When He gets to the root, He cuts it down with His axe of fire and after the cutting down, He throws it into the fire. He does not leave it there. After God has uprooted a tree (problem) He does not take the wood and begin to make furniture out of it.

However, if the root of a problem is not discovered, there would be trouble. When the root is discovered and you have the wrong axe like candles, charms, rings, waist bands, horoscopes, magic books, or other occult materials, the problem would still be remain intact because the wrong axe you are holding is also an enemy who will direct your axe against you and you won’t know.

There are many examples in the Bible of people who refused to go to the root of their problems. One of them was king Asa. The Bible tells us that king Asa did not seek God when he was sick, so he died. 2 Chronicles 16:12 – 14: “And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign. And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art: and they made a very great burning for him.”

Sometimes, at funerals, the officiating priest would say, “The Lord has given and the Lord has taken, blessed be the name of the Lord,” when the Lord did not take anything. Most times it is household wickedness that took the person, or it could even be ordinary mosquitoes.

A certain brother had a problem and went to a place to pray. The “prophet” told him to stay behind the door, that he wanted to consult Angel Michael. The Brother said: “Are you saying that Angel Michael is inside that room? He said “Yes.” So, the man started to pray saying: “God of all ages, the supreme excellence, the great one, the one who can hear all voices, the one who has such a long hand as to remove his children from the pit, save your child from the pit by your eternal name, Amen.” Then he sang a chorus. The brother did not notice that in all the prayers rendered by the man and the chorus he sang, he avoided the name Jesus. Suddenly, the supposedly voice of Angel Michael began to speak saying: “My son, I know you. You are an engineer and God wants to help you.” The brother said, “Please, correct Angel Michael, I am not an engineer. In fact, I read commerce.” So as the man went inside, the brother picked his bag and ran away. That was how God saved him. If he had waited to find out the outcome, he would have needed deliverance. There is another man in 2 Kings 1:1-4: “Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and he said unto them, Go, inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease. Now therefore thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shall surely die.” That is an example of somebody who used the wrong axe.

When problem arises, some people would begin to say things like, “It is because I left my green-garment church,” “It is because when they said I should come and become a senior apostle, I said I was not qualified,” “It is because I left the religion of my forefathers, I must go back there,” “It is because I did not offer sacrifices.” “It is because my daddy did not pray for my husband and I when we got married.” What prayer would your father, a lodge member and your mother who married him as her 5th husband, pray for you? The prayer of a sinner, the Bible says, is an abomination unto God. The devil has kept many people busy chasing shadows and they will not look at the roots. He keeps some people busy with holy water, thereby prolonging depression in their lives, fornication without control, chronic fear, self-pity, hearing voices, inability to receive the Holy Spirit, sicknesses, financial insufficiency, unreasonable moods, etc. All these are evidences that there is a root that needs to be uprooted..

Some people cannot understand that their problems are stubborn because the problems started when they were one to three years of age. They were too young to be conscious of those things. Some people too are suffering from certain things that happened in their lives which they have forgotten, even though they were old enough to remember them. The devil makes people to forget things that happened to them because he has planted some evil things in their lives through those things. These things must be uprooted. If the earliest memory you have as a child is sad, it could affect your adult behaviour. If you were sexually abused as a child, it will affect your adult life and can become the root of so many problems. The problems maybe wearing another mask.

If anytime you pray aggressive prayer, you see the vision of yourself as a small girl or a small boy, going back to when you were younger, it means that at that age, something was planted.

Many people are being initiated into witchcraft and cults without their knowledge. Many people are surrounded by unfriendly friends who give them things to eat and then trouble starts. A lot of us have eaten things we should not have eaten.

Another place where the root of a person’s problems can be traced to is the kind of house the person lived when he was young. If you have negative, unhappy or bad feelings about the house or room where you were, know that something bad had been planted there. If in your dream you see yourself going back to where you lived before, it means that something went wrong with your life in that place. Maybe you had a school mother or school father when you were in school and now you see the person in the dream, there is a root there to deal with.

Photographs you took during your childhood that can no longer be located could be the root of the problem in your life. If you see the kind of wickedness that have been done with photographs, you will be shocked. This is why we advise women whose husbands are keeping strange women not to fight with the strange women. To fight with them is sheer waste of time because most of the time, their photographs have been demonically tied to those of the strange women and buried somewhere by demonic prophets. So no amount of fighting can deliver such men. They have been trapped through the photographs. So a person maybe facing problems now due to photographs manipulation.

Evil agents can take the photographs of young children and destroy their innocence through the photographs and certain things would begin to happen. This is the root of many people’s problems.

Another place where a root could be planted is rejection. As a child, did you feel that your brothers and sisters were receiving more attention than yourself? Did you feel that you were not loved like the other children? Was there ever a situation where you cried yourself to sleep or you sometimes felt like running away? Have you ever wondered why you were born? Have you felt like your parents never wanted you? There is a root planted.

A certain sister was having terrible problems. She prayed and tried all kinds of things. One day, she said, “Oh God, I am not sleeping tonight unless I know where I am going.” She prayed and suddenly, she saw a vision. She was in a labour room and could recognise her mother trying to give birth to a baby and as soon as her mother was delivered of the baby, she opened the legs of the baby to look at the sex. Immediately, she saw that she was a girl, she said, “Take this thing away from here.” Then the vision closed and the Lord said, “Your mother has placed a curse on you by calling you a ‘thing.’ She then knew what to focus her prayers on. It was then things started to happen.

Even now, a root could be planted in your life. There seems to be some powerful spirits attached to the ages of 21 and 40. When some people are getting to 40, life seems to fall apart. They lose control of so many things. Just as a lot of people get confused at the age of 21. So age can also be the root of a person’s problem.

There is another root called the spirit of depression. It is worse than witchcraft attack. Do you frequently wake up in the morning thinking that it is not even worth getting up from the bed? Do you have the feelings that your situation can never change? Is your life out of control? Do you often feel that there is nothing worth living for? Do you harbour suicidal thoughts? Do you experience hopelessness, sleeplessness, or loss of interest in life?

Another root is the spirit of anger. Anger is generally a reaction to that which displeases us. The question is, “Did God give you anger at birth?” If uncontrollable anger is your problem then you are worse than all the witches and wizards in Nigeria put together. Do you have a reputation for blowing up? Do you get angry at things and then later realise that it was not necessary?

Do you have to take sleeping tablets before you can sleep? Do you toss for hours before you go to sleep? If you attend our meetings at MFM and you pray our prayer the way it should be prayed, it is certain that sleeping can never be your problem. When you wake up from a bad dream, do you find it difficult to go back to sleep? Do you have a feeling that something bad is going to happen when night is coming? Do you overreact to every noise you hear at night? It is certain that if you have a bad night, and do not sleep well at night, you would have a bad day next day. When your sleep, that is your rest has been caged by the enemy, you will have sleepless nights.

There are so many other roots. If you come from a family of alcoholics, you will lead a meaningless life. Do you have any hidden evil urge within you? Are you having extra marital affairs? Are you interested in multiple marriage?

Beloved, you have to take off the mask and see what the problem is. There are some people called little mothers. These are women who become mothers at the tender age of 15 or 16. Have you aborted or asked somebody to do it? All these could be the root of so many things. Two things pursue anyone who aborts or has aborted: the demon of frustration and the spirit of abortion. Such people need deliverance.

HOW TO UNMASK PROBLEMS COMPLETELY

1. 2 Chronicles 7:14 is the first step. It says, “If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
2. Be accountable. Don’t shift blames, accept that you are wrong when you are wrong.
3. Pray seriously for restoration.
4. Forgive all those who have done you wrong. Ask God to forgive them too and bless them abundantly. Ask God to forgive you for holding on to unforgiveness, resentment, anger, bitterness and hatred.
5. Praise God. Spend time praising the Lord your God.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every mask-wearing problem, be exposed, in Jesus’ name.
2. I refuse to direct my spiritual weapons on dummies, in the name of Jesus.
3. All my misfired arrows, go to the right target, in Jesus’ name.
4. Every evil spiritual front delegated against my life, be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.
5. Every problem initiator and expander, be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.
6. All quenchers of spiritual power, I render you impotent, in the name of Jesus.
7. Every material in my possession, carrying satanic power, be exposed, in the name of Jesus.
8. You stubborn pursuer, I command your ways to be slippery and I ask the Angel of God to pursue you, in Jesus’ name.
9. Satanic problems anchor, be roasted, in the name of Jesus.
10. I withdraw the food of my problem, I command the problem to starve to death, in the name of Jesus.
11. No reinforcement, and no regrouping for all the problems that have gone, in the name of Jesus.
12. You problem propagators and problem prolongers, be paralyzed, in the name of Jesus.
13. Every power touching the anointed, receive the sword of fire, in the name of Jesus.
14. Every spiritual parasite, I command you to die, in the name of Jesus.
15. Every root of problems, be axed, in the name of Jesus.

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DETAINED BY THE GRAVE

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Psalm 30: 3 says, “O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit.” In Psalm 49: 14 – 15, the Bible says, “Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me.”

At the MFM, we pray lots of prayer points. Some of these prayer points may sound strange to some people. But for those who understand the war going on in the spirit, they are familiar items. For example at MFM, we pray a lot about buried virtues. On three occasions, people have brought pots to me. The first person was a small girl several years ago. She was about 13 years old. Her daddy was having problems and I think he prayed very well. One day, she came with a pot wrapped inside a black nylon bag and insisted that I was the only person she would show the contents of the pot. She opened it and the first thing she said was, “Daddy is a dead handsome man.” I said, “I don’t understand what you mean by that. What is inside the pot?” I looked into it and saw three items: some hair strands, a piece of clothing that seemed to have been cut from a shirt and some fingernails. I asked her where the items came from and she said they were all from her daddy. She said, “Let me tell you what these things stand for. The hair is his glory, which we have buried. The piece of cloth, which was cut from his shirt, was used to introduce shame into his life because spiritually, when somebody removes your cloth, he is putting you to shame. The fingernails represent whatever he does with his hands. So, daddy is a dead handsome man. But if he will repent of the sin of anger and pray well, then he can be delivered.” I said, “What if we burn the pot now?” She said, “Yes, you can burn the pot now, but we can always find another pot.” At this juncture, I think you should pray like this: “Every satanic pot prepared against me, crumble in the name of Jesus.”

Beloved, these are practical things. A time will come when believers will only go to fellow believers to make their hair. People will get wise. Believers will no longer enter salons with names such as ‘Mermaid.’ They will look at the fingernails of hairdressers before they patronize them. Now, you see believers putting down their anointed head for demonic hairdressers because they must dress their hair even if it means their destruction.

The second pot was brought by three girls from one of the universities. When I asked them what was inside the pot, they laughed and said, “Man of God, it will be very awkward if we tell you the name, but you will understand.” I looked inside and found a white substance. I asked them what it was and they said, “Male seed,” i.e. sperm. I asked them how they got it and they said, “We collected it from some boys in our school and we have dealt with all of them.” I said, “But what have they done?” They said, “They jilted us. They were our boyfriends but they did not know that the three of us are powerful. They took us for granted so, we dealt with them.” I asked them what had become of those boys and they said two of them were dead and one was mad. I asked them what they wanted to do and they said, “We want to give our lives to Jesus. We are repenting.” This is the mystery of the gospel. Jesus will accept them and the one that was mad might still remain mad even after they have repented. This is why you and I must know that the best system of defense is to attack. If you are put in the boxing ring and told to fight, and you begin to say to your opponent, “Before we start, don’t touch my head, don’t touch my nose,” he would not listen to you because the fight has been declared. Our fight with the enemy has already been declared in the book of Genesis: “I would put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed” (Genesis 3: 15). Those girls gave their lives to Jesus, but meanwhile, two foolish boys were dead and one was mad.

The third time somebody brought a pot to me, it contained blood. “Where did this come from?” I asked him. He said, “I took it from some people.” I said, “But why?” He said, “Because I want to finish them.”

THE POWER OF THE GRAVE

When things have been collected and buried, there is trouble unless you understand how to withdraw what has been buried. That is why the Psalmist talked about deliverance from the grave. He also talked about the power of the grave. The grave has some powers which are behind certain things people call difficult cases.

What Are Difficult Cases?
Difficult cases are situations where the evil pipe through which a problem is being fed has not been demolished. Then you say it is difficult.

A difficult problem is a problem where all the secrets behind it are not known. And because of that ignorance, the enemy keeps rejoicing.

A problem is difficult when it is linked to multiple curses or multiple bondages. For example, somebody locked someone up and you asked him or her to unlock the fellow and he or she did. You then ask if the person is now free and he or she said, “No, because we used 14 padlocks on the person.” It means that if such a person who was locked up came to a prayer meeting and prayed for one hour and broke only two, it would remain twelve. And at the same time, he or she could pray and all fourteen would break at one operation. That is possible. So, once a situation has a lot of covenants formed against it, it looks difficult because there are so many chains tying it down. Some people live with angry parents who curse people easily. For example, on Monday, they would call you an idiot, the devil records it. On Tuesday, they call you a zombie, the devil writes it down, the third day, they say, “Your head is not correct,” the devil writes it down, fourth day: “God will punish you,” the devil notes it down. In a month, some children accumulate a minimum of 30 curses. In a year, they would accumulate 360 or 365 on their heads. Such people may come to a revival meeting, pray and remove 200. There would still be 160 left. Their situation will look difficult because there are many curses issued against them. Some of the poorest people I have ever found in my life are the gate men of primary schools. As these children go in or come out, they issue curses on them everyday. And some of these children are not normal. So these gatemen accumulate about 100 curses per day and by the time they spend a month, they have accumulated 3000, poor men. Generally these gatemen live in places where even the shortest of men have to bow down before they can enter. And whenever there is rain, there would be problem. Their cases are normally difficult because of the enormity of the curses they accumulated over the years. That is separate from what their wives and other people issue on them at home.

A difficult case is one that has been circulated in four worlds. What are the four worlds?

1. The second heaven, that is the headquarters of evil.
   2. The earth.
   3. Underneath the earth.
   4. The sea.

When somebody’s case has been taken to these four places, the person would have things to break in four places. Then it looks very difficult.

Man was formed out of the dust of the ground. The Bible tells us that in Genesis 2: 7. Also animals and plants were formed from the ground (Genesis 2:19). But later, God cursed the ground (Genesis 3). You discover too that all the elements in the body of man can be found in the soil. That is why the Bible says in Philippians 2:10 that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, of things on earth and of things under the earth. So, it follows that most of the things we see now around us are underneath the ground. The only major thing that comes from heaven is the spirit, which is inside a man. Wood, iron, clothes, steel, etc. come from the ground. In John 3: 31, Jesus says, “He that cometh from above: is above all, he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.” Therefore, there are certain things that come from the earth and certain things that come from heaven. I Corinthians 15: 47 –48: “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.”

The Bible sometimes addresses the ground as a person because there are spirits within it which it refers to as the powers of the grave. In Numbers 16, Moses said, “O God, if you would do a new thing and let the ground open and swallow.” What happened? The ground heard what Moses said and opened up. So, there are powers within the earth we call the powers of the grave. A knowledgeable black man understands this very well, much more than a white man. For example, blacks pour libation on the ground to demons of the ground. This is why evil people remove sand from underneath people’s feet and use it against them. It is also the same reason herbalists pay homage to the ground. Some people swear by the earth and use the soil as charm. Some people inquire their future from the earth by pressing sands. It is these spirits from the grave that answer them. They believe in the power of the earth. When I was a small boy, my school was close to a burial ground. So we were warned that whenever we saw unusually short creatures on our way to school, we should take some sand and pour it on them and they would disappear. I never saw one. But my friends used to say they saw them and poured sand on them and they disappeared. Why do you have to pour sand on them? It is because they are powers from the earth.

In a church I used to attend, we had a very unusual pastor. Unusual in the sense that five minutes into a prayer meeting, he would start sweating because he prayed aggressively unlike the one before him who would call prayer points and sit down to pray. One day, I sat at the back and suddenly, the pastor ran to the back as a woman came in, dancing and clapping with a baby strapped at her back. The pastor looked at her and in anger, said to her, “Turn over. Why should you come to the house of God walking on your head?” I did not see her walking on her head. I saw her standing straight and carrying a baby and dancing. But the woman knew that the pastor could see what she really was. She said, “Sorry sir,” and entered the church. Why was she walking upside down? She was communicating with these powers underneath the earth. During one Power Must Change Hands programme, somebody was caught trying to pack sand from the church premises. He was asked what he wanted to do with it and he said, he wanted to go and use it so that people would be coming to his own church in large numbers. We told him that he would have made a mistake because it would have meant him pouring liquid fire there and causing more problem for himself. Also, there was a certain man who was told to come and bury charms in MFM and he accepted. All he did was to accept. He had not even come when trouble started until he was brought to the same MFM.

WITCHCRAFT BURIAL

In a nutshell, every goodness of man has a spiritual representative and once this spiritual representative is caged, trapped, buried or imprisoned in the graveyard, that is the end.

In Matthew 10, Jesus gave His disciples matching orders. Verse 8 says, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” So when you go to a prophet and he asks you for money, you should know immediately that he did not receive his power from Jesus because Jesus says, “Freely ye receive, freely give.” Verse 11 says, “And into whatsoever city ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till you go thence. And when you come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.” It means that peace is an entity that can be transferred, given out or withdrawn. It is like that for everything, whether it is money, husband, wife, children, etc. They can be captured and buried spiritually. So, although they are around, they will not be available. You must recognize as a reality the fact that once a matter is settled spiritually, the physical has no option but to toe the line of the spiritual. When something has been buried or in other words, put in the grave, the thing is said to be committed to mother earth. Whatever happens, anything that is buried is not easily available again. That is why we talk about witchcraft burial. When witchcraft powers bury a person’s clock, they deal with his time. The person will become a vagabond moving about without direction. If they bury the person’s purse, his finances will be in trouble. If they bury the person’s wedding ring, problem would start with the person’s marriage. They take significant things like that. I have seen cases, when on a wedding morning, a bride ran to the man of God and said that she could not find her right shoes. It had been stolen. What were they going to do with it? They would bury it.

There are satanic agents who call people’s names into materials and bury them. Sometime ago, a lady led some people and I to a place where she dug out the picture of a wedding. She said, “Will God forgive me now that I have given it to you?” I asked her what she did to the couple and she said, “We separated them. The wife is in South Africa while the husband is in Russia.” People construct artificial coffins for people and speak words against them to the coffins or put materials from them into the coffins and bury them. The people then become walking corpses. When this happens, hospitals become useless to you.

Many years ago, in my former church, we got to church one morning and found a big charm inside the church. Some people saw it and ran away. But thank God there were some people there who understood what they believed. They took the thing up and said, “Holy Spirit, look at this useless material that was dropped here. We would have destroyed it and kept quiet, but let us teach those who dropped it some lessons. Therefore, let the angels of the living God take the charm and conduct a reverse burial.” Shortly after, those who buried it surfaced when they could no longer bear the fire. If as you are reading this message, you know that you have buried things on the instructions of a herbalist, witchdoctor or fake prophet, you might have done it in ignorance but the devil knew what he was doing. You might have been tricked into burying things that belonged to you with your own hands. Perhaps, it was a cow or some other materials. What they did was that the night before you buried the cow or whatever, they came and smuggled your virtue inside the animal and then you buried it with your hands. So they were free because you buried it with your own hands. Some people organize parties where they distribute demonic foods to many people and things will start happening after they have eaten them. I saw wickedness of the highest order when somebody who had almost N10 million in the bank was asked to borrow money from people and bury it in order to bury their finances and add them to his own.

A certain brother was led to the grave in his dream by an angel. The angel struck the grave and shouted the name of someone the brother knew three times and the person came out. The brother withdrew his blessing from the person and that was the end of his problem. It means that even if the person that stole your blessings from you or did evil to you is dead, you can still withdraw your blessing from him or her.

Nothing will work for someone whose virtues are detained by the grave as far as the person is walking on the earth. Things will only work if the person flies in the sky. But as far as his legs make contact with mother earth, nothing will work

There are many things that a lot of believers do not understand that is why the Bible says that the children of this world are wiser in their own ways. There are so many things that are not clear to believers but people of the dark kingdom understand them very well. That is why the Bible says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Many people in Nigeria are just carrying Bible and watching American videos. They say, “We don’t have to pray as hard as this. We don’t believe in this kind of hard prayer.” The problem with such people is that they have been caged. They are not the ones talking. Something is operating demonic logic through them. Without aggressive prayers, you cannot harass these powers. They just stay there and expand.

WHO ARE THOSE DETAINED BY THE POWER OF THE GRAVE?

1. Those who always dream of the dead. If you are always seeing dead people, eating with them, talking to them, or generally doing things with them in the dream, the Lord is trying to tell you that part of your virtue is with the dead. All you should do is to unseat them and withdraw your virtues. When somebody has been captured by the power of the grave, it would seem as if the whole world is against the person. Anywhere he goes, he will be antagonized.
2. They are people who always have the feeling that somebody or people are following them but it is only they who will see them or feel them.
3. Those who have been captured by the power of the grave sometimes suffer from very terrible spiritual blindness. They see nothing, hear nothing, and expect nothing. They are totally blank spiritually.
4. Spiritually, such people are clothed in spiritual rags. The clothes of a buried corpse turn to rags easily. Such people would live in poverty except they cry unto the Lord.
5. They have unashamed and determined effort to destroy themselves.
6. Sometimes they dream of very slow animals like tortoise, snails, etc. One day, I prayed for a man and as he stood up to go, on his seat was a tortoise. I said, “Come back sir, what is this?” He looked at it and said, “Aha, a long time ago, a herbalist did something for me with a tortoise and asked me to drop it into the sea and I did.” But there it was on a seat after many years. That shows that the devil is very clever. The man thought he had thrown it into the sea but he did not know that the evil powers planted it back into his life. Now he could not make progress and was wondering why.

It is because of this that Jesus had to go into the lower parts of the earth. Ephesians 4: 8 –9 says, “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.” Why did He have to go there? He had to go there because a lot of good things had been buried there. Jesus had to go and set the captives free. He preached to the spirits that were in prison under the earth. That is why one of my favorite passages in the Bible is Revelation 1: 8. It says, “I am he that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” He has given us that same authority. Only the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ can command the materials seized by the spirits in the grave to come forth like Lazarus and they shall come walking out. Beloved, why don’t you ask for this power to come upon your life?

PRAYER POINTS

1. Lay your right hand on your head and pray like this: All my blessings imprisoned by the grave, come forth, in the name of Jesus.
2. I release my blessing from the hand of any dead relative, in the name of Jesus.
3. I withdraw my blessing from the hand of any dead relative, in the name of Jesus.
4. Put your hand on your stomach and pray like this: I disgrace every witchcraft burial, in the name of Jesus.
5. Just as the grave could not detain Jesus, no power will detain my miracle, in the name of Jesus.
6. That which is hindering me from greatness, give way now, in the name of Jesus.
7. Whatever has been done against me using the ground, be neutralized, in the name of Jesus.
8. Every unfriendly friend, be exposed in the name of Jesus.
9. Anything representing my image in the spirit world, I withdraw your representation, in the name of Jesus.

All the camps of my enemies, receive boiling confusion, in the name of Jesus.

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DEALING WITH THE STONES OF THE WICKED

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Psalm 74:20: “Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.” This means that there are places on earth that are dark and the Bible recognizes them. The only place on earth that light shines is the church of God. The Bible says, “Ye are the light of the world.” What is done at the dark places of the earth are wickedness and cruelty. It is from the dark places that wicked stones are thrown at the sons of men. In those places, there are no friends, even if you said that you belonged to them, they are still your enemies.

Somebody vomits witchcraft into a woman and pushes her to the market place to confess that she is a witch. The old woman goes to the market and says, “Behold, I have eaten twins and their legs are in my mouth.” And people at the market said, “Abomination.” The same person who put witchcraft into her and sent her to the market place to confess tells his children to pick up stones and stone the woman.

It is a useless activity to serve the devil. If you call yourself a witch, wizard or familiar spirit, you are wasting your life and at the end of the day, you will land in hell. So, it is a senseless thing to do. It is a certificate of destiny demotion. Think about it.

If you are to be a battle-axe for the Lord, you will face a lot of problems. The Bible says that they those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus must suffer persecutions. If you do not want to be a battle axe for the Lord, if you just want to be a mediocre Christian, if you want to warm the benches and be quarrelling with people who sit beside you or even fight people at the car parks to the extent of tearing their clothes, and at the end you say, “amen,” no problem. But know that at the end of the day, you will go to hell fire, the home of unprofitable servants.

Personally, I have faced many problems in my life, but I overcame them all. You cannot become God’s general without confronting adversity and afflictions. You cannot become a world general without fighting any war. Afflictions and adversity have no friends. Adversity is that unwanted enemy who continues to knock at our door in the middle of the night calling us again and again to come and fight.

Somebody was tired of reading stories in the newspapers, which he called bad news. So, he decided to publish his own newspaper to carry only “good news.” But to his amazement, people were not buying it and within a short time the newspaper folded up.

The news media, you would find out, specialized in publishing pains and adversity. They know that people are ready to read them, to feed themselves on negative sensational painful news. For example, the caption, “Girl burns herself to death after she was jilted by a boyfriend,” will attract the attention of many people. But a headline such as, “Man celebrates 90th birthday,” would not have such an effect. Many people would say, “Eh, this one should die and go.” The devil is cleverly feeding the whole world with the negatives. If you want to run an advert that will attract the attention of many people, just put a naked woman in it and you would succeed. The message will sink in their brain because the devil has programmed women like that.

However, in spite of the adversities, we have a promise that we are conquerors. Isaiah 54:17: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servant of the Lord and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” It does not matter what the weapon is, the Bible says that the prosperity of the weapon shall be withdrawn completely.

Proverbs 28:10: “Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit, but the upright shall have good things in possession.” What the Bible means here is that the enemy will fall into his own pit. Proverbs 26:27: “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.” There is something called boomerang. It is a small stick, when you throw it at a person and it misses its target, it will come back to you who threw it. Proverbs 11:8: “The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead.” Ecclesiastes 10:8: “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.”

Some of us are wasting time crying, worrying our brain and calling God a liar. If you study the Bible very well, you will discover one of the principles of the power of God. That principle says, “The weapon formed against the people of God falls back on those who set the force in motion.” Sometime ago, I was praying with a certain sister. Everything was upside down for her. As I was praying, a woman appeared and said, “What is your business in this matter? Why? Is this person your sister? Do you know her before? Why are you wasting your time? Leave her alone. We have not come here to cause trouble. So, you too, don’t cause trouble. Just stop this prayer and let her go.” I continued the prayer and told the sister what I saw. Thereafter, she went home and the following week somebody died. It was the woman that appeared to me while I was praying for her.

The weapons formed against the people of God often fall back on those who form them. I can give you various testimonies on that. When I was an undergraduate we were going to have an examination on Chemistry. I had two note books on that course. Life was not as easy as it is now. In those days, examinations were taken more seriously than is the case now. At the end of the year, you would be tested on all you were taught throughout the year. If you fail, you will repeat the class. It was unlike now, that questions are broken into pieces and people are still failing, or they claim to be sick when the examination time draws close. All examinations were done in June. Somebody stole one of my note books, the one I needed most and no student agreed to give me his note book. I went home very sad, but I heard a voice from the Holy Spirit saying, “You still have one note book, don’t you remember?” I said, “Yes.” The voice said, “Read that one.” It didn’t take me up to two hours to read the notebook l had with me but I was still worried about the stolen one, until I got to the examination hall. There was not a question from the big notebook that was stolen. So, all the person who stole it did for me was to allow me to concentrate on where the questions would come from, and I am sure he would have wasted his time studying the notebook that he stole and eventually he would have failed.

Somebody, who was very close to me and has gone to be with the Lord now, was sitting in his sitting room and one day, without knocking at the door, a demon-idol entered. Such a thing may be strange to some people, but in some places it is a normal fighting spirit seen often. This demon-idol walked up to this man and called him by his full names, including the ones nobody usually called him. It said, “I have been sent to you.” And before this man could move, the idol struck his right hand with the big stick in its hand and the hand became paralyzed instantly. The idol walked out slowly and disappeared. Such spirits are never in a hurry. The man was a child of God but did not have enough knowledge. So, all he could do was to grab a bottle of water by his side prayed on it and poured it on his hand and the hand became normal again. The demon-idol came back another time because the first time it came, the man did not deal with it thoroughly. It was allowed the second chance to fight.

The case of one sister was different. The enemy sent a similar demon to her but as it announced its name and said, “I have been sent to beat you,” the sister said, “Are you sure you are at the right address? I command you to stand at attention, in Jesus’ name.” The thing stood attention and the sister said, “Take your big stick and begin to beat yourself according to what is written in the Bible that “no weapon formed against me shall prosper but it shall prosper in the camp of the enemy.” The demon-idol beat itself until it smashed its head and disappeared. After that five people died in the sister’s village, including the chief priest, and they never sent another demon-idol to her. What I am saying is that what shall be your deliverance shall bring doom to your enemies. That is God’s principle. The same Red Sea which brought deliverance to the Israelites, brought destruction to the Egyptians. The pillar of fire which gave light to the Israelites gave darkness to the Egyptians. The night which brought deliverance and joy to the children of Israel also brought lamentation and tragedy to Egypt. The den of lions through which Daniel moved into promotion brought disgraceful termination of his opponents.

Say this loud and clear, “My problem shall become my promotion, in the name of Jesus.”
The fiery furnace which was air-conditioner for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego killed those who threw them into the furnace. Glory be to the name of the Lord. That which is life to you will kill your enemy. The sword with which Goliath meant to cut off the head of David was eventually used to cut off his own head. All the credentials of Goliath did not scare David. In fact, looking at him, David was not impressed. David said, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” The same force that the enemy has created to destroy will as a matter of necessity destroy the enemy. The arrow fired by Joseph’s brethren got back to them even though it took a long time, in 15 years Joseph sold into slavery and expected to have been dead became their lord.

As somebody uses his biro and paper to deal with you, the same biro and paper shall deal with him. The Syrian soldiers who came to Dothan to take Elisha were the ones taken captive. The Bible tells us that the wicked are always firing stones and arrows at the righteous but glory be to God that all the stones and arrows can be forced to go back to them.

The Bible talks about the fiery darts of the enemy. The spiritual world is fashioned in such a way that once a bad thing has been initiated there, it must happen to somebody. It is the same thing with God. Isaiah 55:11: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but is shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it.” If God says that somebody should go and receive blessing at a service and the person happens not to come to church, or he is sleeping, that blessing will not go back to God, it will look for somebody else and give it to him. When the enemy programmes death into a child of God, God will do a simple substitution, the righteous is removed from trouble and the wicked is used as a replacement.

MANY THINGS FIRED AT CHRISTIANS THESE DAYS INCLUDE:

1. Physical and spiritual sickness: When a person who is usually very happy, reads the Bible and rejoices every morning, wakes up one morning and does not feel like reading the Bible or praying and instead feels depressed and unhappy, it means that the stone of the wicked has been fired against him. If it is the day that the angels of blessings are coming to him, there will be problem because he has started the day on a deficit.
2. Arrows of disappointments: There could be the arrow of curses, spells, death, poverty, confusion, etc. A person who receives such arrows will be confused. There are also arrows of self-destroying utterances and of terrifying dreams. Do you know that some people are afraid of sleeping because, immediately they close their eyes, they are surrounded by evil things and problem starts. Sometime ago, a woman shared an experience with me. She said that while she was sleeping, she felt somebody beside her whom she thought was her husband, and this person made love with her throughout the night. In the morning, when she woke up she did not find anybody by her side again and she started looking for her husband all over the place, only for her husband to come in at 9.00 a.m. and told her that he spent the night in the office. It was then she was scared. That was the stone of the wicked. It could be a stone of disappointment, frustration, doubt, temptation into sin, etc.

THE GREATEST SPIRITUAL SPY
The greatest spiritual spy that reports us to the camp of the enemy is fear. Fear reveals our strength and weakness to the enemy. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind.” A believer should be free from fear at all times and under all circumstances. When fear occupies your heart, you make yourself a subject of arrows and stones of the enemy. The enemy, with the help of his scanning machine, would see fear in you and know that all the prayer points you are calling are out of the heart of fear. That spirit of fear will show itself. That is why it is often said that the most common demon in the whole world is fear.

ARROWS OF THE LATTER DAYS
Many weapons and arrows are used against people these days. Some people are choked on their beds and they find it difficult to breath. Some people hear voices asking them to do strange things. The kind of sin they did not commit before they became born-again would become easy for them because the strange voice urges them to do it.

It is like a sister who on her bed suddenly heard, “Daughter, rise up,” and she got up naked at midnight. Her husband and the children did not wake up. She passed through the sitting room and walked into the street. However, as she was going, she suddenly heard another voice which said, “But the daughter of God does not run mad, go back home.” It was then that her eyes cleared, she saw that she was in the street and she went back home. When she entered, she woke her husband up and told him what happened and he could not believe that she walked out naked. But she actually did.

Some people hear voices from the spirit world. Many just pray short prayers and sleep. You should be giving testimonies if you know what some people face everyday. It could be the arrow of sudden depression. When it comes upon a happy person, all of a sudden the joy of the Lord disappears. It could be a paralytic wind. We have people blown by that wind who come for deliverance. They could be in front of their houses and a small breeze blows upon them and they just suffer paralysis. Until that evil wind comes out, they will remain paralysed. It could be a cold chill at night. The room could be hot and all of a sudden becomes cold and before you know it, the heat clears away. It is the stone pf the wicked. It could be a heavy head. It could be things moving all over the body. These are arrows of the latter days. Somebody could be eating food and all of a sudden he sees a strange item in the food which could be a very big insect or a cockroach.

When weapons are set in motion against the children of God, as a matter of necessity the weapons fall back upon the forces that set them in motion. People’s hair or part of their body could be cut off. Spiritual or physical snakes could be sent to somebody, these are wicked arrows. A sister working in an office gave a testimony. Somebody told her that if she got promoted to a particular post she would not live to enjoy it. She thought it was a joke. One morning, as she was drinking tea, she perceived something cold on her legs and by the time she looked, it was a big snake. She called in her messenger, who was a huge and strong man. When he entered and saw the serpent already winding around her legs, he ran out and at that stage the woman knew that she was on her own. Then she prayed one prayer point: “You evil serpent, be electrocuted, in Jesus’ name.” As she prayed it, suddenly she saw fear in the snake which shortly stretched out and died. If that sister did not know what to do, she would have died and be forgotten now. It could be heat in the head. Do not take it lightly and say that it will go. Even if it would go, deal with it first. There is no harm in doing that.

Feeding people in the dream with what they would not ordinarily eat is also a wicked stone. Women having affairs with men in the dream is an arrow of the wicked. Receiving emergency false message from home, that somebody is dying, only to be told on your getting there that nobody is dying and they tell you that they have not seen you for a very long time and it is the only method they can bring you home, is an arrow of the wicked. You need to pray against it.

When a person begins to see coffin in the dream, it signifies the spirit of death. The enemies are sending the person to the grave. You really need to pray seriously if you have that kind of dream. When anything at all comes upon you and you want to shout for help to Jesus in your dream and you cannot shout, or you are not able to pray or fight against the thing, it is a wicked stone. Anything that does not allow you to have the consciousness to shout Jesus when you are under satanic attack in a dream is a wicked stone. It must go back to the sender. Some people dream and see themselves picking eggs in the dream and eating them. The meaning of that is that they are putting incurable diseases in their body. Such people really need to stand up and do something quick. If you dream of flood carrying away your property, send back the flood to where it came from. If somebody sees herself doing wedding with a strange person in the dream, she needs to destroy that church where she found herself and send fire to the bridegroom or bride. If somebody dreams that his hat or cap was flying away or that his dress was being removed and he found himself or herself naked, he or she needs to pray against the spirit of disgrace. The enemy is using many things like that to harass the people of God. You must learn to take action because the Bible says, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.”

WAY OUT
If you are attacked, do not panic. If you do and you expose your situation or announce yourself to the unbelievers around you they will not offer you any useful advice. They may only re-arrange your problem and you have more problems. Do not be afraid, because you know what the Bible says in Psalm 23:4: “Yea, though, I walk through the valley of shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.”

1. You must not try the devil’s solution: If you do, the arrow will multiply because it is only light that can overcome darkness. If you receive help from him, you will pay back. The devil has no free gift. Anywhere you go to and any gift said to be of God is not offered freely, that gift is something else it is not from God.
2. Learn to cover yourself with the blood of Jesus.
3. Learn warfare scriptures: For example, Deuteronomy 28:7, which says, “The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face, they shall come out against thee one way and flee before thee seven ways.” See also Deuteronomy 7:15, Jeremiah 1:19, Isaiah 8:10, Isaiah 54:17, Numbers 23:23, Psalm 68:1, Psalm 91. They are examples of warfare scriptures.
4. Learn to call on the fire of God: When the situation becomes hard, the answer is fire.
5. Learn to send evil arrows back to sender.

This is how to deal with the stones of the wicked. When the enemy throws a stone at you and it goes back to his camp, then he will know that our God is the Almighty.

PRAYER POINTS

1. I break the law of sin and death upon my life, in Jesus’ name.
2. O Lord, heal my waters and my bread, in Jesus’ name.
3. Satanic garments, tear away from my body and be cast into the sea, in Jesus’ name.
4. Oppression, be shifted away from my foundation, in Jesus’ name.
5. O Lord, you promise to take away evil plantation from my life, therefore, take it away, in Jesus’ name.
6. O Lord, command men on my behalf, in Jesus’ name.
7. Every wind of darkness, fade away by fire, in Jesus’ name.
8. Every arrow fired against me and my family, backfire, in Jesus’ name.
9. Every arrow fashioned against my destiny, backfire, in Jesus’ name.
10. (Grip your head with your two hands and pray like this): I fire back every arrow of the enemy fired into my head, in Jesus’ name.

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HOLY REBELLION

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Beloved, we are considering a message entitled, “Holy Rebellion.”

Sometime ago, a relative of mine brought a girl who had just arrived from the village to my house. The first night, she talked throughout in her sleep. I got angry in my spirit that day but I had to keep quiet as a matter of courtesy since that was her first night. The following morning, I confronted her and told her that if she dared have any conversation in her sleep again, both herself and her invisible partner would be imprisoned and caged. Behold, that particular night, she did not make a single sound while she slept. But by the following morning, she carried her things and left. My warning destabilized her.

The apostles of old had cause to report some people to God: They said, “O Lord, behold their threatening.” Many of us reading this message have been threatened in the past while some are now living under the threat of their enemies. What a big insult to the children of the living God to be living under such a condition. Therefore, I want you to get angry in your spirit and fire these arrows before you read further:
I destablise every witch or wizard warring against my life, in the name of Jesus.
Let every serpent dispatched against me begin to bite itself, in the name of Jesus.
Every enemy of my breakthrough, become blind, in the name of Jesus.
1 Samuel 17:38-40: “And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him. And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand; and he drew near to the Philistine.”

WHAT ARE THE FORCES OF THE PHILISTINES?

We have modern-day Philistines. They are the forces threatening the people of God, harassing them and vowing to cause tragedies in their lives. They are not hiding their evil intentions. They say it openly just as Goliath was an open enemy. Verses 41-46: “And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take off thine head from thee; and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.”

What David did at the battlefront could be called holy rebellion. After all, his mission at the war front was to deliver food to his elder brothers. But when he got there and saw someone boasting and threatening the Israelites, he began to ask questions: “Who is this man threatening the armies of the living God?” He carried out a holy rebellion and what happened? Goliath fell. The man had a big head and a big sword too. David therefore took the sword of Goliath and with it cut off the head of Goliath. This means that the weapon that the enemies have fashioned against you shall be used against them, in Jesus’ name.

Difficult circumstances are a fact of life and there is no human being that can ever be useful without passing through some obstacles. Jesus Himself had to pass through the cross to receive glory and honour. The Bible says that He was despised, forsaken and counted unworthy to live. He was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. His face was not an object that anyone would like to look at because it was badly spoilt. They plucked His beard. He passed through agony while on His way to receive glory and honour. Inquire from anointed men of God and talk to people who have achieved something for God and they will tell you stories of what they have passed through.

I can never stop getting amazed at the story of Elisha. Here was a man who followed Elijah and they worked together for sometime. The first thing that would surprise a careful student of the Bible is the fact that there were many students in the school of the prophets, how come at the crucial stage of Elijah’s ministry, the only person he could see was Elisha? There must have been something special about him. He followed his master to the end. When they passed through Gilgal, Elijah asked him to wait there for him but he said, “No. As the Lord lives, where you go, I go. I am not waiting.” As they got to Bethel, Elijah again asked him to wait but he refused; and on getting to Jericho, when Elijah saw that Elisha was going to carry out a holy rebellion and was not going to let him go, he asked what he wanted from him. If Elisha had turned back in Gilgal, there would have been no opportunity for Elijah to ask him that question. You may say that he was stubborn but he knew what he was looking for. When eventually he told his master that he wanted a double-portion of his anointing, his master said, “You have asked for a hard thing. However, if you were able to see me when I was being taken away, it shall be so; otherwise, the request cannot be met.” Elisha’s final examination was to be able to see Elijah on the heavenly chariot physically and he saw him. I am convinced in my spirit that prior to that day, Elisha must have stopped eating for days because he did not want to miss that golden opportunity. He had holy rebellion inside his blood. When the chariot came, he saw it and screamed, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.” He took a further step of rebellion by not sitting by to watch the chariot; rather he held on to his master and got part of his garment. Holy rebellion.

If you are a minister with a compassionate heart, sometimes you find that people are going through unbearable things. When you hear or see the agonies some people are passing through, you will thank God for your own situation. Oftentimes, many would soak ‘gari’ (cassava meal) in water and drink it with some groundnuts and they would not have health problems, yet they would complain of being poor. But there are thousands of people who dare not put one spoon of gari in their mouths, if they do, they will land in a hospital.

Beloved, many people have serious problems. What do you make of that man whose wife asked for money for soup and he said he did not have. The next thing the woman did was to take a whip and beat him twice. From that day, he lost his mind and started dancing in the streets. People who did not know the genesis of his problems would not know what he was passing through. There are problems but Psalm 34:19: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” It did not say few are these afflictions but many, yet the Lord delivers him out of them all. Verse 20 goes further to say, “He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken.” In essence, the Bible is reawakening that consciousness in us again, that there would be opposition and obstacles but at the same time there would be deliverance for God’s children. It does not matter how long the problem has existed or what medical doctors have diagnosed. I read an article in an international magazine in which it is mentioned that scientists have discovered that prayer is a form of medicine. A medical doctor who had one particular patient in the ward with his two lungs already eaten up by cancer, said that by his knowledge, that patient was not supposed to live for more than two weeks but he noticed that everyday, his church members gathered around him to sing and pray. In his anger, he had suggested to them to start practicing songs for his funeral instead of wasting their time praying. He said that surprisingly, the man did not die and the way he got out of that sickness beat his medical knowledge. One year after, when the man paid him a visit, he decided to carry out a research on prayer as medicine. He did the work in a hospital where about 300 patients were on admission. The names of some of them were listed without mentioning their ailments and some were passed to a church for prayers. They picked them at random. After six months, they checked the records and found that only about 20 per cent of those they did not pray for died while 75 per cent of those that were prayed for lived. When the man found out that more people recovered on the prayer list, he was convinced about the power of prayer.

Some people cry everyday because of their problems. They forget that many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers him from them all. The only person who can prevent you from being delivered from them all is not the devil, neither is it your pastor, nor your enemies, but yourself. So, whatever circumstance you are facing, the way you respond to it will determine whether you will be delivered or not. If you decide to respond by exercising holy rebellion, you will get out of it. It may not come quite easily but you will get out.

The circumstances or whatever you face can either make you a better person or a very bitter person. It can either make you or mar you. Nothing can break those who exercise holy rebellion. What the devil wants people to be doing is to be crying everyday while his demons dance to the music of the crying and weeping. Psalms 92:12: “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” What does this mean? We shall be able to understand this question by taking a closer look at the life of a palm tree. In the Bible, the palm tree is a symbol for victory. Revelation 7: 9: “After this, I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.” John 12:12-13: “On the next day, much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna; Blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.” That was a day of victory.

WHY IS THE PALM TREE SO IMPORTANT?

Scientists tell us that it has a lot of uses. For example, the fruit is the daily food for millions. What people call palm-wine is from the palm tree. Fresh palm-wine that is dropping from the palm tree is not intoxicating. It becomes intoxicating when it is stored and fermented. It is then that it begins to do the evil work. The fresh palm-wine from the tree does not contain alcohol and is very sweet but when human beings want to destroy themselves they store it to turn it into a chemical. It is the same thing with all God’s creation. Human beings are the ones who turn a useful thing into something harmful. The seed from the palm tree is used to produce animal feed for so many animals. Those who went to traditional schools know that ropes can be made from the palm leaf raffia. Part of it is also used to make brooms. The trunk is a valuable timber. Palm oil, palm kernel and coconut come from the palm tree. The wonderful thing about the tree is that although it stands with its feet inside undrinkable waters and with its head in the sun, yet men can drink the sweetest juice from it, eat the sweet coconut from it and get some other useful products from it. Therefore, the palm tree through its inner life can change the elements in the bad soil so that it can minister growth and strength to it and it will bear fruit. The righteous is likened unto it. It means that even though you and I have our feet or root in various unfavourable environments and situations, or come from a family of cannibals or from a place where anybody who builds a house dies, or we come from an environment of bitterness and discouragement, the Bible says we are like the palm tree. In spite of all odds, we should grow and grow strong. We reject the evil and assimilate the good.

Many modern-day Christians are suffering from spiritual diabetes, too much sugar. They prefer the couch to the cross. They want to see the ladder descend from heaven like it did to Jacob but they are not interested in putting their heads on the pillow of stone. They want to put their heads on nice foam pillows and they want the ladder of heaven. So, when they have a problem or encounter an obstacle, they make a big show of it. A lot of parents have pampered their children unto failure because they don’t understand that that which makes a person great is that which hinders him. Psalm 66:9-12: “Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved. For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.” We have to pass through all these rough roads that the Bible has mentioned before God can put us in a wealthy place.

Before anyone can become anything in life, one way or the other, he or she must have been kicked around, discouraged and oppressed. There is no easy way to winning a crown. Some people say that they want to grow and become powerful but when they are tried, they fail. God tries you with one problem or the other to see how you stand. If He discovers that you fail or you are unable to withstand the stress of the test, He may withhold the power. Therefore, the land of opposition is the land of opportunity. The food of victory is unfavourable circumstances. So, all the problems you think you are facing now should be seen as an opportunity to grow unto maturity. They should be seen as an opportunity for you to advertise God’s power in your life.

We have a Deliverer who is monitoring our lives and He will not test you beyond what you can carry. The world as it stands, is managed by God who is the greatest designer. He is the great Lord of lords. If you believe that this God is your Father, then you are stronger than any terrible circumstances and obstacles. When you face an obstacle, your purpose as somebody who is reigning like a king should be to make the obstacle your servant. Don’t make your obstacle your master for too long. Unbelief makes many people to be slaves to their obstacles and problems. Always believe that you are the master of your problem. As you grow older in faith, are you becoming better or are you allowing the enemy to blackmail you? There is the story of Ayo and Ojo who were in the boarding house. They were put in care of a teacher. In those days when you were in the boarding house and they put you in the teacher’s house, you are in trouble because as far as the teacher was concerned, anything short of first position would not do. Ayo and Ojo were supposed to look after the ducks owned by the teacher. One day, Ayo mistakenly killed a duck. He decided to eat the duck as a way of hiding the mistake. His morning work was to sweep the whole of the sitting room, clean the kitchen, wash the plates, warm the soup and dress his master’s children for school before he would get ready for school. The work of Ojo was to make sure that the grasses around the house were well cut and the flowers were all watered. The first day after Ayo ate the duck, he woke up at 6 a.m. and woke Ojo up. But Ojo told him that he would wake up by 7 a.m. and that Ayo should make sure he helped him with his morning work if not he would tell their master that he killed a duck. From then on, Ojo did nothing. Ayo was doing all the work and was growing lean. Sometimes, when they were served their meals, Ojo would eat all the meat. When the teacher noticed that Ayo was getting lean, he asked him what the problem was. Ayo denied having any problem but one day, he could no longer bear it so he went to confess to his master and asked for forgiveness. The master asked him how long ago he killed the duck and he said, “Nine months ago.” The master said, “Don’t worry. I have forgiven you.” So, Ayo slept happily for the first time in nine months. The following morning, Ojo who did not know that Ayo had sorted himself out woke him up as usual and said, “Have you forgotten that you killed a duck?” Ayo told him to go ahead and report. This is how problem blackmails many people. It just dictates their lives for them. Until you carry out a spiritual rebellion against an obstacle, it will continue to blackmail and harass you.

There is also negative rebellion. One day in my school days, some of my colleagues decided to stage a coup against one student-teacher. My protests did not count as I was voted out. In those days, when student-teachers go for teaching practice, their inspectors sometimes stood by the window to observe how they went about their work. The observer this time was a white man. The mischievous students got ready for this teacher. They were following the lesson and co-operating with the teacher until the white man turned up and they carried out their plan. The teacher said, “Boys, my boss is by the door, you stand up and greet him.” None of them stood up. He asked, “Are you deaf?” One of them said, “Your father is deaf.” He felt insulted and took a whip and said, “Stand up all of you.” The first boy he tried to beat took the whip from him, cut it to pieces and ran away. The rest ran out to call the principal. Before the principal came they had started to sing, “We don’t want him, he should go. All we are saying is he must go.” That is what we call demonic rebellion. We are not talking about this type of rebellion but one targeted at satanic works.

When you are constantly getting worried about a particular problem it shows that you are the servant of the problem not his master. If you are feeling that the situation will never come to an end then you become the servant of the problem. If the problem becomes your major pre-occupation and is ordering you around like a military officer it has become the master. If it takes away your happiness then it has become the master. If you are ready to try ungodly things, the problem has become your master. Some people come for prayers and when the desired solution does not come as envisaged, they backslide. The truth is that the problem has become their master and they the servants. When a problem is allowed to dominate the mind, it will paralyse one’s prayer life and make the person an obedient servant for it will then start dictating all sorts of commands to the person.

You have to carry out a spiritual coup today, overthrow the king in charge of the problem by disagreeing with an obstacle you have been agreeing with for long.

THE WAY OUT

Rebel against the obstacle with the word of God and prayer. Decide that it is not going to push you around any longer; instead you will be pushing it all over. One thing some people don’t know about the devil is how to resist him. The Bible says, “Resist the devil and it shall flee from you.” You will not recognise that the devil is a coward until you resist him and you will be amazed at seeing him run away.

Take your mind completely off the problem; kick the thought of it out of your mind anytime it tries to come back. Replace it with the thoughts of the Scriptures.

Treat the obstacle like a dog without teeth by telling it that the Lord has defeated it on the cross.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Do not let any moment of sadness cross your spirit.

Fill your spirit with the word of God: this is how you can turn the obstacle to your servant now.

Avoid faithless people who talk failure and discouragement because they will drag you further down.

Make positive confessions everyday.

Rebel aggressively against the problem, putting your faith into full use.

Faith without works, they say is death. So, you must put your faith to work. Faith says I am going to fight this battle and I will return. Faith also says, it is well. So, when you really have faith you would have won the fight before starting. David killed Goliath before he slew him. How did he do that? He said to him, “You come against me in the name of your gods but I come against you in the name of God of hosts. He exercised his faith.

So, I ask you a question: Are you reigning in life as a king according to Romans 5:17 which says “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.”. Or have you allowed your life to be fully overtaken by problems? Wake up and challenge the problem. Say no to its continual existence in your life and carry out a holy rebellion. You will succeed, in Jesus’ name.

PRAYER POINTS

1. I challenge all obstacles before me to be dismantled, in Jesus’ name.
2. All unprofitable trees growing in my life, be uprooted by fire, in the name of Jesus.
3. I breathe in the healing power of God. (When you say it three times you take a deep breath into your system. Do it in faith and as you are breathing out, infirmities will go back to the sender, in the name of Jesus.)
4. I reject every spirit of error, in the name of Jesus.
5. I refuse to fail in every area of my life, in Jesus’ name.

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CUT IT DOWN

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Beloved, you are not in this world by accident as there is a divine purpose for your creation. Eventually, we all shall give account of what we have done with our lives. I want you to read our message for this week prayerfully and as you do so, the Lord will open your eyes to areas in your life that need urgent surgical operations.

Let us start by reading the gospel according to St. Luke 13: 6- 9:

“He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.” The Bible says, “Buy the truth and sell it not.” The Bible also says,

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32).

I would like you to meditate on these Scriptures.

Truth is very stubborn. You can do whatever you like to with it and it will still stand because it is the truth. It is also very expensive and unfortunately, becoming scarce commodity even in the house of God. It is gradually becoming a rare commodity even in the lives of born again Christians. Lies, it is said, may dominate for years but when the truth comes it breaks them into irreparable pieces. Until you call a particular thing what God calls it, you are still joking.

Brother Stephen in the Bible was dragged before the Jewish people to defend himself, being accused of preaching against the temple and wanting to change Moses’ laws. With boldness he told them the truth by calling them what they really were, “stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart whose forefathers specialized in persecuting prophets.” They became mad.

Acts 7:54: “When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth.”

When you come to the house of God and hear the truth, it should yield fruit in your life. It is possible for you to love the truth but it is only when you do it that it will set you free. There is nothing like half truth. It is lie as far as the Bible is concerned.

Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

The best insecticide against error is the truth hence the common saying that truth is always bitter. Right now if you can locate any falsehood in your life you need to talk to the Lord, ask Him to flush out every falsehood in your life, in Jesus’ name.

A certain woman was rushed to me and said her husband had just thrown out her belongings and asked her to go and that he had also burnt her passport. She gave a catalogue of the man’s wickedness and I was moved by the story. I requested that we saw the man together. Shortly before we got to their home, we saw her husband going out, and guess what happened. The woman pointed at him and said, “Doctor, that is him crawling out like a snake.” Then I said, “Sorry, madam, if you can call him a snake in my presence, I wonder what you will call him at my back.” The truth is that it was not the man that was the problem, rather it was the woman’s tongue.

All the secret sins that some of us are committing could be likened to a sleeping dog which will eventually wake up and be seen by everybody. It is difficult to cover a sin for you have to commit another sin to cover the previous one, and as this progresses the devil drags you farther and farther. Samson began to joke with his call, then he began to tell lies. He lied to cover up his former lies until the Spirit of God left him. One man of God said that when the Spirit of God came upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost, there was a sound of a great rushing mighty wind, but that when the Holy Spirit decides to depart from somebody’s life, He would leave quietly. Samson did not know that the Spirit of God had left him at the time he was captured. He had become what we call an empty barrel. And talking about empty barrels, many are found in the house of God today. They are found speaking different languages, shouting, preaching, but as far as God and the devil are concerned they are just empty barrels. Secret sins in a life will constitute the root of many other sins.

Perhaps you have been going to a particular ministry for sometime now. It is good for you to review how profitable that place has been to you. One of the greatest tragedies of life is wasted time, for it is never recovered. Beloved, it is possible for someone to be making a loud noise yet he is saying nothing. Your actions in the church do not really matter. The most important thing is how you react to issues when you get out of the church. The devil will be very stupid to grab you in the house of God, for he knows that he cannot withstand the power of corporate prayers. What is in the temperature of your spiritual life now? Is it the Holy Spirit alone that is pasturing your life? Please, get me right, I am not asking whether you are a pastor, a general overseer or what have you. You may talk about the speck in your brother’s eyes while leaving the log in your own eyes, but know that God Almighty is going to cut you down if you are unproductive.

Why we plant orange trees is because we want it to produce fruits and we will not be happy if the tree is only producing leaves and flowers. God has planted us here to bear spiritual fruits. He is the heavenly Gardener. Recall the earlier passage of Luke 13: 6-9 : “He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree; and find none: cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering, said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it. And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.”

Jesus was displeased because the tree was fruitless so He gave an order to cut it down for it was using the space that a fruitful tree should be occupying. Who do you think Jesus was talking about? What do you think He means? That is why I say you must know your purpose here on earth. Are you a fruitful Christian? Can you say that since you were born again you have done anything profitable for God? Or your life has been characterized by requests to God only? What have you done for Him? Don’t you know that the Lord has been waiting for a long time for your life to produce fruit? How sad would it be if you disappoint Jesus? That fig tree that failed to give the Lord Jesus fruits to eat when He was hungry,disappointed Him. The Lord therefore promptly pronounced a curse upon it that, “No man shall eat from you thereafter.” Carefully put, He told the tree that it would never bear fruit anymore. And expectedly, the tree dried to its roots. What tragedy it would be if the heavenly Gardener comes to us and finds the same spiritual fruitlessness in us and pronounces the same curse? What a calamity it would be for God to say, “Replace him.” God cannot leave a vacuum in His kingdom. And to every unprofitable tree that command will eventually come and please will not be useful because God will certainly cut it down.

Take the case of Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Father Jacob deliberately placed his right hand on the junior whilst his left hand was on the senior, meaning that Manasseh had been replaced.

A particular generation of Israelites left Egypt to the promised land. But one day, they began to say that they were like grasshoppers and were unable to do anything. So, God said, “Since you say that you are grasshoppers, you are grasshoppers indeed and you will not get there.” A new generation with only Joshua and Caleb from the 600,000 people that started the journey entered into the promised land.

Some of us are pushing ourselves into a position where God will say, “I give up on this one because he is not serious.” What a disaster it will be for the heavenly Gardener to cry, “Cut it down.” There are already thousands of saints in heaven crying to God day and night to bring His timetable of man to a close, so that they can enter into glory. Yet the Lord is waiting for more who are wasting their lives now instead of coming to repentance.

The Bible says, “Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither has it entered the heart of man what the Lord has planned for His people. Sometime ago, a Korean pastor died seven days after the death of his wife. Many people thought it was the shock of his wife’s death that killed him. While they were preparing his body for burial according to Korean custom, he woke up and said that he was not dead. Then he narrated the vision the Lord showed him. He said he saw his wife in heaven in her beautiful mansion. He was also shown his own mansion that was not as beautiful as his wife. In fact, it had no roof. He was told that his wife’s house was more beautiful because she had sent more materials up than he had done. And just as he was about to go, father Abraham called him and said, “Warn my children that the time is at hand.”

Our lives must produce fruits. The type of fruits our lives must bear is clearly spelt out in Galatians 5:22-23:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such there is no law.”

It is a single Spirit made up of nine parts. In an average church, only 20 per cent of the congregations do the hard work. The rest of them don’t really work hard. This is not what God wants. Unfortunately, many of us have been lazy in our Christian lives and this is disappointing to God. How can someone gives his life to Christ at 60 and yet not be serious with God after having served the devil for long? Can you now see that some of us are trying to play on God’s intelligence by rushing to Him only when we have problems? Is it not sad that the lives of many of us are not attracting people to God?

Consider this parable in Matthew 25:14-30: “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability and straightway took his journey. Then he that received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents; behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents; behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou has not strawed. And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strawed; Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

A man found that he had been infected with leprosy on his neck, so he went and sewed clothes that would cover his neck in order to hide the ailment, instead of going for treatment. Are you like that? Are you suffering from spiritual paralysis? Are there things that are wrong in your life? Those wrong things are what the Bible calls parasites. Those parasites will stick and hinder you from bearing fruits. Some people have mouths that can say anything to anybody at anytime. And when cautioned, they would say, “I should be allowed to speak my mind.” What do you expect from a mind that is not regenerated? Are you a fruit-bearing Christian?

There is no partial holiness, there is no partial or temporary Christianity. There is nothing like partial lies or partial truth. A vessel is never partially clean, it is either clean or dirty. You are either a Christian or a sinner. You are either into God or out of Him. An evil tree cannot bear a good fruit no matter how good we decorate it. Education, if applied wrongly will corrupt instead of yielding fruits.

So many things prevent Christians from bearing fruit. For example:

1. Jealousy: Jealous people find it difficult to prove themselves and catch up with others. They do not rejoice with others when they are promoted over them. They are not ready to promote anything that does not benefit them directly. They are hostile and angry with people and secretly rejoice when people fail. Any work you do for God with envy and jealousy in your spirit is useless as far as God is concerned.
2. Pride: Another terrible spirit is pride. Pride is like acid. It eats and destroys good things. It promotes arrogance, blinds the mind to righteousness and ferments unteachable spirit. A proud person finds it difficult to accept corrections. A proud person is deeply involved in himself. Stubborn people are fruitless because they have the attitude to do things their own way. They are stubborn and inflexible. They rebel against their leaders and refuse to submit to anyone. They claim to know everything.

Love is part of the fruit we should bear. That love will cause you to overlook the fault of others. Love for God, love for our neighbours and ourselves. Joy is also part of the fruit that God wants us to bear. Paul was in the Philippi, jailed and yet with all the stripes given to him, he was able to rejoice and praise the Lord. He had the joy of the Lord in his heart.

Peace is part of the fruit God wants us to bear. Jesus was inside a terrible storm and yet He slept peacefully. Peter had a nice sleep even when he knew he was going to be killed the next day. The Jewish word for peace is called shalom. Shalom means that everything is in order. That is how God wants our spirits to be.

Long-suffering is part of the fruit He wants us to bear. Faith and meekness are parts of the fruit. Temperance and self control are other parts. Nobody will judge us according to the level of miracle we perform. We shall be judged on the basis of the fruit we produce.

Brethren, one day the trumpet shall sound and with it that terrible command of: “Cut it down,” will be given for the fruitless ones. Fruitlessness will take unserious Christians into hell fire. When love is in your life, peace will reign.

An axe is laid to the foundation of the tree, the Bible says, and everything that does not bear fruit shall be cut down and thrown into hell fire.

The most terrible thing is to live without purpose. Ask yourself: “Why am I here? Why do I allow my spiritual life to continually go down?” Let us all wake up from our spiritual slumber and decide to bear fruit. Earthly posts will get us nowhere. It is not how your fellow human beings see and judge you that matters but what you weigh on God’s scale. There is no middle position, you are either for God or against Him. Talk to Him and resolve that terrible curse of “cut it down” will not be your portion.

PRAYER POINTS

1. I loose myself from any power of bewitchment, in Jesus’ name.
2. Satan, I close any door which I have opened to you, in Jesus’ name.
3. I pull down any evil stronghold built into my life by any person who was in charge of me at infancy, in Jesus’ name.
4. Let every evil pronouncement made against me by evil tongues be nullified, in Jesus’ name.
5. Let all evil enquiry about me be rendered null and void, in Jesus’ name.
6.O Lord, replace in me everything that needs to be replaced, in Jesus’ name.

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LIBERTY WITHOUT FREEDOM

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

In John 11, we see one of the most interesting stories in the Bible. The friend of Jesus had been sick. They called Jesus but He did not show up until four days after the man had died. John 11: 38-44 says, “Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? (If you refuse to believe, you will see the glory of satan). Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. (He had to be specific because if He said, “come forth,” without being specific, all the dead there would come out). And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”

Lazarus was raised from the dead by the power of God. Likewise all that believe in Christ have been given a new life. They have been lifted out of the graveyard of sin and sorrow. Jesus said, “Loose him and let him go.” It means that he could not go unless they loosed him. He could not go because he was bound. Although Lazarus was raised from dead, he was still bound. He experienced liberty but not freedom. Captivity was over but he was still bound. The grip of death upon his life had been broken but he was still bound. It is a double tragedy that many believers are still walking around with grave clothes on.

There are children of God who speak in tongues but are still bound. They have their grave clothes on like Lazarus. Jesus has set them free but they are still in their grave clothes. This is the sad condition of many people today. A lot of Christians are still bound by their past failures, past sins, guilt and materialism.

Many believers are bound by traditions, that is why you see Christians going for chieftancy titles and they allow evil people access to their heads which are the symbols of their destiny.

Many believers are still bound by bad habits. Lazarus was alive but constrained; he could see, but through a veil; he could hear but not clearly. Why? He was still in grave clothes. So, perhaps you have been born again for years and you still cannot see, it means that something is blinding your spiritual eyes. You have to pray for the grave clothes to be pulled off. Remember when Saul preached in a particular place and the people fought and argued that he was speaking lies, he said, “I have one last thing to tell you before I leave. Remember that what is happening to you is what was written by the prophets that behold, you wander and you perish, for it is written I will send my words unto them, but hearing they will hear but they will not understand, they will behold but cannot see. Their heart is already hardened so that my hands cannot deliver them, so that they can perish.” With that Paul concluded the sermon. If you have read through the whole of the Bible and decided to continue to be evil, a popular passage in the book of Revelation says, “Continue,” and if you want to continue to do good, it says, “You may continue. But behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me, and my reward can be bad or good, to give to every man according to the works of his hands.”

EVIDENCE OF GRAVE CLOTHES

Many people go to churches where they do not understand the language which their leaders speak. After the meetings, they come out, bring out their cigarettes and begin to smoke. As far they are concerned, they are serving the Lord. That is bondage. Also, sex outside marriage is evidence that a person is bound in grave clothes. A believer who is working with a fake certificate is bound in grave clothes. Obtaining sick leave papers when you are not sick is an indication that you are in grave clothes. Sleeping and pretending to be praying is a sign of being in grave clothes. If you are the worst of human beings when you are angry, you are in grave clothes. Masturbation, chronic impatience, and constant fear are evidence that there are grave clothes on. That is why Jesus said, “Loose him and let him go.” The Lord said the same thing to Pharaoh. Unforgiving spirit, sexual sins and failure to break all connections with the devil are evidence of grave clothes. You claim to be born again but still keep complimentary cards of your former boy friends, it means that the grave clothes are still on. If not, why are you keeping them? Failure to confess every sin, envy, backbiting, and not yielding every area of your life to God are evidence of grave clothes.

If God is your lover and you believe the Bible, which says that your Maker is your husband, you will not be in a hurry to get out from His presence. So, rushing out of the service without sharing the grace is evidence of grave clothes. Not having on the whole armour of God means there are grave clothes on.

THE FLESH

The truth is that the percentage of those who are ready for the rapture is very little. Many people who have seen visions of the rapture but did not go up discovered that it was as a result of grave clothes on them. Grave clothes can be in the form of hair and other body attachments.

A certain man was in very big trouble. He was sacked from five jobs. When he could not feed his family again, his wife ran away, leaving him with three daughters. To worsen his sorrow, his first daughter became pregnant while in form three. When he tried to beat her, she said, “Daddy, all the time I did not ask you for bus fare to school. Where do you think the money I was using came from?” The man was very sad, so he cried unto the Lord in prayers. He really cried to God and you know God never rejects the cry from the heart. The Lord Jesus appeared to him while he was praying. The man was very happy. He wanted the Lord Jesus to sympathize with him. He wanted the Lord to promote him and give him deliverance from all his troubles. He wanted comfort, fairness and divine justice. But to his amazement, the Lord pointed at him and said, “Your problem is rooted in you and not in the enemy.” The Lord told him that that was the hardest part of his Christian life. “You have not even agreed that you are your own problem. You are only deceiving yourself by blaming the devil. I am the Almighty. I am not struggling with the devil. I desire that your flesh must submit to me. I want to dethrone you from the centre of your life and be your Lord, but you have not allowed me to do so. You must contend with this power of your flesh, which is hindering my work and preventing me from doing what I want to do in your life,” the Lord said. The man was surprised but for the first time he got the blunt truth, which they say, is sometimes very bitter. You see, the devil is not really the issue as much as the power of the flesh. It is the flesh that is hanging grave clothes onto the body.

Galatians 5: 17 : “For the flesh lust against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” The flesh is fighting against the spirit and the spirit is fighting against the flesh. Two of them are contrary so that you cannot do the things you are supposed to do. Here lies the secret of victory against any form of satanic attack. Here lies the victory for you to make heaven without anybody pulling you down. If a dry fast is declared for seven days in the church, what do you think will happen? Some people will protest loudly. Some would say, “Do you not know that we would go to work?” Some would say, “They want to kill people in this place.” Others would say, “I have been telling you about that church. You see, now they want seven days dry fast.” That is the power of flesh. They forget that there is something called the bread of heaven. Once you eat that one, you lose the desire to eat the one that is here on earth. If for example you go on three days dry fast, you find out that by the third day even if someone is abusing you, you are not able to talk too much. The secret of that is that Mr. flesh has been weakened. That is the value of fasting. It does not change God, it is you that has to change, because the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit too lusts against the flesh. The two of them are always fighting. When you begin to starve one, say the flesh, your spirit man now becomes stronger. That is the value of fasting. You can pray with more concentration, with more fire, and then you get result.

God has issued a death sentence on Mr. Flesh: “Dust thou art and unto the dust thou shall return.” It is the spirit man inside you that will return back to God. The flesh knows that it is not going to depart from the dust and it wants to pull you along if you allow it.

The devil comes in when we open the door to him through our uncrucified flesh. So our toughest battle is not with the devil, it is with the flesh. The devil is continually looking for open doors through which he can enter to attack us.

John 14: 30 says, “Hereafter I will not talk much with you for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” There was no place in the flesh of Jesus that the devil could have access to. Jesus was dead to Himself. He was dead to His own desires and His own agenda.

The power of darkness operates the most powerful scanning machines. As you are now, they can see you clearly in and out. They know whether any part of them is in you. They know how strong you are; they know those who are spiritual and those who are not. They know those who pray in the morning before going out, they know those who do not pray. They know those who do their quiet time and those who do not. They know those who are merely warming the benches in the church, who are not really serious with the Lord. They know those who are in the church to look for good, obedient, submissive wives, and they know those who are looking for very brilliant and rich husbands. They can detect the smallest compromise. They know the cleverly concealed sin. They know the evil habits you are covering. That is why the day of judgment would be very interesting. There are many things we do not know now, but on that day everything will be made manifest.

Jesus made one statement: “That which was done under the bed shall be proclaimed on housetops.” The person will be shouting it; he will have a megaphone and will be shouting it and everybody will know what he has covered. Those things inside your heart which the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit is saying, “Son this is not good, daughter this is bad,” and you ignore His voice, those are the grave clothes. You have liberty but not freedom. How can a believer go and buy clothes on credit. And then she puts on the dress and would not pass the front of the shop of the person who sold the dress to her for fear of the person saying, “You see the dress that woman is wearing, she has not paid for it.” It is the grave clothes. Why don’t you wash the ones you have, keep them clean and wear them? The devil defeats Christians who live with uncrucified flesh. The devil defeats Christians who leave the doors of their lives open to him. He is looking for houses to dwell in. He is looking for landing spaces and any area of a person’s life can be his landing space if you submit to him.

Mr. Flesh can completely paralyze the destiny of somebody if he submits any part of his life to him. If you submit your hair, he will grab it, If you submit your head, he will grab it, if you submit your thought he will grab it. If you submit your marriage he will grab it. If you submit your sex life, he will grab it. If you submit even ordinary fingernail, he will grab it. There are some people now who have stopped cutting their fingernails and they are as long those of the vultures and they have them painted up. Some buy and put on extra nails and paint them with mermaid colours. Then they start writing to us that they need deliverance from spirit husbands. May be you don’t know, just like physical men find some women very attractive, there are spirits that find some women very attractive. Those are the spirits who go about at night violating women and sexually harassing them. We should not make their job easy. Immediately you are dressing to make their job easy they will visit you.

The church is a house of God, a holy place, not a place you come wearing transparent dresses; or you are a man, you open your shirt and show the chain you put on for all to see. If you come before God you submit and humble yourself.

If you submit your lips to the enemy he will grab it. The number of men of God who hear from God clearly is reducing because of polluted ears. If you submit your ears to the enemy, he will grab them. If you submit your mouth to the enemy, he will grab it. If you submit your job to him he will grab it. If your kind of job requires that you tell lies every time, you better look for another job before you will end up in hell fire. Pray to God to provide you another job where you will not be telling lies. If you submit your eyes to the enemy, he will use it. If you give him your ambition, he will use it. If you give him your certificate, he will use it. If you give him your voice, he will use it. Most of those singing worldly songs that would send people to hell fire were trained by the church, but they are now used by the devil.

Galatians 5: 24 says, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affection and lusts.” So, if you find that the enemy is strengthening himself against you, the area to check is your flesh. The thief in you must die. The hypocrisy in you must die, and the iniquity in you must die, so that the Spirit of God can use your life as He wants.

They that belong to Christ must crucify the flesh with the affection and lust. That is, if you don’t belong to Christ, you can live your life the way you want. But at he end of the day, you will arrive at the gate of life and the gate-keeper will say, “We don’t have your name here. You are our enemy. Get out, you worker of iniquity.” You may say, “Well, I will be doing it little by little.” The danger with little by little is that you don’t know the day the Lord will say, “Son, it is enough. Come home.” What we are saying is that Mr. death does not give you advance notice.

Somebody brought money to Peter and said, “Take this money, and give me this gift so that whoever I pray for will receive the Holy Spirit and will be speaking in tongues.” Peter looked at him and said, “Your money perish with you.” That is, there was nothing in Peter that would respond to that sensation and temptation for money.

Peter allowed God to crucify that area in his life. But this is the only area where the flesh is on the throne in many lives. The Bible says that we came to the world with nothing and that we will go away with nothing. You came to the world fasting and you will go back with an empty stomach. Why should you glue yourself to this sinking world, because you do not want to crucify the flesh.

The flesh is anything that is not energized by the Holy Spirit and is always fighting you. You want to read your Bible, it says, “sleep.” You want to pray and that would be when somebody will annoy you and you spend two hours fighting. You want to pray and it is that time they bring a vampire movie and you begin to watch. Many Christians engage in activities not ordained by the Holy Spirit. To get rid of our grave clothes, the bottom-line is that God should rule our flesh. Do not deceive yourself. Do not think that the flesh will improve, it cannot improve. It is rotten to the core. Many of the problems we have as individuals are caused by Mr. Flesh. For example, inability to take the right decisions, plain disobedience to God, looseness with the opposite sex, emotional problems, bad thinking, boiling anger, etc. we must take responsibilities for our own lives. When you say, “Mr. Flesh, die,” heavens will rejoice, and they will come to your aid. If you have not pointed your finger to yourself and say: “It is you that annoyed me. You made me to say this, you made me to say that,” you are not serious yet. But the day you point accusing finger to yourself, heaven will rejoice and will come to your aid.

Our most difficult problem is facing ourselves. In 1979, one brother prayed and said that one sister was his wife. The pastor invited him and the sister and said to the sister: “This brother has prayed and he says you are his God’s chosen wife.” The lady looked at the pastor and looked at the brother from head to toe and said, “Sorry, pastor, this one that is sitting down beside you cannot carry my load.” The pastor said, “Which load are you carrying that this person cannot help you to offload.” She said, “Pastor, that is my decision. That is what I want to do and that is it.” This is year 2012, and that sister is still looking for somebody to help her carry that load.

Philippians 3:3 says, “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” There should be no confidence in the flesh, for the flesh is dangerous and has no mercy. The flesh is harder to deal with than the devil. You cannot bind your own flesh. So the flesh is the harder problem, it needs to be crucified. Self-centredness, lack of discipline, boasting and stubbornness are nothing more than the flesh refusing to submit to the Holy Spirit. Many churchgoers are very stubborn. A stubborn person will say, “I will do it in my own way.” But the Bible says, “Woe unto those that at ease in Zion.” It also says, “If you walk with footmen and you are weary, what will you do when you are asked to walk with the horsemen?” It is the foot men that are around now but eventually they will go and the horse riders will come in, and things will get worse because that is what the Bible says. Evil men shall wax stronger and stronger and peace will disappear, unless we welcome the Prince of peace and the Lord of lords.

Everyday, we come across people who are trying to train Mr. Flesh more and more. They want to train Mr. Flesh not to overeat. They want to train their minds to think right but they cannot train the flesh, because the Bible says, “Those that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, they that are after the spirit do mind the things of the spirit.” The flesh cannot please God. It cannot because it is in enmity with God. It is in contention with the Spirit of God and cannot fight the spiritual battle which we do everyday.

HOW DO WE OVERCOME THE FLESH?

1. We are to leave no place for the flesh. Romans 13:14 says, “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lust thereof.” Do not make provision for the flesh. When you plan to buy extra clothes that you do not need, when you plan to buy extra food you will not eat, when you plan to watch a video film that you know will bring lust into your life, when you are meditating on what to say to hurt another person, then you are making provision for the flesh. Make life hard for it. When next it says, “Don’t greet so and so,” go and buy a gift, look for the person, greet the person and give him the gift. When you do that, you are killing Mr. Flesh. You are not giving it provision to operate. When you, a single girl follow a man you do not know to somewhere; when you, a woman ask for lift from an unknown man, you are making provision to cause trouble for yourself. You know that you used to be a palmwine drinker. Now you are born again, do not accompany anybody to the place again so that the smell would not enter into your spirit. If you go there it means you are making provision to commit sin again. That is what Romans 13:14 says.
2. Bring the flesh under subjection. We are to make the flesh a slave to God. 1 Corinthians 9: 27 says, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” The Bible says that no man can serve two masters. You cannot walk down two roads at the same time. You cannot walk in the way of holiness and in the way of sin. You have to put the flesh under subjection. What does it mean to bring it under subjection? To ignore its advice and suggestions, tell it all the time that you are the chairman, so it has to take your own instructions. When it says, “Go and do this,” you disobey and do the opposite when it says, “Can’t you notice that when this one is passing she does not greet anybody, so any time she is coming just carry your face away,” you should now do the opposite. You greet the person very well.
3. Take off the old man and put on the new man. Ephesians 4: 22 says, “That ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” Put off the coat of the old man and put on the coat of the new man. You cannot put on two coats at the same time. So, the old man must go and the new man must come in. If your Christianity has not got to the level where somebody says, “Ah, he has changed,” you are still a joker.
4. We are to deny the flesh. Jesus said if any person would come after Him, let the person deny himself and take his cross and follow Him. Matthew 16:14 says, “If any man or woman will be my disciple let him first deny himself and then follow me.” This means that you have to put Mr. Flesh on the shelf. Whatever you have, put it aside. Put your pride aside. If Mr. Flesh says, “They have insulted you, charge at them,” you should say, “No, I will not. I have been nailed to the cross.”
5. You kill the members of the flesh. Colossians 3: 1-5 says, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ, sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members, which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” If you do not mortify the members of your flesh you are an idol worshipper. You have to focus on what God has already done for us on the cross.
6. We are to regard the flesh crucified and remind it everyday that we are already dead. Galatians 5:24 –25 says, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.” Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ nevertheless yet I live but I live now the life of Jesus, Son of God who died for me.” The old Paul had been dead many years ago, the new Paul was walking along the street then. It was the old Paul that a serpent could bite and he would die but the crucified one could not die like that.
7. The people the devil fears most are those who have crucified the flesh. He knows he cannot find any entrance in them.
8. We are to live an exchanged life. You should put one life down and take another. According Galatians 2: 20, the new life is to replace the old one. You cannot be doing two things at a time.

When you are moving close to solution and you see your sad condition, you have started making progress. The day a mad man begins to ask questions like “Why am I wearing these clothes? What am I doing here? Why are you all starring at me?” his solution has started. But when the mad man has dirty clothes on and says, “Give me iron, I want to iron them,” then solution is not insight yet.

You should now prayer like John Knox. The same God who answered his prayer and made it impossible for demons and host of hell to paralyze his destiny, is still alive.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Oh God, break me, in the name of Jesus.
2. Oh God, kill the iniquity in my life, in the name of Jesus.
3. Every hindrance to open doors in my life, give way by fire, in the name of Jesus.
4. Spiritual blindness, clear out of my life, in the name of Jesus.
5. Where others are failing, I shall succeed by fire, in the name of Jesus.

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I REJECT DISGRACE

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Psalm 16:10 “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”

WHAT IS A DISGRACE?

It is made up of two words: ‘dis’ and ‘gracia’. ‘Dis’ means out of and ‘gracia’ means grace. So, the word disgrace means out of grace. Or rightly put in our modern English, it means loss of honor, loss of respect, loss of good name. It can also mean to bring shame upon a person. The word shame in the Bible has so many aspects to it. Shame can come as an offence or as a consciousness of sin to someone who has done something wrong and has been discovered. Shame can come as a result of pride or when the reputation of a person has been injured. So, the result of being disgraced is shame. Shame also can come from God. In order to reprove sin, God can allow shame to come upon a person.

Many years ago, a man of God went to a village to hold a crusade and as his usual practice , he went to pray on their source of water. As he got to the small river in the village, with a gentle smile, he said to the people who had gathered and were clapping and singing, “Well, I want to pray on this water now. If you know that you are not clean, please don’t drink out of it.” He said this twice, prayed on the water and everybody started drinking. There was a woman there who happened to be respectable in the church. In fact, she was called “Mother in the church.” First of all, she stood at the back and did not want to drink. But later, she changed her mind, being a popular person in the church, because she felt that people would begin to wonder why she, of all persons would not drink out of the water that a father in the Lord had prayed on. That was her mistake. She drank and immediately, somersaulted, and in the process her clothes were flown open and people could see that she had a male organ and a female organ as well. Everybody fled in terror and the man of God smiled again and said, “But I warned that anyone who was not clean should not drink.” God put her to shame.

SOURCES OF SHAME

The Bible makes us to understand that shame can come from God, it can come from satan, and can also come from man. Shame can come from false satanic judgment. The devil can judge a person and declare him guilty even when he is not, in order to put him to shame. Unless this kind of thing is properly dealt with, it can bring a person down. At this juncture, I would like you to say, “I reject disgrace, in the name of Jesus.”

Jeremiah 3: 24 says, “For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.” So, shame can devour the labour of a person. This powerful emotion called shame is a great weapon in the hand of the enemy and he likes to use it on people and places. The terrible thing about it is that it hits people from the inside and destroys them internally. It could eat away the strength of the confidence of a person. It can disable and amputate a person completely and make him ineffective in the service of the Lord. To be mighty in faith and in the Holy Spirit, you must confront the spirit of shame and defeat it.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SHAME

1. Guilty shame: This happens when a person violates the law of decency and he is embarrassed.
2. Social shame: When a person is embarrassed because he has made a social blunder.
3. Innocent shame: This happens when a person is accused of an offence he is not guilty of. When somebody’s character is damaged without justification.
4. Familiar shame: The feeling of shame because of the behaviour of one’s family.
5. Public shame: This is embarrassment because of physical or social blunder.
6. Shame of discrimination: When a person feels mentally, socially or ethnically inferior to other persons.
7. Shame of inadequacy: That is when somebody feels inadequate.

The shame that comes from God can be handled with God. When you repent, the Lord will forgive you and will remove the shame from you. But the one that the enemy plans must be confronted and dealt with. Proverbs 3: 35 says, “The wise shall inherit glory but shame shall be the promotion of fools.” So foolish living and actions that are not prudent will bring disgrace. Proverbs 10: 5 says, “He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in a harvest is a son that causeth shame.” Sleeping during the time of physical or spiritual harvest will bring disgrace. When others are struggling, and you just sit down and take no action, it means you are inviting disgrace upon your life. Proverbs 11: 2 says, “When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lonely is wisdom.” The Bible says that pride brings shame. Proverbs 16: 18 says, “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 13: 18 says, “Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction, but he that regarded reproof shall be honoured.” Refusing instruction will bring disgrace. Proverbs 18:13 says, “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.” That is speaking before you listen and think.” A ‘know it all spirit’ will bring shame. Proverbs 29: 15 says, “The rod and reproof give wisdom but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” So, parents who allow their children to rear themselves, who shirk their responsibilities as fathers and mothers, are courting shame.

Let’s look at the first instance of disgrace in the Bible. Genesis 3: 9 – 10: “And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.” Shame and nakedness are accompanied by fear. So, shame is a spirit on its own and an embodiment of some other powerful agents. As you are reading this message, does something in your life frigthen you? Is there something you are afraid that it may be discovered? Because Adam was afraid, he hid himself. Do you avoid certain issues because you are afraid of being discovered? Or may be the spirit of shame is whispering to your ears that you are a failure? Those spirits that say, “Well, don’t let anybody see you and find out about this one, just cover it up,” are the spirits of shame.

Many times, failure to get ahead financially can be traced back to the sins of one’s forefathers. A curse on a family can produce an inheritance of shame. Alcoholics are people heavily loaded with shame. Sometimes, by the time the spirit of disgrace and shame is sent upon a person, other things like alcoholism and confusion will set in. Eventually, the victim ends up messing himself up in the street. A girl was put in the family way. The father woke her up one morning and asked her who put her in the family way and she said, “Joshua.” “Where does Joshua live?” her father asked. She told him and he asked her to take him there. They went to the house of Joshua and Joshua came out smoking Indian hemp. He asked the father and the daughter what they wanted and the father said, “This girl said that you were the one who got her pregnant. He removed the Indian hemp, looked at the man’s face and said, “I hope you are not mad?” He further said to the old man, “I don’t know this girl. I have not seen her anywhere. If you don’t clear out from this place, I will use cutlass on you.” The man and his daughter went away in shame. He kept on asking the girl if she was sure she did anything with the man called Joshua. The girl told him there was another man too who had an affair with her. They went to his house and knocked at the door. He came out and asked them what they wanted. The father asked him if he was the one that put his daughter in the family way. The man looked at him and said, “Daddy, this your daughter has no home training. It is true that I was involved but I know about four others.” He turned to the girl and said, “Is it true?” The girl could not talk. She told the father that there was still another one living somewhere. But by now the father was totally ashamed. The girl was used to bring shame upon that family.

The spirit of shame can stop a person from becoming a victorious soldier. Perhaps as you are reading this now, there is something in your past which is continually troubling you and you feel that if you expose it, it will totally demolish your world. You have to seek deliverance from the spirit of shame.

Because shame is an extremely strong spiritual weapon, our enemies use it against us. But we can decide to use that same weapon of shame against the enemy. Psalm 109: 29 says, “Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle.” Here, the psalmist is using the same weapon of shame against the enemy. Psalm 35: 4 says, “Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul, let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.” Again, the psalmist is using the weapon of shame to fight the enemy. Psalm 31: 17 says, “Let me not be ashamed, O Lord for I have called upon thee, let the wicked be ashamed and let them be silent in the grave.” Again, the same weapon against the enemy. There are so many other passages like that.

Shame promotes frustration that is why the enemy uses it. And when shame is backed up with a curse, it can bring dishonour, confusion and poverty. That is why parents should not say to their children, “Shame on you.” It is a powerful curse never to be issued on young children. If you have seen the demon of shame before, you will not ask it to come on anybody apart from your spiritual enemies.

WHAT IS THE PROVISION OF JESUS FOR DISGRACE?

In the substitutionary death of Jesus, our curses, poverty and shame came upon Him. Isaiah 50: 6 says, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” So, Jesus had already borne shame for us that is why we can react to it. Let us look at the example of one man in the Bible that the enemy tried to disgrace. Acts 28:1 says, “And when they were escaped, they knew that the Island was called Melita. (Paul was already in the ship with other prisoners and the captain of the ship who was a Roman solider. He had told them before they travelled that, “Sir, I perceive that this journey will be very hazardous, not only for our luggage, but for our lives also.” But they took him for a common prisoner and did not listen to him. They ran into a storm in the midst of the sea and problems started. For two weeks, they could not eat. They threw all their luggage into the sea.
After two weeks, Paul stood up and said, “Men and brethren, I told you this before it happened. Now you can see for yourselves. However, the angel of the Lord whom I serve, stood by me tonight and said none of us shall perish. Take food and eat.” They still could not eat. Then he broke it and started to eat in their presence. Then the prisoner became the controller of the ship. They eventually got into this Island called Melita. But by the time they got there, their ship was broken to pieces. They escaped to the Island on planks of wood, after spending days and days on the sea). Verse 2 says, “And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness, for they kindled a fire and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. (They knew that they were prisoners and were surprised that in spite of all the suffering they had gone through on the sea, a viper still attacked him. So, they concluded that he must have been an evil person). And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. (You too shall shake off the viper of disgrace, in Jesus’ name. Those vipers were so bad and terrible that they fed on scorpions. They knew that anybody who was bitten by them would soon swell up and die). Howbeit, they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.” In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the Island whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously. And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him. So when this was done, other also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed. Who also honoured us with many honours; and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary.”

THE HIDDEN VIPER OF THE ENEMY

Look at what satan planned at the end of the book of the Acts of the apostles against apostle Paul. He planted defeat and death for him. He planned to terminate and disgrace Paul. How can it be said that a viper killed the man who raised the dead. The devil has a hidden viper of disgrace within the woods to bite the believer. Satan could hide his viper as you go about your daily duty. There was a viper in the life of Gehazi. Although, he was studying to be a prophet, a viper was lying down there until Naaman came. Naaman thought that prophet Elisha would come out and pray some fire prayers on him. But Elisha did not come out. He just said his servant should tell him to go to the River Jordan and dip himself there seven times and he shall be made whole. He went though hesitantly and dropped his leprosy in Jordan. Beloved, we must be very careful. The spirit of leprosy that left Naaman stayed in the waters waiting for the next candidate. Please pray this prayer point: “I will not carry any evil luggage, in Jesus’ name.” The Bible makes it very clear that there are arrows that are flying about, and destruction and pestilence that are walking around. There are accidents waiting to happen all over the place. (I will not be a part of it, in Jesus’ name). Naaman offered some gifts to Elisha but he refused to accept them. But immediately the viper of disgrace in the life of Gehazi came out and he collected the gifts secretly from Naaman. When he came back, he tried to deceive the prophet, but the prophet said, “Did I not follow you in the spirit when you went outside. Is this the time to receive gifts?” Meaning that there is time to receive gifts and a time to reject them. Why did God not want Elisha to receive that gift? It was because the Syrians were idol worshippers and everything they brought to the land of Israel was polluted stuff. Gehazi went for it and the prophet said to him, “Well, since you have done this, instead of getting the double portion that I got from my master Elijah, the leprosy of Naaman shall cleave unto you.” And unfortunately he did not stop there, he also said “And unto your offspring.” So, it is possible that most of the lepers we see now are descendants of Gehazi. The prosperity of Naaman gave rise to the leprosy of Gehazi. We must be very careful. Gehazi’s viper came out and put him in trouble. When the viper of disgrace is inside the life of a Christian, he will become history while he is still living.

A sister came to me crying saying, “I don’t know, whenever I am struggling to grow in the Lord, a certain man would come and mess everything up.” I said to her, “No. It is not the man messing you up, you have a viper disgracing you.” Beloved, maybe your own is the viper of arrogance, pride, or strife, hidden inside of you. Many have fallen and never rose again and the devil came to their funeral ceremony and sang. One of the best prophets that God has ever sent to Nigeria was a victim of the viper. When you talk about prophetic anointing, it is difficult to find an equal of that fellow. He was so good that if you brought a mad man before him, and his problem was demonic, this prophet would tell you what area of the body haboured the evil materials troubling him and before your eyes, he would call them out, collect and throw them away. They would appear physically and instantly the mad man would be jumping up and rejoicing. He exhibited the power of God anywhere he went. But he had a viper which was women. Eventually, he was completely messed up. When he died, there was no pastor at his burial. It was viper of disgrace. There was also a certain woman whose husband was a very powerful Evangelist. Before they commenced a crusade, she would lead praise worship and miracles would be happening even before the man of God came on stage. All of a sudden, this woman started sleeping with their landlord who was an Alhaji. Before you knew it, she travelled to Mecca. The viper of disgrace in her life had come to the surface. No wonder the Bible says, “Let him that thinketh he stand, take heed lest he falls.” What a bad testimony for people to say that Brother so, so and so who was on fire for God before is now smoking and drinking. What a bad testimony to say that Sister so, so and so was on fire for God once, but fell into sin and ran away with another person’s husband. That is why the following prayer point is a very important one. It says, “My enemies will not write the last chapter of my life, in the name of Jesus.” Our olden days fathers in the Lord used to ask us to pray in those days that God should make us wiser than the devil, because the man you are wiser than cannot deceive you.

The devil carefully selected the audience before whom he wanted to disgrace Paul. Paul’s captors were there, the Roman soldiers, other prisoners like himself and the Barbarians of the island of Melita, and Dr. Luke who followed him were all there. Those he had prepared to demonstrate the power of God to were also there. It is amazing sometimes how satan plans the places and the kind of people before whom he wants to disgrace the people of God. He plotted to disgrace Samson before the same Philistines whom God had used him to disgrace. Unfortunately he succeeded. The Barbarians at the Island of Melita had concluded that Paul was a murderer. That was the kind of testimony satan wanted to write about Paul. But the satanic audience became the same audience before whom satan was disgraced. The devil now lost the Island altogether to Paul and to God. The viper of disgrace lost the battle and Paul overcame. Satan may assemble the worst of men to disgrace the child of God. But certainly, God knows how to turn the game of the devil against him. The viper of disgrace must lose the battle and the satanic audience must glorify God, in Jesus’ name.

We have to shake off the evil viper. The weapon of disgrace the enemy planned against Paul eventually became the doom of the enemy. The same sword of Goliath was used to cut off the head of Goliath. The Red Sea that was supposed to disgrace the Israelites was the same Red Sea that disgraced the Egyptians. The weapon of disgrace fashioned against you by your enemies shall disgrace them, in the name of Jesus.

WAY OUT

Once the weapon of shame is being used against you, all you need do is to repent, confess your own sins, break the curse and seek deliverance. If somebody decides to remove you from what you are doing to feed yourself, and you have not done anything wrong, you can react to it. The enemy is always seeking to disgrace God’s people. He disgraced Adam and Eve. He caused them to be driven out of the garden. He disgraced Cain and a curse was put on him. He disgraced Reuben and Reuben lost his inheritance. He disgraced Moses and he could not enter the Promised land. He almost disgraced Joseph but he was able to escape. He disgraced Saul and completely disgraced Samson who died with his enemies. But the promise of God for us is in Romans 9: 33 which says, “As it is written, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offence: and whomsoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”

PRAYER POINTS

1. Every viper of the enemy, come out by fire, in the name of Jesus.
2. O God, arise and let every weapon of the enemy backfire, in the name of Jesus.
3. Every door leading to my blessing, open, in the name of Jesus.
4. O God, manifest your power before every power challenging You in my life, in the name of Jesus.
5. You the bulldozer from heaven, make a way for me by fire, in the name of Jesus.
6. Oh God, I know that you are my God, show it, in the name of Jesus.
7. Let all those who come against me in one way, flee in seven ways, in Jesus’ name.
8. You vulture of death, die, in the name of Jesus.
9. Every distant and immediate enemy, receive double frustration, in Jesus’ name.

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POWER TO TROUBLE YOUR TROUBLE

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Psalm 46:1-11:, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountain be carried into the midst of the sea. Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most high. God is in the midst of her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved; he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Come behold the works of the Lord, what desolation he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder, he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.”

Somebody once said that life was like an onion: you can peel off one layer at a time but as you do so, its juice gets into your eyes and causes your eyes to be filled with tears. There is something that is known as the trouble of life. I read a comment by one man of God called Matthew Henry. Somebody stole his things and the people around him found out that he was not sad about it. So, they asked him why and he said something that shocked me. He said: “I thank God that it was not me that was stolen and that I was not the robber.” That was his way of looking at the case. Sometimes we look so long at closed doors that we do not see the great ones the Lord has opened unto us.

HOW DO YOU TROUBLE YOUR TROUBLE?

Daniel 10:12 :, “Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.” This means that the angel was carrying the answer to Daniel’s prayer for 21 days and somewhere along the line something stood against him saying, “Sorry, you will not give this answer to this man. Although God has answered, and asked you to go and supply this thing to this man, you are not passing here.” He was contending with the angel. Verse 13 says, “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.”

The battle against the angel bringing the answer to Daniel was so great that Michael had to come and assist him. What God did was to open the veil of the spiritual world so that he could see what was going on.

The Bible says that there are three heavens. The first one is the one you see when you lift up your eyes, that is where the airplanes travel. Above that is another one where airplanes dare not go. If they move high to that level, they would be lost forever. That is the second heaven. When people say that whatever goes up must come down, it is when it does not go beyond the first heavens; if it goes beyond that, it will just be floating about there and will not come down again. This is the arena of the dark spirits; the headquarters of the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of Lucifer and Leviathan. But above that is another heaven, which the Bible calls “the heaven of heavens.” It is the third heaven. That is where you find the paradise and the throne of God.

CHECKPOINT OF DARKNESS

The devil sets up a checkpoint at the second heaven. A checkpoint of darkness is a place of fierce warfare. That is why the kind of prayer required to destroy the checkpoint is volcanic and bulldozing kind of prayer, prayer with holy anger, prayer with inner fire, prayer with holy hatred, prayer with your spiritual blood boiling. Good and bad spirits fight there. Sympathetic and unsympathetic spirits fight there as well. There is a battle between truth and falsehood and a battle between light and darkness there. It is a place of wicked confiscation. It is a place of wicked storage in the warehouse of the enemy. It is a place of unprofitable delays. It is a place of destiny destruction. It is a place of wicked spiritual accidents.

Many good things belonging to the children of God are confiscated at evil checkpoints and stored in satanic warehouses. For example, success, children, money, prosperity, wedding gowns, breakthroughs, health, etc. Body parts are stored in these evil warehouses. Many people are walking about the streets without their real selves. Their real selves have been locked up and their blessings stored in the second heaven. That is why the Bible says that no man enters into the house of a strongman and plunders his goods except he first of all binds the strongman. The strongman himself does not have any personal goods, what he guides is what he confiscates from people. The warehouse of the enemy has a gateman and the gateman is the strongman.

Please, take the following prayer point: “I clear my blessings from the warehouse of the strongman, in the name of Jesus.”

It is at this checkpoint that prayer battles take place. This is why prayer is hard work. Sometimes the angel of our blessings get stuck unless you can pray fire prayers to release him. This is why the enemy does not like anybody to pray. Your prayer must be sharp and violent enough to bring answers down. The powers in the second heaven can return your prayers back to you. Imagine the battle in the second heaven for three weeks involving the angel bringing an answer to Daniel’s prayer.

Daniel’s continuous bombardment of that checkpoint reinforced the heavenly army. If Daniel had not been serious with the prayer, the answer would not have come.

Check the level of your purity today. Your purity and violence determine the effectiveness of your prayers. Check whether the enemy has a foothold in your life.

Everything that comes down to us from God passes through the second heaven. There is a spiritual border there with satanic immigration and custom officers. It is at this point that a household strongman stays. That is why we pray that our prayers should become hot coals of untouchable fire. Many prayers go up and bring down nothing. I pray that your prayers shall not be so, in the name of Jesus.

A certain brother called James prayed with aggression for a wife and the Lord called an angel and said, “Angel, take this sister down to him.” When the angel got to the checkpoint at the second heaven, they asked him where he was going and he answered, “I want to go and give a wife to Brother James.” They said, “Sorry, hold on, let us call his ancestral strongman. That one came and said, “Angel, you cannot give him this wife because his own spirit wife is here.” His grandmother has a covenant with us here, therefore, you cannot take this girl to him. Apart from that, his grandfather signed a covenant with us here that all the men from his family must marry witches and this one you are taking there is not a witch. So, angel, return the wife.” The angel returned the wife.

A brother prayed asking for promotion. But as the angel was taking the promotion to him, he was stopped at the second heaven. They asked him where he was gong and he said, “I am going to Brother Johnson Oko. They said, “Sorry, we don’t have that name here. His real name is not Johnson Oko but Fadeyi, therefore you cannot take this to him. His mother had him for another man and transferred him to the wrong father. His real father is Fadeyi. So, go back.” And the angel went back.

Also a sister, Bimpe, prayed to God asking for promotion. She said, “O God, I pay my tithe, but no progress, why? And the queen of heaven turned up with the angel bringing the promotion and said, “You cannot giver her this promotion because here is a list of 40 men she has slept with and 39 of them are our agents. So, she is not going anywhere.

Beloved, this is why we must pray. It can a terrible thing when your battle has been transferred to the checkpoint and you don’t know what to do. The first way to trouble your trouble is to deal with the checkpoint of darkness. Once you attack the evil checkpoint a signal goes into the dark world indicating that you are trying to be free, and they get reinforcement. If you give up at this level, you will lose the answer. Prayers to address evil checkpoints are not prayers on the horizontal level but on a vertical one. You must be sure of what you are doing. A person may come from an area where they have formed a geographical covenant that nobody in that area will prosper. When you start you prayer, it is at that checkpoint that they will stop the angel bringing your answer. Unless you apply violence, the angel will not pass through.

CURSES

Another way to trouble your trouble is by destroying curses. Your mouth contains double barrel power. The words you speak can destroy or promote you. When a man who has a backing force speaks some words those words can cause trouble. The words you now speak, backed up by the force, can limit a life or explode a destiny.

WHAT IS A CURSE?

A curse is a set of words issued for destructive purposes. A curse is a commission given to satan to limit the life of a person. The enemy may decide to take 20 years out of the life of a person by issuing a curse. A curse is a force of retardation. So, if you dream of your primary school days , secondary school days or that somebody converted you to a housemaid or houseboy or slave, then you need to break the curse of retardation.

A curse is a tragedy that moves from generation to generation. You have to understand that. This is why we have a lot of educated illiterates around. Their chains of degrees cannot help them. Education is not an ability to nullify curses or the ability to defeat the forces limiting your life.

A family weakness can move from generation to generation. In some families, it is the curse of premature death. God said to Eli that no man in his family would enter his grave with grey hair. There are families like that. There are some families where their members never rise above a particular level. In Joshua 9:23 we see the curse that was put upon a whole tribe. It says, “Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.”

A family or a community can be in a position where it never produces a great person. There are communities where you cannot find any educated man. Therefore, a curse is a terrible thing. It has a backing force and what you can call an enforcing spirit. Physical relocation does not stop a curse. You need to know how to destroy it. And immediately you begin to do that, your trouble knows that it is in trouble. Escape by physical relocation is not the answer but spiritual relocation.

I know a brother who ran away to America and did not tell any member of his family. He settled down there, got married and had four children. He was not writing to anybody at home and nobody knew his whereabouts, and he was doing well. But one night, he had a dream where he saw a dog running after him until it caught up with him and started biting him. When he woke up he knew that there was trouble.
The following morning, a letter arrived from Nigeria with the name of his junior brother at the back as the sender. His people did not know where he was for ten years but after he had the dream of the dog which dealt with him, the following morning, policemen came and showed him a form he filled about four years earlier. “Were you the one that filled this form?” they asked. And he was instantly deported to Nigeria. It was with the dress he had on that he arrived at the airport in Nigeria, leaving his wife, children and everything over there. He relocated physically but did not relocate spiritually and trouble followed.

An invisible force may control or destroy somebody’s destiny, future and progress if the person is under a curse. When Elisha came out from where he received double portion of power, the people of Jericho rushed to him and said, “Sir, the foundation of this place is pleasant but the water is bitter and the ground does not yield fruit.” Why did they go to Elisha? Because the anointing of God upon him could break that curse. Elijah did not break it before he left. The man who issued the curse was Joshua. When he got to Jericho, he said, “woe unto that man that will rebuild this city. When he is laying the foundation, his first son shall die and when he completes it, his last son shall die.” Four hundred years later, it happened just like that. Now they wanted the curse upon Jericho to be broken and Elisha broke it. I pray that every old curse that you are labouring under, shall be broken today, in Jesus’ name.

Perhaps you are like Peter who was fishing and catching nothing. You could be labouring under a curse. Something happened to Peter and I pray that the same thing should happen to you today, in Jesus’ name. What happened to Peter? The Lord entered his boat. The Lord shall enter my boat, in Jesus’ name.

The people of Jericho located their curse. Many of us need to locate the source of the thing happening to us. Many people are suffering from bad diseases that doctors cannot understand. In some families every first daughter would have a child without a husband and some none of the women settle down. For some, the women feed their husbands. Even if the man had a job before the marriage, he would lose it after.

These people chose Elisha because his anointing was comparable to that of Joshua. So, if a powerful native doctor puts a curse upon somebody, he or she would need a person with a higher anointing to break it. A certain man lost his five children and wife in one day. He went to a powerful herbalist for retaliation and the herbalist said, “Sorry, I have looked at this thing and I cannot do it. From what I can see, the only group of people who have the capacity to break this kind of thing and to retaliate are those of the church by the UNILAG gate. Go there.” The man came to see me and said, “Sir, a herbalist said I should come here.” So, the herbalist could see what many Christians cannot see.

I know a brother who had many degrees but no job. Everything was upside down for him. Some people took him to the highest gathering of witches in Nigeria where he tabled his problem. They looked at him and said, “It is your grandmother that is in charge of your problem. But, you see, whenever we have problem she is the person we contact. Therefore we cannot help you. Go somewhere else.”

Later he came to MFM and started praying and the Lord delivered him. You may have come from a family where no one is prospering, I prophesy to your life today that henceforth your case shall be different, in the name of Jesus. If you have come from a family where nobody has a lasting marriage, I prophesy unto your life that your case shall be different, in Jesus’ name.

Make the following declaration: My problems are in trouble, because God shall trouble them, in the name of Jesus.”

There are situations where you find people who have a lot of money but no peace. In some families some brothers threaten to kill another. In many situations, many people run in circles because forces of retrogression have set in. If you do your best and nobody appreciates you, it means that your heaven is becoming brass and you need to pray today.

SIN

Another way to trouble your trouble is to get rid of sin from your life. In anything you are doing, you must remember that God is the Lord of harvest. You cannot live in sin and expect prosperity. You cannot cheat people and prosper. An adulterous man who does not repent would one day impregnate a woman outside marriage and that child of adultery would move into the family and dismantle the structures he has put up. That child would be sent so that he harvests what he has sown into life. So, anybody who is living in sin is sowing evil and as he sows evil, he would reap evil. So, sin is terrible.

Some people have what can be called family sins. For example, Abraham told Abimelech that Sarah, his wife, was his sister. Forty years later, Isaac told the same Abimelech that his wife was his sister. Sixty years later, Jacob and his mother deceived their father. Eighty years later, Jacob’s children deceived him that Joseph was dead. Hundred years later, Judah slept with his daughter in-law who deceived him. So, you need to confess every personal and ancestral sins and get rid of them fast.

EVIL DREAMS

Dealing with evil dreams is another way to trouble your trouble. Any dream that you keep having and is setting you back, you should deal with it. All the dreams of climbing and never getting to the top, all the dreams of running around and getting nowhere, is a way of God trying to tell you that something wrong is going on. You need to wake up and start to fight.

God has a purpose for bringing this message to you. He has not brought it to waste your time. He has done so that your enemies will regret. He has done so that your problems can be chained and buried.

Close your eyes and begin to confess your sins. Tell the Lord to forgive your sins and to destroy anything that will strengthen evil angels at the checkpoint of darkness against you. Tell the Lord you want to pray and get results today.

PRAYER POINTS

1. O Lord, convert my disgrace to grace, in the name of Jesus.
2. O God, convert my disappointment to divine appointment, in the name of Jesus.
3. God, convert my weakness to strength, in the name of Jesus.
4. O God, convert my mess to divine message, in the name of Jesus.
5. O God, convert my frustration to fulfillment, in the name of Jesus.
6. O God, convert my ashes to beauty, in the name of Jesus.
7. My father, convert my pain to pleasure, in the name of Jesus.
8. My father, convert my lamentation to laughter, in the name of Jesus.
9. O God, convert my night to day, in the name of Jesus.
10. O God, arise and convert my problems to promotion, in the name of Jesus.
11. Every checkpoint of darkness, break, in the name of Jesus.
12. Every masquerade pursuing me from my father’s side, what are you waiting for? Die, in Jesus’ name.
13. Every masquerade pursing me from my mother’s side, what are you waiting for? Die, in Jesus’ name.
14. Inherited failure, die, in the name of Jesus.
15. (Lay your hands on your chest and pray:) Where no member of family has reached, O Lord, take me there by fire, in the name of Jesus.
16. O caldron of darkness hanging in the heavenlies, break, in the name of Jesus.

17. My trouble, you are in trouble by fire, in the name of Jesus.

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SIR, WE WOULD SEE JESUS

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

John 12: 20 – 26: “And there were certain Greeks among them, that came up to worship at the feast. The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them saying, the hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.”

Certain Greeks came to an annual religious feast in Jerusalem. They saw men there practicing religion. They looked at everything, followed all the rituals and attended all the meetings, but were careful enough to note that in all these ceremonies, something was missing. They were still empty. But there was somebody in town who had the real thing so, they began to ask: “Sir, we would see Jesus.” You may ask what their motive was. Maybe it was curiosity or that they wanted to get something out of Jesus or they wanted to solve a problem or they just desired to know this man that people were talking about or they decided to encounter the truth in reality.

Having an encounter with the Lord or the experience of seeing Jesus is fundamental to genuine Christian experience. The reason some people backslide or are not able to appreciate their salvation is due to lack of this encounter. Sometimes people backslide because they have never seen the Man of Galilee. The day God opens your spiritual eyes and you see Him hanging on the cross, with blood dripping down, and suffering, the reality will dawn on you and all other things will be insignificant. The experience of seeing Jesus is so fundamental to the Christian faith.

TWO TYPES OF PEOPLE IN THE CAMP OF GOD
In the camp of the Lord, you can see two types of people.

1. Those who have met the Lord. 2. Those who have met the church. That is, those who practice church or religion.

Those who have not met the Lord lose their temper easily. For example, when they go somewhere and somebody takes up their seat, they would shout, “Get up from there, do you know when I arrived here. Get away.” They know how to pray fire prayer but they have not met the Lord. This is a tragedy. A time will come when all those proclaiming to be Christians shall be distributed into two clear camps. The first group is the group of the goats and the second group is the group of the sheep. The Bible says that eventually, the goats would be cast away into the lake of fire. This is because they did not really encounter the Lord. But if you want to encounter the Lord in reality, there is an essential condition that regulates such an encounter and we can find that in the response of Jesus to the request, “Sir, we would see Jesus,” in John 12: 24. It says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Herein lies the spiritual law that regulates God’s dealings with men for God is a God of law. This has nothing to do with your post or qualification. It has nothing to do with being a pastor or having attended Bible colleges and having studied theology.

Several years ago, a man who had a Ph.D in Bible Knowledge was invited to a Christian meeting somewhere in Ebute-Metta, Lagos. The meeting was filled with illiterates, carpenters and bricklayers and market men and women. He was supposed to give them a lecture on knowing God. He started by telling them the meaning of the phrase ‘to know.’ He spent about fifteen minutes on that and then went further to explain “God” for another fifteen minutes. After this, he went into the lecture proper and gave a beautiful lecture. But when he finished, one carpenter who did not even attend any school said, “Excuse me sir, I have a question for you. Have you met Jesus yourself? Can you claim that you have experienced Him?” The Ph.D teacher did not understand what the man was asking him so, he replied, “I am sorry, I don’t have an answer to that question.” The carpenter now sat him down and gave him a lecture on practical Christianity. The lecturer was trying to teach others about the man he did not know. God is a God of law and He works by divine principles. When you discover these principles and comply with them, it will bring you into line with God’s will.

God Himself has a pattern. Everything in heaven is well patterned. If God gives you a little opportunity of seeing heavenly organization, you will not want to stay on earth anymore. There is nothing on earth that is as beautiful and orderly as in heaven. This was why God told Moses, “And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount” (Exodus 25: 40). This means that if Moses had decided not to follow the pattern, nothing would have happened.

People write to me suggesting that the MFM should use drums, and allow people to dress the way they like even if it means dressing indecently so that more people can come. I always tell them that it was not the pattern shown to me and that I prefer to stick to the divine pattern given by God. Listening to such proposals would be tantamount to disobedience. If you want to build a house and you look around and see one that you really like and want to fashion yours after it, that would become your model. So, the only way that we are ever going to see Jesus here and in the world to come is by dying to self. John 24: 12 says, “Except a corn of wheat falls into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

In Exodus 33, we read about an interesting encounter. Moses knew that the Israelites were a very stubborn and proud people. He was meant to take them to the Promised land. He knew what he had faced with Pharaoh and knew that he could not go by his own strength. He realized the impossibility of the task unless God Himself went with him. Verses 13 – 15: “Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he (Moses) said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” Verses 18 – 19: “And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” There is an ancient powerful hymn by one man called Wesley which says, “To thee O Lord of love, I bow and I prostrate at your feet. By faith, I am seeing you passing now, but now I ask for more. A glimpse of you may not suffice but I want your presence. I cannot see your face and live. Then let me see your face and die.” This song means that his longing to see Jesus was more important than life itself. Herein then lies the great truth. No man can see the face of the Lord unless he is prepared to fall into the ground like a corn of wheat and die.

Prophet Isaiah saw God and his life was never the same. But before then, he had unclean lips (Isaiah 6). When he saw the Lord, he became what is known as the messianic prophet. Some people also call him the evangelist of the Old Testament because in the book of Isaiah, you see the gospel clearly preached and also the prophecies about the Lord Jesus Christ. Twice in Isaiah chapter six, he said, “I saw the Lord.” Having seen the Lord, then he saw himself. And when he saw the Lord, he said, “I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips. I live in the midst of people with unclean lips.” He knew who he was. And immediately he identified his problem, the Lord said, “Yes, now you are ready. You seraphim, take a coal of fire and drop it on his dirty tongue and purge his sins out.” This was foretelling the moment when the Holy Spirit would take coals from the altar of Calvary and take away our sins. When this happened to Isaiah, another request went forth: “Who shall I send, who will go for us. Then he said, Here I am, send me.” So, the only man that is qualified to go is the man who had died; the man who had seen Jesus. This is very important.

The reason some people are busy criticizing others instead of looking at themselves, is probably because they have not seen the Lord. The big truth is that you really cannot see yourself clearly until you have seen the Lord. Have you encountered the Almighty God? Have you really encountered the “I am?” If you have encountered Him, your life would have been reversed. Some of the things that are so important to others will lose their significance in your sight. All you would be interested in is just serving the Lord at all cost. Even if you have to be sweeping the floor, it does not matter, you still have to please the master. Saul of Tarsus was a sincere man but he was sincerely wrong. He was educated theologically and doctrinally sound but he had one serious sickness- he had never met the Lord. Sir, we would see Jesus.

Experiencing or encountering the Lord is different from going to church. A person could sit in the church until he wears his bottom out on the seat and not meet the Lord. He could meet people, have church post, be extravagant and flamboyant but never really met the Lord. He cannot point to an experience where he had encountered the Master.

Once you have seen the Lord, no problem will stand before you. No problem can stay where Jesus is. When you have seen the Lord, who is a witch that can stand before you. When you have seen the Lord, spirit husband, spirit wife or familiar spirit cannot withstand you. What is sickness when the Lord is standing? Something happened to Paul on his way to Damascus. He saw Jesus and died. So he who was pursuing Christians now began to preach the same gospel that he wanted to terminate. Therefore, the road to Damascus became the personal Calvary of Paul.

What is your own personal Calvary? When did you die? Is Jesus living in you now? Has your anger died? Has your bitterness died? Has your unforgiving spirit died? Where and when is your own Calvary? When did the old pass away in your life? When did your Saul die to give birth to Paul? When Paul became a new man, he preached the gospel. Paul saw Jesus and died. No wonder a songwriter says, “It is no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me.” John the apostle, the writer of the book of Revelation saw Jesus and his life was never the same. You can observe that right from the first chapter of the book.

Sometime ago, we had a powerful meeting, the kind of meeting which we attended with three days dry fasting. The meeting was for people who desired spiritual gifts. Such meetings were usually started with a prayer point like: “O Lord, give me the spirit of prophecy.” On that very day, we prayed so hard that most people who attended that meeting began to prophesy. The Lord opened the eyes of one sister for the first time. I found that occasionally, the sister would look at the back and quickly turn her face again to the front. Apparently, she was seeing something. When we closed the service, she came to me and said, “Excuse me sir, immediately we started prayer, one giant man in a white garment was standing at our back with his face shining like fire.” I knew immediately that she had seen the angel of the living God. As this same sister was going home, she decided to visit one of her friends who happened to be her prayer partner. When she got there, her friend served her some food, which she rejected since she wanted to break her fast at home. She looked into the eyes of her friend and discovered that there was no black pupil inside them. Everything was white. She was very surprised because that was somebody she had been praying with for six years. When God opened her eyes, she then discovered that she had been praying with her enemies.

There is no point going about with blind eyes now. There is no need for you to employ a secretary who will be putting blood inside your tea and you are drinking it and thanking God for the tea girl. Stephen in Acts 7: 54- 60 said, “When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord. And cast him out of the city, and stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, and when he had said this, he fell asleep.” They stoned him to death, but their purposes were defeated, just like in Calvary; instead of destroying the testimony of Jesus, those who crucified Him just magnified it.

Anyone persecuting a Christian is only asking for an explosion. In his death, Stephen cried out like Jesus, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” So, Stephen became a corn of wheat that fell into the ground and died. You really have to pray harder now because men are doing very strange things. A sister told me that a herbalist asked her to do a ritual. He asked her to put a standard coffin inside a Mercedes Benz V-boot car and drive it right into the sea. I asked her what that action would bring out and she said it would bring breakthroughs. I asked her if she did it and she said yes. Wicked men are waxing stronger and stronger and they are becoming very clever in their operations. There is evil wisdom in operation all over the place. It is time for deliverance ministers to be able to look straight into a satanic agent’s eyes and say, “Oga, that thing that you tried last time, don’t try it again. If you do, you will die.” The satanic agent will know that an authority is talking and would apologize.

Why is it that many people who desire to encounter Jesus do not see him?
Why is it that some people cry out loud and it seems as if Jesus is far. Let us consider some of the reasons for this:

1. Stain in the mind: Our mind is like a stage where there are actors acting.

Some thoughts are good and some are bad. Sometimes we cannot prevent certain thoughts from making an entrance to the stage of our minds but we have the power to either make them play on or throw them off the stage. So the first step in committing sin that will block the eyes of someone from seeing Jesus is to indulge in the thoughts that are not pleasing to God. The evil thoughts that do not please the Lord start from the heart. The act of sinning itself starts from the mind. So once you are committing sin in your thought life it is as simple as committing it physically. The Bible says that if you lust after a woman in your heart, there is no difference between you and a person who commits it physically. The state of our minds may be hidden to others but it is not hidden to God. We indulge in so many evil thoughts that we ourselves would not even allow people to know about. It is also on this stage of our mind that battles that will determine our destiny are fought. The powers of darkness like this stage of our minds a lot.

2. Wearing mask: Masks conceal the true identity of people. It is the spirit of pretence, false claim and false profession.

A person who wears a mask becomes a stranger even to himself. It is possible to see somebody in the church holding a pen and a book in his hands and yet he is sleeping and you will not know. He is wearing a mask. Such a person will say amen in the wrong places. A certain man was sleeping as a preacher was preaching. Suddenly, the preacher said anyone that wanted to go to hell fire should stand up, this man who was sleeping, woke up and stood up. He found that he was the only one standing up. Everybody was surprised. He was sleeping when the major part of the sentence was made. He only heard stand up and he stood up. Mask wearers claim to be super spiritual when they are nothing.

The Lord likes people such as the blind man in John chapter nine whom He healed. Because he was blind, he did not even know the man who healed him. When Jesus met him in the temple and asked him saying, “Believeth you the Son of man?” He said, “Who is he Lord, that I may believe him?” He did not know and he was quite ready to admit. When he was told that the man who opened his eyes was a sinner, he said, “I know that God heareth not sinners.” They shouted at him to shut up and asked if he now wanted to teach them the Bible. “This man is wrong; why should He heal you on the Sabbath day?” they said. The man who was healed then said, “It is wonderful that a sinner could open blind eyes,” and they threw him out.

3. Bitterness and resentment: If you have any of these, it will blind your spiritual eyes and you will not see anything.
4. Living in the past: Some people spend the whole of their time living in the past. Such people would say, “If not for that foolish man who made me pregnant in form three, I would not have been here.” “If not for the wicked parents who did not send me to school, I would have been a graduate now.” How can you allow the mistake that you made twenty-eight years ago to be controlling your life now when you know that Jesus has forgiven you?
5. Carnality: Romans 8: 6 says, “For to be carnally minded is death: but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” If as you read this message, you are still going to unbelievers’ parties, dancing their dance and celebrating their ceremonies, you are a carnal Christian.
6. Negative attitudes: A lot of people have negative attitudes towards everything. The world is filled with self-appointed judges and self-appointed referees who criticize others endlessly.
7. Men pleasers: There are people who think that they must have the praise and approval of others regardless of the cost. Yet Jesus said, “Woe unto you when men say that you are good.” You are invited to where you should not go, but because you are afraid of offending somebody, you say, “Yes, I will go.” Men pleasers. Such people spend a lot of time thinking of what people think about them or what people expect from them. The thought of what people would say has produced a lot of spiritual tragedies. For you to please men always, you must wear a mask. I would like to let you know that if you have not pursued your Christianity to a level where someone has called you a fanatic, you have not started. They told Jesus that He was demon possessed. They also told Paul that he was mad. Therefore, beloved, it is time to seek an encounter with the Lord. Job 42: 5 –6: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

PRAYER POINTS

1. O Lord, I want to experience you, in the name of Jesus.
2. O Lord, I want to see you, I want to know you and I want to experience you, in the name of Jesus.
3. Anything hindering me from seeing the Lord, fall down and die, in Jesus’ name.
4. I refuse to live in darkness, in the name of Jesus.
5. I reject spiritual blindness and spiritual deafness, in the name of Jesus.
6. Let every spiritual cataract clear away from my eyes, in the name of Jesus.
7. Father Lord, I want to see you, in the name of Jesus.

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